Frances Jolliffe Explained

Frances Jolliffe
Birth Name:Frances Borgia Jolliffe
Birth Date:1873
Birth Place:San Francisco, California, US
Death Date:November 9, 1925
Death Place:San Francisco, California, US
Occupation:Drama critic, suffragist

Frances Borgia Jolliffe (1873 – November 9, 1925) was an American actress, journalist, and suffragist, and arts editor at the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.

Early life

Jolliffe was born in San Francisco, one of the ten children born to William Howard Jolliffe and Johanna Margaret Donohue Jolliffe. Her mother was born in Ireland; her father was born in England, and worked at the Port of San Francisco. She graduated from Vassar College in 1893.[1]

Career

Theatre

Jolliffe was a "society actress" in San Francisco as a young woman.[2] She appeared on the New York stage in 1900,[3] and with Helena Modjeska's company.[4]

She was performing arts editor at the San Francisco Evening Bulletin newspaper. In that role, she interviewed Enrico Caruso and reviewed Ruth St. Denis (whose solo performance of Radha bored Jolliffe in 1911).[5] Artist Theodore Wores painted her portrait.[6]

Suffrage

Jolliffe was a suffragist in California, and in 1913 became one of the first two women admitted as lobbyists to attend a meeting of the California legislature; they spoke to assemblymen about a mothers' pension bill.[7]

Jolliffe, Sara Bard Field, Ingeborg Kindstedt and Maria Kindberg set out on a road trip from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in September 1915,[8] [9] as "suffrage envoys", to deliver a "monster petition" of thousands of signatures supporting women's suffrage,[10] and meet with President Woodrow Wilson and members of Congress.[11] [12] [13] However, Jolliffe dropped out of the trip in Sacramento, their first stop, because of some undisclosed illness.[14] She rejoined the group in Albany, New York, in time to participate in the East coast part of the trip, and to deliver the petition to Congress and President Wilson.[15] "Anybody who thinks the California women don’t care about the vote had just better go out there and try to take it away from them," Jolliffe told an audience at a New York City rally during one of their stops.[16]

War work

During World War I, Jolliffe went to France as a war correspondent,[17] to report on conditions in hospitals and refugee centers; on her return, she spoke at fundraising events for war relief causes.[18]

Personal life

In 1912, Jolliffe caused a scandal when she smoked a cigarette in a hotel lobby in Lawrence, Massachusetts.[19] Jolliffe died in 1925, in San Francisco, aged 52 years.

Notes and References

  1. March 1, 1926. Contemporary Notes. Vassar Quarterly. 11. 152.
  2. News: 26 July 1905. Society Folk Will Act To-Day In Aid of Charity. 5. San Francisco Call. August 23, 2020. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  3. News: 1900-01-10. Eastern Critics Laud Miss Frances Jolliffe. 2. The San Francisco Examiner. 2020-08-24. Newspapers.com.
  4. News: December 20, 1896. A Society Actress. 28. San Francisco Call. August 23, 2020. Newspapers.com.
  5. Book: Roseman, Janet Lynn. Dance was her Religion: The Spiritual Choreography of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham. 2004. Hohm Press. 978-1-942493-11-2. en.
  6. News: Doyle. Margaret Marshall. April 3, 1910. Picture Galleries Will Delight Art Lovers' Eyes. 34. San Francisco Call. August 23, 2020. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  7. News: January 13, 1913. Fair Lobbyists at Work. 14. San Francisco Call. August 23, 2020. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  8. Web site: O'Gan. Patri. 2014-03-05. Traveling for Suffrage Part 1: Two women, a cat, a car, and a mission. 2020-08-23. National Museum of American History. en.
  9. Book: Dando, Christina E.. Women and Cartography in the Progressive Era. 2017-08-15. Routledge. 978-1-134-77114-1. en.,Book: Gass, Anne B.. We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip. 2021-07-27. Maine Authors Publishing. 978-1-63381-259-8. en.
  10. News: 1915-11-24. To Hand Congress Four-Mile Petition. 2. Evening Star. 2020-08-24. Newspapers.com.
  11. Web site: [Billboard signs welcoming suffrage envoys from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.]]. 2020-08-23. Library of Congress.
  12. News: 1915-11-16. McCOMBS WILL SEE ENVOYS; California Women May Appear Before National Committee.. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-08-23. 0362-4331.
  13. News: 1915-12-08. MISS WILSON, SUFFRAGE AID.; President's Daughter Assists Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont at Reception.. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-08-24. 0362-4331.
  14. Web site: Ness. Carol. 1995-08-24. Suffrage fight. 2020-08-24. SFGate.
  15. Book: Lumsden, Linda J.. Rampant Women: Suffragists and the Right of Assembly. 1997. Univ. of Tennessee Press. 978-1-57233-163-1. 64–66. en.
  16. News: 27 November 1915. Don't Try to Take the Ballot from Women. 1. Morning Union. August 23, 2020. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  17. Book: Edy, Carolyn M.. The Woman War Correspondent, the U.S. Military, and the Press: 1846–1947. 2016-12-13. Rowman & Littlefield. 978-1-4985-3928-9. 140. en.
  18. News: 1925-11-10. Miss Frances Jolliffe Dies. 5. The San Francisco Examiner. 2020-08-24. Newspapers.com.
  19. News: 1912-02-29. Blows Smoke in Face of Hotel Man, then Regrets. 10. Oakland Tribune. 2020-08-24. Newspapers.com.

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