Mary Grace Canfield (1864-1946) Papers, 1888-1937 Doc 419 Ms Size B, Ms Size C Introduction Mary Grace Canfield (1864-1946), an author, historian, and social activist from Woodstock, Vermont, donated her papers to the Vermont Historical Society. They are an accumulation of research notes and correspondence on the topic of the Marquis de Lafayette s visit to the United States and through Vermont in 1825, and papers concerning the woman s suffrage movement. The collection is stored in one box and two oversize folders, and occupies 1 linear foot of shelf space. This finding guide was produced in 1996 as part of a project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Biographical Sketch Mary Grace Canfield was born Mary Grace Webb on the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1864. She received an A.B. degree from the Municipal University of Akron, Ohio, and taught school in Kent, Ohio. She married Harry Lee Canfield (1862-1942), a minister, and moved to Vermont with him in 1902 when he was called to serve the Woodstock Universalist Church. They had two children, Hubert and Vivian. Mary Canfield was an historian and writer, and published several books and articles, most notably the 1934 book Lafayette in Vermont (Rochester, N.Y.: Canfield and Tack, Inc.). Active in social causes with her husband, she campaigned for woman s suffrage, and after it was secured by the nineteenth amendment in 1920, she continued her support of the women s political movement through involvement with the League of Women Voters. Though her husband resigned from the Woodstock Universalist Church in 1917 and began working in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mary Grace Canfield remained in Woodstock, writing, lecturing, and running a craft shop, until her death July 26, 1946. Scope and Content The Mary Grace Canfield Papers are the notes, published articles, and correspondence generated during research for her book Lafayette in Vermont, describing the Marquis de Lafayette s 1825 visit to Vermont. There is also correspondence, 1931-1937, concerning the book s publication in 1934 including critiques, reviews, and orders. Canfield created a scrapbook ca. 1934 with newspaper clippings about Lafayette written on the 100th anniversary of his death, and with photographs and postcards showing places he visited in June 1825. A second scrapbook is made up of some of Canfield s research correspondence, 1933-1934.
Mary Grace Canfield 2 The remaining portion of the collection is related to the equal suffrage movement. As an early advocate of woman s suffrage Canfield collected publications on the topic and compiled a scrapbook of Vermont activities. The scrapbook includes photographs and postcards of the national movement and some of her essays. There is also a series of newspaper clippings and images pasted on cardboard, presumably part of a scrapbook or exhibition on the suffrage movement. One sheet has seven photographs taken at a state fair showing activity around the Vermont and New Hampshire suffrage tent. A noteworthy item is a letter written in 1904 by Susan B. Anthony to Canfield s mother-inlaw, Mrs. Lepha J. Canfield. In the letter Anthony describes some of the early suffrage conventions and her involvement in the movement. Organization The papers have been divided into three series: 1. Lafayette s visit to Vermont; 2 Suffrage papers; 3. Miscellaneous. Related Collections Other items in the Vermont Historical Society collection by Mary Grace Canfield include: The Valley of the Kedron; the Story of the South Parish, Woodstock, Vermont; (South Woodstock, Vt.: Kedron Associates, ca. 1940). [R/974.31/W861c] Early Universalism in Vermont and the Connecticut Valley, (Woodstock, Vt.: 1941). [MS/289.1743/C162] A History of the North Chapel Universalist Society, Woodstock, Vt. [MS/289.743/W861] Lafayette in Vermont (Rochester, N.Y.: Canfield and Tack, Ind., 1934). [B/L131c] In 1937-1938 Canfield donated a group of items about Lafayette to the VHS which became known as the Lafayette Collection of Mrs. Mary Grace Canfield. The majority of the items were published books and they have been cataloged and shelved with the general book collection. The two scrapbooks are now part of this collection. For more information on the suffrage movement see the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association Papers, MSC 144. There are also published items of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association, and the League of Women Voters, and more sources listed in the catalog under the heading Woman--Suffrage.
