Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Louise Herrick Wall, 1884-1974
By Hailey Hoyt, Student
University of California, Santa Barbara
Member, College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California; California Equal Suffrage League Committee on Design, Election Day Work Committee; Member, Blue Liner Campaign,
Louise Herrick was born on October 10, 1884, in New York. She moved to Northern California in her youth and married Francis R Hall. She was an editor for several book projects, as well as a writer herself. Hall frequently wrote for San Francisco based papers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Call. Additionally, she published many accounts for suffrage organizations, particularly the College Equal Suffrage League in which she wrote summaries of committee reports. Wall died in San Mateo, California in June 1974.
Louise Herrick Wall was an active participant for the suffrage movement in the Northern California region. She was heavily involved in the "Blue Liner" campaign car in the San Francisco and the Northern California region, as reported by the September 4th, 1911, San Francisco Call article, which noted that "Mrs. Orlow Black, Miss Bessie, Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall and Miss Jean Hayes accompanied Mrs. Patterson yesterday on the trip to Vallejo" in the Blue Liner. The seven-person automobile carried women to speaking events where they advocated for suffrage. For instance, "at the Walnut Creek meeting more than 200 persons were entertained. Besides the five-minute suffrage speeches delivered by Mrs. Louise Wall, Mrs. Elizabeth Baker, and Mrs. Frank Patterson there was an original suffrage song and dance in costume given by Miss Jean." The suffragettes in the group were dedicated to delivering "straight talk," in opposition to the anti-suffrage campaigns which they felt were absurd displays. The car was associated with the College Equal Suffrage League, a nation-wide suffrage organization in which Hall also participated.
Hall also served as the Chairman for the California Committee on Design, a branch of the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California. The committee designed, produced, and funded advertising efforts for the election. In her committee report from the College of Equal Suffrage League of Northern California, she explained that she guided the process of creating a poster for the cause, requesting that "propaganda values in mind as well as mere artistic excellence." Additionally, she explains that the committee had expanded beyond poster duties and also "created decorations for halls and theaters for public meetings, designs for badges and banners, decorations for temporary headquarters" because she believed that "no committee is led into more interesting or droller by-ways than a committee on design.
In addition to serving as Chair for the Committee on Design, Hall was also a participant of the Election Day Work committee. She notes in a report to the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California that she was responsible for distributing volunteers throughout the city near polling booths. In the Election Day Committee Report in the Report of Committees by the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California, the League felt there was a strong "moral effect of standing quietly in [their] places and showing what types of women were really deeply concerned." Women had to stand near the booths from six in the morning until six at night. The committee also was responsible for getting volunteers to their posts, as well as bringing refreshments to them throughout the polling period. (107)
Sources:
Herrick Wall, Louise. "Heroic San Francisco: A Woman's Story of the Pluck and Heroism of the People of the Stricken City." 1906 Earthquake Eyewitness Account of Louise Herrick Wall. Accessed April 16, 2018. http://www.sfmuseum.net/1906.2/ew24.html.
Herrick Wall, Louise. "Moving to Amend." Sunset: The Magazine of the Pacific and of All the Far West, 1911.
Herrick Wall, Louise. Reports of Committees of the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California in the Campaign of 1911. https://books.google.com/books?id=nxsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Louise+Herrick+Wall+suffrage&source=bl&ots=Zqxb4vZUW7&sig=NHzDu_lX5a9eaSSFZF15Eemsb_Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB7PC5x6baAhVr0oMKHalYD78Q6AEIRjAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Herrick Wall, Louise (1903, Jul 19). The accolade. San Francisco Chronicle (1869-Current File) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/573339060?accountid=14522
"I See by the Papers...,"The Summer When the Women Won the Vote. Accessed April 16, 2018. http://comstockhousehistory.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-summer-when-women-won-vote.html.
Lane, Franklin Knight, 1864-1921. The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922.
"Women in Big Blue Liner Are Spreading Suffrage Propaganda." San Francisco Call, Sept. 1911. California Digital Newspaper Collection, cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19110904.2.77.14
Ancestry.com Search;
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3693&h=27256518&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=eFA40&_phstart=successSource
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7884&h=181202995&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=eFA41&_phstart=successSource