Radical Woman in a Classic Town: Frances Willard of Evanston
An exhibit in the Northwestern University Library, January 18-April 16, 2010
Resources for Further Research
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Books by Frances Willard
Books, Dissertations, and Articles about Willard
Books, Dissertations, and Articles about the WCTU and the Temperance Movement
Primary and Archival Sources
The Frances Willard House Museum and Archives
1. Books by Frances Willard
(call numbers for NU Library items are indicated; most of these are also available online through the Internet Archive):
Nineteen Beautiful Years. New York: Harper, 1864. Call Number: MAIN 921
W694.2. Willard's first book, eulogizing her beloved sister, Mary, who died of typhoid
in 1862
Woman and Temperance, or, The Work and Workers of the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union. Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Company, 1883. Call
Number: MAIN 178 W69.3 Biographical sketches of women working for temperance;
historical sketch of the WCTU, and descriptions of its various endeavors and
accomplishments.
How to Win: A Book for Girls. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1888. Call
Number: MAIN 174 W69. Willard’s exhortation to young women to think about their
futures, go beyond traditional expectations, and plan for a career.
Glimpses of Fifty Years. New York: Woman's Temperance Publishing
Association, 1889. Call Number: MAIN 921 W692. Willard's autobiography, based
on her journals, letters, and memories.
Woman in the Pulpit.. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1888. Call Number: Garrett BV676 .W69 1889.
Willard’s argument in favor of women being ordained as ministers, with commentary from leading male
preachers.
The Year's Bright Chain. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publishing
Association, 1889. Quotations from Willard's writings and speeches, one for each
day of the year. Another edition was published in 1894.
A Classic Town: The Story of Evanston, by "An Old Timer." Chicago:
Women's Temperance Publishing Association, 1891. Call Number: MAIN 977.3
W69. An informal history/memoir of Evanston from its beginnings, with biographical
sketches of residents.
Radical Woman in a Classic Town: Frances Willard of Evanston
Resources for Further Research
A Woman of the Century. Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, editors. Buffalo, NY: C.W.
Moulton, 1893. Call Number: Main Reference, L 920.073 W69w; also in University Archives Faculty
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Collection. Over 1400 biographical sketches (accompanied by portraits) of 19 -century American women
in all walks of life. Revised version: Titled American Women, 1500 biographies, with index. New York,
Chicago, etc.: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897. Call Number: SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Deering library)
L Femina W6925a
A Great Mother: Sketches of Madam Willard. Frances E. Willard and Minerva
Brace Norton. Chicago: Women's Temperance Publishing Association, 1894. Call
Number: University Archives Faculty Collection. Willard and her cousin wrote this
memoir to commemorate the influence and support that Willard's mother, who died in
1892, provided to her family and to a wide circle of women.
A Wheel within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance
Publishing Association, 1895. Call Number: Deering 796.6 W692w. Willard recounts her
difficulties learning to ride a two-wheeler, and the lessons learned along the way.
Do Everything: A Handbook for the World’s White Ribboners. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance
Publishing Association, 1895. Call Number: Garrett HQ1229 .W54 1987. A history of the WCTU, a
defense of the “Do-Everything” Policy (based on her belief that working for temperance while ignoring
other needed reforms was counter-productive), and a Plan of Work for new and expanding unions
around the world.
Occupations for Women. A Book of Practical Suggestions for the Material Advancement, the Mental
and Physical Development, and the Moral and Spiritual Uplift of Women. Frances Willard; Helen M
Winslow; Sallie Elizabeth Joy White; NY: Success Co., 1897
2. Selected Books, Dissertations, Articles about Frances Willard
Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson. Frances Willard: A Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1986. Call Number: MAIN 921 W692b. Still the most recent full-length scholarly biography of Willard,
considering her in the context of women’s history and social
reform.
Buehle, Mary Jo. Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1981. In
Chapter 2, the author talks about Willard in the context of radical reform.
Dillon, Mary Earhart. Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944. Call
Number: MAIN 921 W692e. The first serious biography of Willard, by a Northwestern alumna. Focuses on
Willard’s political activism and leadership of women.
Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte, ed. Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-96.
Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1995. Call Number: MAIN 322.44 W692Z. Excerpts from Willard's 50
journals, dating between 1855 and 1896, with extensive annotations and background information.
Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte. "Frances Willard." Women Building Chicago 1790-1990 : A Biographical Dictionary.
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2001. Call Number: MAIN Reference 305.40977 W872.
Biographical entries highlighting Chicago's most distinguished and industrious women of the last two
centuries.
Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte, and Amy R. Slagell, eds. Let Something Good Be Said: Speeches and Writings of
Frances E. Willard. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. Call Number: MAIN 322.44092 W692l.
Excerpts or full texts of significant speeches, articles, and books, annotated and contextualized, including
a complete list of Willard's works and a time line.
Gordon, Anna A. The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publishing
Association, 1898. Call Number: MAIN 921 W692g.2. Eulogistic biography/memoir by Willard's long-time
secretary.
Radical Woman in a Classic Town: Frances Willard of Evanston
Resources for Further Research
Graham, Jane Robson. "The Ideally Active: Frances Willard's Pedagogical Ministry." Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Kansas, 2008. Graham examines Willard's teaching practices, finding that her form of
rhetorical pedagogy enacted at two institutions--the Evanston College for Ladies and the WCTU--focused
on creating a Christian citizen-orator, which conflicted with the late-nineteenth century academy's
emphasis on purely intellectual endeavor and professionalization. Graham concludes that Willard's
approach worked for the WCTU because it trained successful female rhetoricians.
Leeman, Richard W. "Do Everything" Reform: The Oratory of Frances Willard. New York: Greenwood Press,
1992. Call Number: MAIN 921 W692l. A critical analysis of Willard’s speaking style, with text of
representative speeches. In Greenwood's Great American Orators Series
Slagell, Amy. "A Good Woman Speaking Well: The Oratory Of Frances E. Willard." Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992. Part I of this "oratorical biography" explores Willard's early life and rise to
the platform, focusing on her self-conscious decision to speak in a "womanly style" on behalf of women's
advancement. Part II provides fifty-two texts, with detailed headnotes, illustrating critical moments and
issues of Willard's career. The Appendix contains a bibliographic guide to 186 complete and partial
speech texts.
Trowbridge, Lydia Jones. Frances Willard of Evanston. Chicago, New York, Willet, Clark & Co., 1938. Call
Number: MAIN 921 W692t. A biography/memoir written by the daughter of William Jones, founder of the
Northwestern Female College.
3. Books, Articles, Dissertations about the WCTU, Temperance, and Related Topics
Blocker, Jack S. American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. Call
Number: 178.10607 B651a. Examines continuity and change in the ongoing concern with drinking and its
consequences.
Bohlmann, Rachel E. "'Our 'House Beautiful'": The Woman's Temple and the WCTU Effort to Establish Place and
Identity in Downtown Chicago, 1887-1898." Journal of Women's History 11.2 (1999) 110-134. In 1890, the
WCTU began building a state-of-the-art skyscraper in downtown Chicago to provide office space for the
National WCTU, to bring in a steady rental income, and to establish an icon of female reform power in the
heart of Chicago's financial district. However, financial problems resulting from the depression of 18931897 exacerbated tensions within the WCTU, revealing deep divisions among its members as to what
constituted women's proper involvement in social reform in the United States.
Bohlmann, Rachel E. "Drunken Husbands, Drunken State: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union's
Challenge to American Families and Public Communities in Chicago, 1874-1920." Ph.D. dissertation, the
University of Iowa, 2001. The study focuses on how temperance reform, specifically questions of alcohol
use and abuse by men, motivated women to join the WCTU in their efforts to address and resolve
conflicts between themselves and their husbands. The WCTU encouraged and provided its members with
both the organizational and ideological frameworks to challenge the informal patterns of male authority in
families as well as the formal, legal structures of men's familial and public power.
Bordin, Ruth. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1981. Call Number: MAIN 178.06 W87Zb. A comprehensive history of the WCTU from
its formation to 1900.
Tyrrell, Ian. Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International
Perspective, 1880-1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Call Number: 322.44097
T993w. Tells the extraordinary story of how a handful of women sought to change the mores of the world
-- not only by abolishing alcohol but also by promoting peace and attacking prostitution, poverty, and male
control of democratic political structures.
