By Sophie van den Elzen, PhD Candidate at Utrecht University
Matilda Campbell Hall was born in Washington, D.C. on 31 December 1871, to Frederick Hillsgrove Hall, editor of the Chicago Tribune, and Matilda L. Campbell. With her mother she attended and hosted society events in Chicago before she married Harry Gilson Gardner on 3 November 1900. Gilson Gardner worked as an influential Washington correspondent for the Chicago Journal, and later for the liberal Scripps newspaper chain, and he was a well-regarded political correspondent. His circle of friends included President Theodore Roosevelt, and Matilda moved comfortably in Washington high society, as a member of numerous clubs. Matilda died on 15 March 1954, in Alexandria, Virginia. The couple had no children.
Matilda Gardner was one of the Washington women assisting Alice Paul in organizing the first national suffrage parade, held March 3, 1913. She took part in a suffrage demonstration at the Capitol on 7 April 1913. Later that year she spoke before the Equal Suffrage Association of Glencoe, Maryland, predicting national equal suffrage would be achieved soon. In December 1913 she was appointed chairman of a suffragist committee organizing testimony for a House suffrage hearing, and was elected as a delegate to the next national convention of the State Equal Suffrage Association. She played a key role in organizing the 1915 First National Convention of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Matilda served on the executive committee of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) from 1914 at least until 1921, when she took part in a conference with President Harding to remove discrimination against women from federal laws. On 14 July 1917 she was arrested for participating in the NWP's Bastille Day demonstration in front of the White House and was sentenced to 60 days in the Occoquan Workhouse. Later that year, in September, she acted as counsel to other suffragists imprisoned at Occoquan, petitioning local authorities on their behalf. On 14 January 1919 she was sentenced to 5 days in the district jail for building ‘watch fires’ in front of the White House. In jail, she commenced a hunger strike with the other 22 convicted suffragists.
Matilda and her husband actively supported progressive politics. Matilda served as an officer of the Committee for Progressive Political Action , and was a strong advocate of the founding of the Progressive Party. She was also involved in Robert La Follette’s campaign for the presidency in 1924. Matilda claimed that, like many other women, her suffrage activity flowed naturally from her social work: “Social work of all sorts, like the work for constructive peace, is a feeder for suffrage.” Matilda was particularly active in settlement work. She and her husband were trustees of the Southwestern Neighbourhood House in Washington. She was also a member of organizations pursuing world peace and the release of political prisoners, the Rational Defence League, the Woman’s World Disarmament committee and the National Folk-Craft Society. She served on several executive committees, including those of the Drama League from 1913 onwards, and of the Women’s Committee for the Recognition of Russia, in 1923.
Sources
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“Here they are! Out of jail but ready to picket again!” Grand Forks Herald 25 Jul. 1917, p.7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042414/1917-07-25/ed-1/seq-8/ accessed 10 Sep 2017. Matilda is pictured left.
Matilda Hall Gardner. National Woman’s Party Photograph collection, http://nationalwomansparty.pastperfectonline.com/photo/FFB31BAE-067F-4363-86D5-291240023371 accessed 9 Sep 2017.
“Mrs. Gilson Gardner marching in Procession.” ca. 1913-1917. Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/mnwp.151001/ accessed 9 Sep 2017.
“Backs LaFollette” Great Falls Tribune. 14 Jul 1924, p.5. Newspapers.com www.newspapers.com/image/238116537/ accessed 11 Sep 2017.