To celebrate Women\u2019s History Month, the Laurel Hill Cemetery hosted an event commemorating the efforts of twelve Civil War era women, all of whom are buried in the Laurel Hill cemetery.\u00a0 Located in North Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River, Laurel Hill presented \u201cLegendary Ladies of the Civil War Era\u201d on Sunday, March 20, 2016. The presentation was conducted by living historian, Kerry Bryan, who portrayed one of the deceased women, Mrs. Elizabeth Hutter, before a diverse audience in a small, intimate setting.\u00a0 The event was solely focused on women and their contributions to the war effort.\u00a0 It centered on the works of twelve women whose individual successes supported the advancement of women in society, especially the role of working women.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Elizabeth Hutter began by telling the story of her own life, followed by the stories of eleven of her \u201cfriends\u201d: Louise E. (Louisa) Claghorn, Martha Jane Coston, Mary McHenry Cox, Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, Sarah Josepha Hale, Mary Anna Longstretch, Anna Hallowell, Mary Morris Husband, Margaretta Meade, Martha Thompson Pemberton, and last but not least, Laura Matila Towne.\u00a0 The presentation successfully highlighted the impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9s of each of these women. \u00a0For example, Mrs. Hutter (1821-1895) was a dear friend of Abraham Lincoln and served as a Washington hostess during the Polk administration.\u00a0 She founded the Northern Home for Friendless Children in 1853, was a volunteer Civil War nurse, the co-chair of the Labor Revenue and Income Committee for Philadelphia\u2019s Great Central Fair in June 1864, founded Sailors\u2019 and Soldiers\u2019 Orphans Institute, became the first woman to receive a gubernatorial order (becoming Lady Inspector of schools for soldiers\u2019 orphans in Philadelphia), and founded a home for newsboys, a place to help keep young men off the streets.\u00a0 Mrs. Hutter was not alone in her long list of revolutionary achievements.\u00a0 Anna Hallowell (1831-1905) was the first woman to serve on the Philadelphia School Board. She was a teacher, an early social worker, a nurse for wounded Union soldiers, supporter of the Women\u2019s Medical College, organized free kindergartens in poor neighborhoods, verbally protested the fugitive slave act, and taught local black children how to read and write.\u00a0 Mrs. Hutter\u2019s presentation also discussed the difficulties these women faced while pursuing their endeavors. For example, Martha Jane Coston spent years completing and trying to patent her deceased husband\u2019s invention.\u00a0 She was repeatedly rejected on the account of her womanhood but Mrs. Coston refused to be denied and eventually succeeded in patenting Coston-type flares which are still used today.<\/p>\n
The benevolent works of these women demonstrate the importance of women\u2019s work during the nineteenth century.\u00a0 While men were busy dodging bullets on the battlefield, these women worked to improve the world around them \u2013 opening schools, organizing community events, writing books, supporting underprivileged children, and raising the standard for a woman\u2019s role in society.\u00a0 Historian Alice Fahs of the University of California, explains that in the 1880s and 1890s, \u201cCommentators and writers increasingly attached the idea of Civil War sacrifice for the nation to men only, gendering the memory of the war in a new way.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Although women\u2019s contributions to the war effort were monumental, women did not receive the recognition they deserved, neither during nor after the war.\u00a0 The media focused on battlefield action rather than on the groundbreaking works of women at home.\u00a0 In historian Judith Giesberg\u2019s \u201cWaging War Their Own Way: Women and the Civil War in Pennsylvania\u201d, she explains, \u201cthe army relied on working-class women and they , in turn, depended on money they would earn by providing goods and services to volunteers and others who camped or convalesced in the Keystone State as well as those who passed through.\u201d[2]<\/a> The war proved that in order to be successful on both the battlefield and on the home-front, men and women needed to support one another\u2019s work.\u00a0 Unfortunately, women received the short end of the stick and their work was often overlooked.\u00a0 Today, those women are finally receiving a hint of the attention they deserve through small programs such as the one produced by Laurel Hill.\u00a0 The goal of the Laurel Hill event was honor these women properly and show respect for their personal accomplishments.<\/p>\n Laurel Hill\u2019s presentation was restricted by geographical and cultural factors when it selected the twelve women it would highlight for the event.\u00a0 Because Philadelphia is in the North, eleven out of the twelve women were Northerners supporting the Union during the war.\u00a0 The only Southern woman, Martha Thompson Pemberton, married Philadelphia-born John Clifford Pemberton, and the two moved back to Philadelphia after living most of their life in Virginia.\u00a0 All twelve women were also white, elite women.\u00a0 In the nineteenth and early twenty centuries when these women were buried, only white elites were allowed, or could afford, to be buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery.\u00a0 While the event was unable to capture the roles of all women during the Civil War, it did provided a detailed description about the lives of the twelve particular women it discussed.<\/p>\n The event ended with a short walk through the cemetery followed by a light reception for the attendees.\u00a0 The event successfully served its purpose as a Women\u2019s History Month event to honor the work of women during the Civil War. The living historian\u2019s performance was lively and entertaining. The stories of these Civil War women deserve to be heard.\u00a0 Thankfully, the Laurel Hill Cemetery recognizes the value in preserving the history of these women.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bibliography<\/p>\n Fahs, Alice. \u201cThe Feminized Civil War: Gender, Northern Popular Literature, and the Memory<\/p>\n of the War, 1861-1900.\u201d\u00a0The Journal of American History<\/em>\u00a085 (1999). Oxford University<\/p>\n Press, Organization of American Historians:1461\u201394. doi:10.2307\/2568268.<\/p>\n Giesberg, Judith. \u201cWaging War Their Own Way: Women and the Civil War in<\/p>\n Pennsylvania.\u201d\u00a0Pennsylvania Legacies<\/em>\u00a013 (2013). The Historical Society of<\/p>\n Pennsylvania:16\u201327. doi:10.5215\/pennlega.13.1-2.0016.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Alice Fahs, \u201cThe Feminized Civil War: Gender, Northern Popular Literature, and the Memory of the War, 1861-1900,\u201d The Journal of American History<\/em>\u00a085 (1999): 1487.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Judith Giesberg, \u201cWaging War Their Own Way: Women and the Civil War in Pennsylvania,\u201d Pennsylvania Legacies<\/em>\u00a013 (2013): 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To celebrate Women\u2019s History Month, the Laurel Hill Cemetery hosted an event commemorating the efforts of twelve Civil War era women, all of whom are buried in the Laurel Hill cemetery.\u00a0 Located in North Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River, Laurel … Continue reading