A.B., Liberal Arts [Treasurer, 1909 & 1910], Leavenworth [Kansas]. Phi Beta Kappa, Y.W.C.A., W.S.G.A. [Women’s Student Government Association]. “Florentine never hesitates to demonstrate with a flourish the ascendancy of noble woman. She possesses a great strength of her own convictions, and has even had the temerity to take a crack at Professor Boynton’s courses. As a suffragette Florentine is a winner, and bids fair to languish in bastiles (sp) right along with the rest of them.”
A.B., [Vice-President, 1909; President, 1910] Lawrence [Kansas] Major English Kappa Kappa Gamma Junior Farce Committee Treasurer W.S.G.A., ’10 [Women’s Student Government Association] Quill Club [Vice] President College Branch of Equal Suffrage League, ‘09 Annual Board Quill Board, ‘10 “The fairest garden in her looks, and in her mind the wisest books.”
A.B. [Secretary, 1910] Leavenworth [Kansas] W.S.G.A. (3) [Women’s Student Government Association] Prom Committee (3) 1912 Jayhawker Board “By the way Elsie, which one do you like best anyway?”
The Spencers' Philanthropy in Kansas and Missouri
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“How the Vote Was Won” A play, co-written by Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) and Christopher St. John (1871-1960), and performed for the first time at the Royalty Theatre, London, in April of 1909. Hamilton was a British author and playwright whose works advocated women’s rights. St. John, formerly Christabel Marshall, was an author, also involved in the suffrage movement. The play is a one-act comedy written in support of women’s suffrage in Britain. The play opens in the living room of Horace and Ethel Cole of Brixton, London, on the day of a general women’s strike organized by Suffragettes. The strike is in response to the Government’s stance that women do not need to vote because the men in their family already take care of them. This prompts women who have previously been supporting themselves, independent of men, to agree to leave their jobs and homes and seek out the support of their nearest male relative. As Horace’s female relatives begin arriving at his home, one after the other, he comes to realize that something must be done, and he rushes to Parliament, along with all the other men in London, to demand “Votes for Women” as soon as possible.
University Daily Kansan, Monday, October 14, 1912
“K.U. Students to aid suffrage cause.” A story in the Monday, October 14, 1912, University Daily Kansan reported that several university students would perform in the suffrage plays “How the Vote Was Won” and “Black Hollow” at the Bowersock Theatre in downtown Lawrence. The performances were sponsored by the Douglas County Suffrage League, with support from the “Girls’ Suffrage League of the College,” or more appropriately, the College Equal Suffrage League of the University of Kansas.
Bowersock Theatre, ca. 1912. Today the theater is known as Liberty Hall. Image courtesy of Watkins Museum of History
University Daily Kansan, Thursday, March 16, 1911