Map of Memorials of a Famous Woman – Frances E. Willard

A map celebrating the ‘most memorialized’ women in American history.

Frances Elizabeth Willard (1839 – 1898) had a remarkable life and career. She was born near Rochester, New York in 1839, but moved to the Midwest for her father’s health while still very young. Frances and her sister Mary attended the Milwaukee Normal Institute before the family moved to Evanston, about fifteen miles north of Chicago. After graduating from North Western Female College in 1859, Frances took a number of leading educator positions at schools around the country, including Pittsburgh Female College and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary (a predecessor to Syracuse). In 1871, she returned home to Evanston to become the first female president of a college granting degrees to women when she took that role at the newly-formed Evanston College for Ladies.

Willard would resign from education in 1874 and take up the cause of temperance. That year, she became the founding corresponding secretary of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She became president of the national organization in 1879, a position she would hold until her death nearly twenty years later. As president of the WCTU, Frances would campaign relentlessly for women’s rights, including suffrage, pay equality, maternal benefits, marriage law reform, and more.

The scope of her work has led to Willard’s commemoration in a variety of forms across the country, captured by this incredible souvenir map issued on the centennial of her birthday. Dozens of dots (263 in total) scattered across the majority of the continental 48 states represent the numerous memorials – schools, statues, drinking fountains, parks, etc. – that had been named in honor of Frances E. Willard. Many structures are shown pictorially, including a number of elaborate depictions at the top and bottom of the sheet. A portrait of Willard overlooks the entire composition. From the Frances Willard House website:

“According to correspondence in the Centenary files in the Willard Archives, the master map cost $400. The “cut” from which the map was printed was produced by Mr. M. Hermas of Evanston, and the maps were produced by Waverly Fabrics, in New York. A total of 8,800 maps were produced. WCTU unions across the US were encouraged to purchase a supply of the maps to sell or to distribute to local schools and churches during 1939. The maps were advertised in the Union Signal, the WCTU’s national weekly newspaper, starting in mid-1938, and went on sale for the first time at the National WCTU Convention in San Francisco in August, 1938. The Willard Centenary Souvenir maps were priced at $1 each (with discounts for quantity purchases).”

The map was drawn by author Ida Schmid Randall and copywritten by the WCTU in 1938. “One of many objects, projects, and events produced by the WCTU to commemorate the 1939 centenary of Willard’s birth.” [Museum]

Sources: Frances Willard House & Museum; David Rumsey Map Collection; National Women’s Hall of Fame;