Biographical Database of the NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Cora Lee Wilhelm Bickel, 1885-1946

Keywords: Mrs. Harvey Bickel; also noted as Cora Bichel

By Daphne Lavonia Stanley, Freelance Researcher, Intern at Salem Museum in Salem, Virginia

There are many suffrage advocates who aren't documented well in the history of the suffrage movement. Mrs. Cora Bickel, photographed below, is one of those that fit into this category. Mrs. Bickel of Baltimore, Maryland.

This suffragist was born Cora Lee Wilhelm on 6 November 1885. Cora was a very well educated woman. She graduated from Maryland State Normal School, now Towson University, in 1904, and would go on to teach for a time. She continued her education by pursuing part-time courses in Political Economy in 1919-1920 at the John Hopkins University College for Teachers in Maryland. At this time, women were not admitted for full-time undergraduate courses. This did not occur until 1970. Mrs. Bickel's education would assist her greatly in her involvement in the suffrage movement, though records of her work during this time have been difficult to unearth.

There is no record of a graduation date from John Hopkins University, but archive resources show that this is where she met her future husband, Mr. Harvey Cleveland Bickel, a Pennsylvanian, who would go on to be prominent member in community and Maryland state politics. The U.S. Census of 1930 lists Mrs. Bickel's occupation as a homemaker. Justice and Mrs. Bickel were married for thirty years, until her death in August 1946 at the age of 60.

The Maryland state report in the History of Woman Suffrage, volume 6, notes that Mrs. Bickel served as a director of the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore. Research continues on this determined, amazing woman and her involvement in a difficult time of conflict and prospering for women, not just in the United States, but internationally.

Sources

"Cora Lee Wilhelm Bickel", (Image Included); Find A Grave, graves.com; accessed 25 July 2019

"Cora Wilhelm Bickel", Ancestry.com; accessed 19 May 2019

"Cora W. Bickel", U.S 1940 Census; Ancestry.com; accessed 6 June 2019

"The Democratic Advocate", 16 December 1921; Library of Congress
John Hopkins Register, 1919-1920 (Preliminary Issue)

"Maryland State Normal School 39th Commencement, Spring 1904" (image included) courtesy of Albert S. Cook Collections, library.toson.edu

*The utmost gratitude for research assistance must be given to Senior President of the Maryland League of Women Voters, Mrs. Lois Hybl, as well as, Mr. Jim Stampert, Senior Reference Archivist with John Hopkins University, and Ms. Felicity Know of Towson University

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