Mary Ritter Beard

Mary Ritter Beard (August 5, 1876 – August 14, 1958) was an American historian, author, women's suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive Era reformer, Beard was active in both the labor and women's rights movements. She also authored several books on women's role in history including On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes (editor, 1933), and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (1946), her major work. In addition, she collaborated with her husband, historian Charles Austin Beard, as coauthor of seven textbooks, most notably The Rise of American Civilization (1927), two volumes, and America in Midpassage: A Study of the Idea of Civilization (1939) and The American Spirit (1942), the third and fourth volume of The Rise of American Civilization series. A standalone book, Basic History of the United States, was their best-selling work.

During the early decades of the twentieth century, Beard actively supported passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and was involved with several women's suffrage organizations that included the Women's Trade Union League, the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later renamed the Women's Political Union), the New York City Suffrage Party, and the Wage Earners' Suffrage League. She was also a member of the advisory board of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (later called the National Woman's Party. For a time, she edited suffrage publications, The Woman Voter and The Suffragist.

Beard's interest in women's history led to her work in establishing the World Center for Women's Archives in 1935 in New York City. Although the center closed in 1940, largely due to internal issues and lack of funding, her efforts encouraged several colleges and universities to begin collecting similar records on women's history. Beard was a consultant on the early development of women's history archives at Radcliffe and Smith Colleges, which eventually led to establishment of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, and the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College.

Early life

Family background

Mary Ritter was born on August 5, 1876, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Narcissa (Lockwood) and Eli Foster Ritter. She was the family's fourth child and the eldest daughter.

Mary's mother was born in Paris, Kentucky, and graduated from Brookville Academy in Thornton, Kentucky. She worked as a teacher in Kentucky before moving with her family in 1861 to Greencastle, Indiana (home to Asbury, now DePauw University).

Her father was the son of Rachel (Jessup) and James Ritter. He was born and grew up on his parents' farm west of Indianapolis in Hendricks County, Indiana. After attending Northwestern Christian University (present-day Butler University) in Indianapolis from 1859 to 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army in April 1861, joining the 16th Indiana Infantry Regiment shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Eli Ritter was later transferred to the 79th Indiana Infantry Regiment before being honorably discharged from the army in June 1863. Following his military service, he enrolled at Asbury University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1865. He married Narcissa Lockwood, a Greencastle resident, in June 1866. Due to weak eyesight, resulting from exposure during the war, Eli Ritter relied on his wife, Narcissa, to read to him during his legal studies. After he passed the Indiana bar in 1866, the Ritters moved to Indianapolis, where Eli established a law practice. In addition, he was active in the temperance movement and in 1883 became a colonel in the Indiana National Guard.

Education and intellectual development

Mary Ritter attended public schools in Indianapolis and graduated from Shortridge High School in 1893 as valedictorian of her class. Around the age of sixteen, she enrolled in 1893 at DePauw University, the alma mater of her father and her other siblings, and became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She also served as president of her class.

Ritter graduated from DePauw in 1897 with a Bachelor of Philosophy (PhB) degree. Ritter later claimed to be influenced by two sorority sisters at DePauw who refused to limit themselves to conventional coursework and activities for women. Another early influence on Ritter was her German professor, Henry B. Longden, who incorporated culture, literature, and philosophy into his teaching of the German language, asking his students to view their studies in a much broader context.

While attending college, Ritter met and began a relationship with Charles Austin Beard, a fellow student and her future husband. Beard, a native of Henry County, Indiana, was the son of a wealthy farmer and real-estate investor. After attending Spiceland Academy (a Quaker school in Henry County), Beard enrolled at DePauw University in 1894, and became a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in 1898.

Marriage and family life

After graduating from DePauw in 1897, Ritter found employment in Greencastle as a public high school German language teacher, while Beard, then her fiancé, traveled to England in August 1898 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He also helped to establish Ruskin Hall (present-day Ruskin College), a free university for working-class men, before returning to the United States in late 1899.

The couple married in March 1900. A month later, they moved to England, where they initially lived at Oxford, then relocated to Manchester while Charles continued his studies and worked as director of Ruskin Hall's extension department. Their daughter, Miriam, the first of their two children, was born at Manchester in 1901.

In 1902, after deciding to return to the United States, the Beards settled in New York City, where they both enrolled as graduate students in the School of Political Science at Columbia University. By 1904, Mary Ritter Beard had discontinued her studies in sociology and became more active in the women's suffrage movement. The Beards' son, William, was born in 1907, the same year they bought a sixteen-room home in New Milford, Connecticut, where they frequently entertained guests.

Charles Beard completed his doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree in history, and became a faculty member at Columbia University. He resigned his professorship in 1917 as a protest, following the dismissal of three anti-war faculty members during World War I, but continued his career as a writer and historian.

European influences

While living in England from 1900 to 1902, Mary Beard studied history and taught German. She also observed the plight of the working class in British industrial society. Beard became involved in the British labor and women's suffrage movements through her friendships with radical suffragists and socialist reformers Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia Pankhurst, who were members of the Independent Labour Party, and other leaders. Beard's acquaintances with European intellectuals also influenced her interests in the struggles of the working class, progressive politics, social reform, and social injustice.