Radical Woman in a Classic Town: Frances Willard of Evanston
Resources for Further Research
4. Primary and Archival Sources
Collections in the Northwestern University Archives
(see http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/findingaids/fa.html):
Frances Willard Collection
Frances Willard Journal Transcriptions
William P. Jones Papers
Records of the North Western Female College
Records of the Evanston College for Ladies
Records of the Woman’s College of Northwestern
Records of the Women’s Educational Aid Association
Other Materials in the Northwestern University Archives
Catalogues and Bulletins
The Tripod, Vidette, and Northwestern (early Northwestern student newspapers)
NU Presidents virtual exhibit (for Erastus Haven, Charles Fowler, Oliver Marcy)
Photograph Collection
Northwestern History Reference Collection
Primary Sources in the Northwestern University Library:
Microfilms of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Records
In 1977, records of the WCTU and issues of the Union Signal newspaper were microfilmed as part of a larger
project to film records of many Temperance and Prohibition organizations. The microfilms were purchased by
numerous research libraries in the US and abroad. NOTE that the WCTU Records and Union Signal make up
only 2 parts of this massive project. Some institutions hold the entire set of microfilms; some hold only the series
that comprise the WCTU Records and/or the Union Signal. Northwestern University Library owns Series III, the
WCTU Records, 1853-1939 (49 microfilm rolls), which consists mainly of Annual Meeting minutes,
Correspondence (much of it Willard's), Historical files, and Scrapbooks. The Union Signal (Series XXI), which
Northwestern does not own, but which is available through ILL, consists of 37 rolls of microfilm.
Full reference for the complete series:
Temperance and Prohibition Papers, a joint microfilm publication of the Ohio Historical Society, the Michigan
Historical Collections, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, sponsored by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission. Columbus: Microfilmed by the Ohio Historical Society,
1977. http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=519881 Call Number: Film 7895
(Series III only)
Full reference to the Guide to the Microfilms:
Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Temperance and Prohibition Papers, edited by Randall C. Jimerson, Francis X.
Blouin, Charles A. Isetts ; [joint project of] Michigan Historical Collections, The Ohio Historical
Society, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, published by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
1977. http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=538338 Call number:
016.178 G946 MAIN Periodical/Newspaper Reading Room (paged collection)
Important Notes:
1. There is no Index to the microfilms on the rolls themselves. You need to request separately the Guide to
the Microfilms (see citation above).
2. The Guide to the Microfilms does not provide a comprehensive index to Series III. It merely summarizes
the general scope and content of the rolls. The Guide includes the locations of a brief (about 80) list of
“Prominent Correspondents.” All correspondence is arranged chronologically, so that you must request
microfilm rolls based on the estimated dates of your subject’s correspondence. There is no published
index to the Union Signal issues.
Radical Woman in a Classic Town: Frances Willard of Evanston
Resources for Further Research
5. The Frances Willard House Museum and the Frances Willard Memorial Library and Archives
The Frances Willard Historical Association manages both the House Museum and the Library and Archives.
The Frances E. Willard House Museum, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston
The historic house museum is open on the first and third Sunday of each month. Special and group tours by appointment.
See the Frances Willard Historical Association website for more information and helpful links:
www.franceswillardhouse.org
Contact: [email protected]
The Willard Memorial Library and Archives
The Frances E. Willard Memorial Library is housed in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Administration
Building, behind the Willard House. The Library is open by appointment only.
Resources in the Willard Memorial Library and Archives include:
 The Frances Willard Papers: approximately ten cubic feet of correspondence (mostly incoming), 80 scrapbooks,
50 journal volumes (see also the description of the Microfilm Collection above)
 Personal papers of other WCTU Presidents (small collections)
 Records of National and World’s WCTU, and of local and state Unions
 Subject files on events, traditions, people, and places associated with Willard and the WCTU
 Pamphlets, flyers, informational and educational material, sheet music, and songbooks produced by the WCTU
 Photographs of individuals, groups, and events in WCTU history
 Artifacts, including banners and promotional material
 Serial publications published by the National WCTU, the World’s WCTU, and by state and local Unions (including
meeting minutes and programs, newsletters, and handbooks)
 Approximately 3000 volumes on temperance and alcoholism, the WCTU and other temperance groups, woman
suffrage and other social issues, dating from the 1840s-present, with the bulk dating from 1880s-1940s.
 Dissertations and theses based on Willard Library and Archives resources
 Publications and pamphlets produced by other temperance organizations (1840s-20th century)
Bibliography compiled by Janet Olson, February, 2010