Howe, Julia Ward

Howe, Julia Ward
orig. Julia Ward

born May 27, 1819, New York, N.Y., U.S.
died Oct. 17, 1910, Newport, R.I.

U.S. abolitionist and social reformer.

Born to a well-to-do family, she was educated privately. In 1843 she married educator Samuel Gridley Howe and took up residence in Boston. For a while she and her husband published the Commonwealth, an abolitionist newspaper. During a visit to an army camp near Washington, D.C., in 1861, she wrote a poem, "Battle Hymn of the Republic," to be set to an old folk tune also used for "John Brown's Body." Published in February 1862 in The Atlantic Monthly, it became the semiofficial Civil War song of the Union Army, and Howe became famous. After the war she involved herself in the woman suffrage movement, helping to found and serving as president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association (1868–77, 1893–1910). She also wrote travel books, biography, drama, verse, and children's songs and edited Woman's Journal (1870–90). In 1908 she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Julia Ward Howe, 1902.

By courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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▪ American writer
née  Julia Ward  
born May 27, 1819, New York, New York, U.S.
died October 17, 1910, Newport, Rhode Island
 American author and lecturer best known for her “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

      Julia Ward came of a well-to-do family and was educated privately. In 1843 she married educator Samuel Gridley Howe (Howe, Samuel Gridley) and took up residence in Boston. Always of a literary bent, she published her first volume of poetry, Passion Flowers, in 1854; this and subsequent works—including a poetry collection, Words for the Hour (1857), a play, Leonora; or, the World's Own, produced in 1857, and A Trip to Cuba (1860)—had little success.

      For a while Howe and her husband published the Commonwealth, an abolitionist newspaper, but for the most part he kept her out of his affairs and strongly opposed her involving herself in any sort of public life. In February 1862 The Atlantic Monthly published her poem “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” to be set to an old folk tune also used for “John Brown's Body.” The song, written during a visit to an army camp near Washington, D.C., in 1861, became the semiofficial Civil War song of the Union Army, and Howe became famous.

      After the war Howe involved herself in the woman suffrage movement. In 1868 she helped form and was elected the first president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, an office she held until 1877, and from 1869 she took a leading role in the American Woman Suffrage Association. She helped found the New England Women's Club in 1868 and succeeded Caroline M. Severance as its president in 1871. She was later active in the General Federation of Women's Clubs International. She also took up the cause of peace and in 1870 published her “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World,” a call for an international conference of women on the subject of peace. In 1871 she became first president of the American branch of the Woman's International Peace Association.

      Howe continued to write throughout her life, publishing travel books, poetry, collections of essays, and biographies. She founded a short-lived literary journal, Northern Lights, in 1867 and was a founder in 1870 and an editor for 20 years thereafter of the Woman's Journal. She was a frequent traveler until extreme old age. She was again president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association from 1893 to 1910. In 1908 she became the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was an American public institution by the time of her death. Of her children, the best known was the writer Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Howe, Julia Ward — (1819–1910)    Philanthropist and Poet.    Howe was born Julia Ward in New York City and moved to Boston on her marriage to Samuel Howe. She was prominent in the movement to abolish slavery and was also involved in the campaigns for women’s… …   Who’s Who in Christianity

  • Howe, Julia Ward — orig. Julia Ward (27 may. 1819, Nueva York, N.Y., EE.UU.–17 oct. 1910, Newport, R.I.). Abolicionista y reformadora social estadounidense. Nació en una familia acomodada y se educó privadamente. En 1843 se casó con el educador Samuel Gridley Howe… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Julia Ward Howe — (May 27, 1819 ndash; October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet most famous as the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. BiographyEarly life and familyBorn Julia Ward in New York City, she was the… …   Wikipedia

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  • Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House — Infobox nrhp | name =Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House nrhp type = nhl caption = location= Boston, Massachusetts lat degrees = 42 lat minutes = 21 lat seconds = 27 lat direction = N long degrees = 71 long minutes = 4 long seconds = 3 long… …   Wikipedia

  • Ward — Ward, Artemus Ward, Bernard Ward, James Ward, John Quincy Adams * * * (as used in expressions) Beecher, Henry Ward Howe, Julia Ward Julia Ward Ann Ward Ward, Barbara (Mary), baronesa Jackson (de Lodsworth) …   Enciclopedia Universal

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