Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Eleanor Graham, 1864-1932
By Camille Gilbert, undergraduate student, Tulane University.
Lecturer; President, New Orleans Federation of Women's Clubs; State Chairman, Louisiana, National Woman's Party; Publisher
Eleanor Gruber was born in New Orleans on May 12, 1874, to Henry Gruber and Mary Agnes Grady. She attended New Orleans public schools. Eleanor Gruber married Edward J. Graham on December 27, 1887 in New Orleans at Lafayette Presbyterian Church. They had three children: Enid Graham, Arva Graham, and David Graham and raised their family in the twelfth ward of New Orleans on Milan Street.
Eleanor Graham was the president of the New Orleans Federation of Women's Clubs. These clubs had many different facets such as art, civics, public health, education, home economics, literature, and legislation and gave spaces for women to express their intellectualism and be politically active. In April 1917, New Orleans hosted the General Federation of Women's Clubs Conference in which women involved in women's clubs around the U.S. convened. The primary focus of this conference was women's suffrage. Eleanor Graham spoke at the event, which was held in a park, asserting that "where men settled their problems with the bullet," women would conquer theirs with "the ballot."
Eleanor Graham was also the state chair of the Louisiana chapter of the National Woman's Party. In this role, she lobbied state legislators and worked with New Orleans Mayor Berhman and Louisiana Governor Parker to support the women's suffrage amendment. In public meetings, Graham praised the mayor for his support but condemned the Governor for not ratifying the amendment in Louisiana.
After the nineteenth amendment passed, Eleanor Graham remained politically and socially active as a lecturer. She advocated for women to be put on the school board in New Orleans, and for female teachers to have equal pay as their male counterparts. She joined the New Thought Alliance and was a secretary and vice president for the Gulf States. One address she gave was in Triumph, LA on "The Power of True Thought." Another lecture of hers was delivered at the New Orleans Truth Center and was entitled "Finding oneself through the truth." In the early 1920s she traveled to France to attend the New Thought Congress and study as well as attend a conference in the British Isles. She also published her late husband's book of poems, The Eternal I and other poems.
Eleanor Graham died in New Orleans in 1932.
Sources:
1910 United States Federal Census , Ancestry Library http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1910USCenIndex&h=167252706&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=NTQ43&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&rhSource=1174 accessed 20 February 2017;
Kendall, John Smith, History of New Orleans, Volume 3, Chicago and New York: The Lewis Publishing company, 1920, https://books.google.com/books?id=w-YxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1173&lpg=PA1173&dq=eleanor+gruber+education&source=bl&ots=R6eZ6P_Q_a&sig=wsqgJ2wFELXWceK88UELEgP67ww&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP7qmb9qfSAhXMKyYKHePbCsEQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false;
"Report of Convention Held in Third District," The Times-Picayune, October 24, 1915, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.libproxy.tulane.edu:2048/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_action=list&p_topdoc=51&PAGE=6&p_queryname=11;
The Suffragist, Volume 8-9, 1920 https://books.google.com/books?id=nJszAQAAMAAJ&dq=mrs+eg+graham+suffrage&source=gbs_navlinks_s;
Times-Picauyne, October 8, 1921, advertisement,http://infoweb.newsbank.com.libproxy.tulane.edu:2048/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=D5AR5CLYMTQ4ODM5ODU1My40Mjk3MjM6MToxMzoxMjkuODEuMjI2Ljc4&p_action=doc&d_viewref=search&s_lastnonissuequeryname=8&p_queryname=8&p_docnum=3&p_docref=v2:1223BCE5B718A166@EANX-122D56B090B78E68@2422971-122914B03B5C4230@11-137BEE02B35125CF@No%20Headline;
U.S. Passport Applications, 1794-1925, Ancestry Library, http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi- bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=NTQ43&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=eleanor%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=graham&gsln_x=0&msypn__ftp=louisiana&MSAV=0&catbucket=rstp&uidh=2by&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=720866&dbid=1174&indiv=1&ml_rpos=4, accessed 21 February 201
"Women in Parade in Berhman Honor," New Orleans States, September 1, 1920, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.libproxy.tulane.edu:2048/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=D5AR5CLYMTQ4ODM5ODU1My40Mjk3MjM6MToxMzoxMjkuODEuMjI2Ljc4&p_action=doc&d_viewref=search&s_lastnonissuequeryname=10&p_queryname=10&p_docnum=8&p_docref=v2:1228C1EBC5FDC894@EANX-122D0DFBC66D7648@2422569-122ACCDB180A4C00@1-12301C5F974E9D20@;
Formal portrait of Eleanor Graham from the National Woman's Party Records
Image Source:
Edmonston, Washington, "Mrs. E.G. Graham," Library of Congress, 1910, https://www.loc.gov/resource/mnwp.274016