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Ida Sedgwick Proper

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Ida Sedgwick Proper
Born(1873-08-27)August 27, 1873
Bonaparte, Iowa
DiedJune 7, 1957(1957-06-07) (aged 83)
Monhegan, Maine
NationalityAmerican
Other namesIda S. Proper
Occupation(s)artist, cartoonist, writer

Ida Sedgwick Proper (August 27, 1873 – June 7, 1957) was an American suffragist, writer and artist. She was an art editor for The Woman Voter.[1] Proper has work in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian,[2] and the Des Moines Art Center.[3]

Biography

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Proper was born on August 27, 1873,[4] in Bonaparte, Iowa, to Amanda Ellen (née Dodds) and Datus Dewitt Proper, as the fourth child of six.[5] She went to Bethany College in Kansas.[6] Through working in a library in Seattle, she raised enough money to move to New York where she became part of the Art Students League.[1] By 1899, she had returned to Kansas and was giving art classes at Ottawa University.[7] Proper was exhibiting oil paintings in Iowa by 1900.[8] Proper earned a fellowship from the Art Students League to study in western Europe in 1903[9] and undertook studies in Germany. She returned to New York in the 1905 term and taught art at St. Mary's Seminary in Burlington, New Jersey, for a year. During that same time, she painted the portraits of two of the ex-governors of the state which were then hung in the New Jersey Statehouse. She taught art in 1906 at the Ladies Baptist College of Bristol, Virginia.[10]

After the term ended, Proper went to Paris to further her studies and remained for four years. Her painting "Five O’Clock Tea" was featured at the 1910 Salon in Paris.[11] She returned from Europe in 1911 and immediately participated in a New York City suffrage parade with 3,000 other marchers.[12] Proper and sculptor Malvina Hoffman, along with another member of the group, Heterodoxy, opened their own gallery space in New York City in 1912. It was less profitable than the women hoped the venture would be.[13] Proper also became the editor of The Woman Voter in 1912, and used her ties to artists in New York to solicit work for the journal.[14] The Woman Voter was produced by the New York chapter of the American Woman Suffrage Association.[14] In 1912 she became one of the founding members of Heterodoxy, a feminist group founded in Greenwich Village that met on alternate Saturdays to discuss a wide variety of issues.[15][16]

In 1915, she exhibited works at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. As suffrage activity increased, she marched in the New York Fourth of July parade along with other prominent suffragists.[17] With a group of women artists who were also suffragists, Proper then organized an art show at the galleries of William Macbeth for that autumn. The artists donated half the proceeds from all sales of their works to the New York State suffrage drive.[18] [19] In the suffrage parade later that month, she marched dressed as a washerwoman, wearing a banner that read: "If politics are dirty, send for the cleaning woman."[20] As the state vote over women's suffrage approached, Proper rode the New York subway with other suffragists bearing "lapboards" that supported woman's suffrage.[21] Proper also organized a suffrage poster contest in New York to support the upcoming vote on the women's suffrage amendment.[22] The prize for the best design was $50 and the words "Vote for the Woman Suffrage Amendment, November 2, 1915" were to be included in the design.[23] Proper was chosen to lead the contest and exhibition because she was the chair of the art committee of the Woman's Suffrage Campaign.[24]

Proper worked at the University of Puerto Rico from 1919 to 1922.[6] Sometime in 1925 or 1926, she moved to Monhegan Island, where she bought a house, became town clerk and operated an art school.[6] In 1930, she wrote and published a history about the island, Monhegan, the Cradle of New England.[25]

Work

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Proper's paintings, exhibited "for Cause of Woman Suffrage" in 1915, were described by The New York Times as having a "gently exuberant quality."[26] American Art News reviewed the same exhibition, calling her work "attractive and well drawn."[27] Her paintings were described as being part of the modern French school.[28]

Proper's suffragist cartoon "Anti Suffragist Parade" is an attack on anti-suffragists that appeared in Woman's Journal, September 21, 1912.[29]

Proper's book Monhegan, the Cradle of New England (1930) contains information about documented and "probable possible explorers" who visited the island, including pre-Columbian explorers.[30]

Bibliography

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  • Monhegan, the Cradle of New England. Portland, Maine: The Southworth Press. 1930. OCLC 726766534.
  • Our Elusive Willy: A Slice of Concealed Elizabethan History. Manchester, Maine: Dirigo Editions. 1953. OCLC 891954509.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b "Ida Proper". Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on February 10, 2001. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  2. ^ "Ida Sedgwick Proper (Self-Portrait with Mirror), (painting)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  3. ^ "Street Scene". Des Moines Art Center. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  4. ^ U. S. Census 1900, p. 6.
  5. ^ Sheppard 1994, p. 101.
  6. ^ a b c "Proper, Ida (1873–1957)". Maine State Library. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  7. ^ The Ottawa Daily Republic 1899, p. 2.
  8. ^ "The Art Exhibit". Ames Times. April 5, 1900. Retrieved March 9, 2016 – via Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Local Miscellany". Ames Times. June 25, 1903. Retrieved March 9, 2016 – via Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ The Des Moines Register 1905, p. 7.
  11. ^ The Sun 1910, p. 36.
  12. ^ The Des Moines Register 1911, p. 1.
  13. ^ Kinkel 2011, p. 39-40.
  14. ^ a b "Women's Journal". Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on February 10, 2001. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  15. ^ "With the Members Sworn to Secrecy, Forty of New York's Prominent 'Advanced' Women Band Into 'The Heterodoxy' and Meet to Eat and Decide Their Position on Problems of the Day". New-York Tribune. 24 November 1914. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  16. ^ Schwarz, Judith (1986). Radical Feminists of Heterodoxy; Greenwich Village, 1912-1940 (Rev. ed.). Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers. ISBN 0-934678-08-1.
  17. ^ "Women Ask Votes at Liberty's Feet" (PDF). The New York Times. July 6, 1915. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  18. ^ The Winnipeg Tribune 1915, p. 35.
  19. ^ "The Statute by Women to Help Votes for Women". Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 17, 1915. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  20. ^ "'Suffs' Hubbies Sees Their Wives Rehearse Parade". The Evening World. October 19, 1915. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  21. ^ Brace, Blanche (October 31, 1915). "Suffrage Lapboards Make Subway Grin, Then Think". New-York Tribune. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  22. ^ "Suffrage Posters Bear Messages to Voters" (PDF). The New York Times. October 3, 1915. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  23. ^ "Prize for Suffrage Poster" (PDF). The New York Times. March 4, 1915. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  24. ^ Dennison 2003, p. 24.
  25. ^ Fitchburg Sentinel 1931, p. 4.
  26. ^ "Exhibition for Cause of Woman Suffrage" (PDF). The New York Times. September 26, 1915. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  27. ^ American Art News 1915, p. 6.
  28. ^ "Paintings by Ida S. Proper". The New York Times. December 22, 1912. Retrieved March 9, 2016 – via Newspaper Archive.
  29. ^ Barris, Roann. "Art Responds to Women's Suffrage: Pro and Con". Radford University. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  30. ^ Goudsward 2006, p. 145.

Sources

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