Harriet Bliss Ford Explained

Harriet Bliss Ford
Birth Name:	Harriet Chalmers Bliss
Birth Date:	November 28, 1876
Birth Place:	New York, New York, U.S.
Death Date:	February 20, 1964 (aged 87)
Death Place:	Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation:	Editor, writer, clubwoman

Harriet Chalmers Bliss Ford (November 28, 1876 – February 20, 1964) was an American editor, writer, and clubwoman. From 1899 to 1912, she was an editor at The Century Magazine. Later, she held national leadership roles in the YWCA, and worked in Paris during World War I. She was elected vice-president of Smith College in 1931.

Early life and education

Bliss was born in New York City^[1] and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles Bliss and Harriet Maria Kopper Bliss.^[2] Her father was a physician and Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, and her mother was born in Scotland.^[3] Both of her parents died in the 1880s.^[4] She graduated from Smith College in 1899.^[5]

Career

From 1899 to 1912, Bliss was an editorial assistant and then editor at The Century Magazine.^[6] Later, she held national leadership roles in the YWCA. She was based in Paris during World War I, at the Paris headquarters of the American Red Cross, and as chair of the city's committee of the Smith College Relief Unit in France.^{[7] [8]} She was decorated by the King of Montenegro and received the Médaille Argent from the French government for her wartime work.^[9]

Ford was a trustee of Smith College from 1928 to 1936, and was elected vice-president of Smith College in 1931. She also lived on campus for several years as resident trustee, beginning in 1931.^[10] In 1937, she was named executive chair of the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. During World War II, she was a local representative of the Office of Price Administration in Northampton, Massachusetts.^[11]

Publications

• "A Garden of Yesterdays" (1897, poem)^[12]
• "The Great Man and his Christmas Tree" (1897, story)^[13]
• "To Saint Valentine" (1898, poem, with Ethel Wallace Hawkins)^[14]
• "Come, Sleep-Flowers" (1898, poem)^[15]
• "The Cricket" (1904, poem)^[16]

Personal life

Bliss married George Burdett Ford in 1912. Her husband, an architect and city planner,^[17] died after a surgery in 1930,^{[18] [19]} and she died in 1964, at the age of 87, at a nursing home in Northampton. There is a collection of her papers in the Smith College Archives.^[20]

Notes and References

1. Book: Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada . 1914 . American Commonwealth Company . 300 . en.
2. Book: Hamersly, Lewis Randolph . Who's who in New York City and State . Leonard . John W. . Mohr . William Frederick . Knox . Herman Warren . Holmes . Frank R. . Downs . Winfield Scott . 1907 . L.R. Hamersly Company . 146 . en.
3. Book: Bliss, John Homer . Genealogy of the Bliss family in America, from about the year 1550-1880 . 1881-01-01 . Dalcassian Publishing Company . 518 . en.
4. News: 1889-01-24 . Dr. Charles Bliss's Fatal Fall; Slipped on the cellar Stairs and Pitched Headlong to Floor . 2024-05-11 . The Sun . 5 . Newspapers.com.
5. Smith College, Class of 1899 (1899 yearbook): np. via Internet Archive
6. News: 1912-05-22 . To Have a Mid-June Wedding . 2024-05-11 . Boston Evening Transcript . 19 . Newspapers.com.
7. Book: Gaines, Ruth . Ladies of Grécourt: The Smith College Relief Unit in the Somme . 1920 . E.P. Dutton . 222 . en.
8. January 1918 . The Smith Unit . The Smith College Monthly . 25 . 4 . 220–222.
9. February 1921 . Alumnae Notes: Class of 1899 . The Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 12 . 2 . 157.
10. News: Duquesne . Doris . 1936-01-29 . Smith College Alumnae Entertain at Luncheon, Tea, and Dinner . 2024-05-11 . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . 10 . Newspapers.com.
11. News: 1964-02-21 . Mrs. Ford, 1st Woman VP of Smith College . 2024-05-11 . The Berkshire Eagle . Newspapers.com. 15.
12. Bliss, Harriet Chalmers. "A Garden of Yesterdays" The Smith College Monthly 5(November 1897): 68.
13. Bliss, Harriet Chalmers. "The Great Man and his Christmas Tree" The Smith College Monthly 5(December 1897): 127-130.
14. Bliss, Harriet Chalmers. "To Saint Valentine" The Smith College Monthly 5(February 1898): 218-219.
15. Bliss, Harriet Chalmers. "Come, Sleep-Flowers" The Smith College Monthly 5(May 1898): 364.
16. Bliss . Harriet Chalmers . November 1904 . The Cricket . Scribner's Magazine . 36 . 5 . 632.
17. Book: Builders of Our Nation . 1915 . American Publishers' Association . 268–269 . en.
18. News: 1930-08-21 . Noted Architect and Regional Plan Director Dead . 2024-05-11 . Monmouth Democrat . 4 . Newspapers.com.
19. News: 1930-08-15 . Regional Plan Association Mourns the Death of George Burdett Ford . 2024-05-11 . The Herald Statesman . 18 . Newspapers.com.
20. Web site: Collection: Harriet Bliss Ford papers . 2024-05-11 . Smith College Finding Aids.