Mary Grace Canfield 3 Inventory I. Lafayette s vist to Vermont Doc 419:1 Lafayette in Vermont--notes and drafts 2, notes-maps 3, 4, 5, 6 The American Friends of Lafayette Roster, 2nd ed., Jan. 1934 7 Lafayette: the Nation s Guest, [manuscript] 8 Lafayette and Vermont, [manuscript] 9, [typescript] 10, correspondence, 1931-1937, A-G 11,, H-P 12,, R-Z 13, orders 14, orders and receipts, 1934 15, 16 Lafayette in Vermont scrapbook, newspaper clippings, postcards 17, research letters 18 envelopes II. Women s suffrage papers 19 Susan B. Anthony letter to Mrs. Lepha J. Canfield, January 25, 1904 20 Suffrage scrapbook 21 22 23 24, with photos, postcards, Suffrage Items, some written by Mary Grace Canfield and relating to Woodstock, and other items 25 An Address to the Congress of the United States, by Carrie Chapman Catt (National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, Inc., ca.1917). Vermont Equal Suffrage Association Yearbook, 1912-1913 (The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont, 1913) Vermont Equal Suffrage Association Yearbook, 1915. Woman Suffrage: Arguments and Results (National American woman Suffrage Association; New York, n.d.) [ Votes for Women pin attached to first page of book.] The Report of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association and Minutes of the 24th Annual Convention at Rutland, Vermont, 1908 (Bethel, Vt.: Bethel Printing Co., 1909) 26 Report of the Third International Congress of Women, Vienna, July 10-17, 1921 (Women s International League for Peace and Freedom, Switzerland, 1921).
Mary Grace Canfield 4 The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony including public addresses, her own letters and many from her contemporaries during fifty years, by Ida Husted Harper (The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1899). 27 The Woman s Journal, vol. 16, no. 6, June 1931 The Woman s Journal, vol. 14, no. 9, September 1929 The Woman s Journal, vol. 16, no. 5, May 1931 28 The Woman Citizen, vol. 12, new style, no. 6, November 1927 29 My Reasons for favoring equal suffrage, by Hon. Wendell Phillips Staford (pub. by the Equal Franchise League, Burlington, Vt.) The Case for Federal Suffrage in the District of Columbia, by Katherine A. Frederic (pub. by the Department of Efficiency in Government, National League of Women Voters, March 1931, Washington, D.C.) Report of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage for the Year 1914 with Outline of Congressional Work During the Preceding Year (Washington, D.C., 1914) Farmers Wives, Consider This (broadside National American Woman Suffrage Association, New York City, n.d.) Why Women Should Vote, by Alice Stone Blackwell (circular, National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., Inc., publishers for the Nations American Woman Suffrage Association) Two Years of Equal Suffrage in California--Its Results (circular, National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., Inc., publishers for the Nations American Woman Suffrage Association) Why Women Want to Vote: Introductions to a Suffrage Correspondence School course, printed by permission of the education Section of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party and distributed by the Woodstock Suffrage Study Club (brochure). 30 Report of the International Council of Women, assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association, (Washington, D.C.: Rufus H. Darby, printer, 1888.) Ms Size B broadside: Map showing the Ratification Rush on the Federal Suffrage Amendment... : The Solid South --and Vermont... : Vermont Equal Suffrage Association. Meeting at Assembly Hall, State Street School, Monday, May 12 at 8 P.M. The Woman s Journal, vol. 48, no. 10, March 10, 1917 Ms Size C broadside: Votes for Women! On Friday afternoon May 2nd at 2:30 O clock...;women in the Ministry, by Rev. Olympia Brown Progress, v. 7, no. 3, March 1908 Excerpt from The International Woman Suffrage News The Woman s Journal, v. 38,no. 22, June 1, 1907
Mary Grace Canfield 5 Photographs (7) from the state fair showing the Vermont and New Hampshire woman suffrage tent, posted on cardboard Newspaper clippings on suffrage, posted on three oversize sheets III. Miscellaneous 31 Miscellaneous--unidentified copper plate engraving of a young man 32 Miscellaneous including a penmanship exercise by A. P. Walter; address delivered October 25, 1930 at unveiling of bronze tablet at Blanchard Block in Montpelier, Vermont; advertising card for Woodstock Craft Shop at Mrs. Canfield s home Eileen O Brien 1996 updated December 19, 2008