Eva Ingersoll Wakefield

Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield (1892 – 1 April 1970)[1] was a writer,[2] poet,[3] freethinker, and an authority on the life of Robert G. Ingersoll, her grandfather.[4]

Eva Ingersoll Wakefield
Born
Eva Ingersoll Brown

1892
Dobbs Ferry, New York
Died1 April 1970
Fairfield, Connecticut
Occupation(s)Writer, poet, activist, humanist
Organization(s)Vivisection Investigation League, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, American Humanist Association
RelativesRobert G. Ingersoll (grandfather)
Eva Parker Ingersoll (grandmother)
Maud Ingersoll Probasco (aunt)

Personal life
Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield as a child in 1899, with her grandfather, Robert G. Ingersoll, and brother, Robert G. Ingersoll Brown.[5]

Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York in 1892, the daughter of Walston H. and Eva Ingersoll Brown.[1] Her mother, Eva Ingersoll Brown, was a suffragist and activist.[6] She was tutored as a child, and later graduated from Columbia University.[1]

In 1917, Brown married McNeal Swasey, but they later divorced.[7] She married Sherman Day Wakefield, an author, editor, and bibliographer, in 1932.[3][8][7] The wedding was performed by John Lovejoy Elliott of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, at the home of her aunt,[9] Maud Ingersoll Probasco.[7] Sherman Wakefield was on the editorial staff of The Humanist and also of Progressive World.[8] Eva herself was a contributor to The Humanist, as well as writing poetry.[3] One of her poems was included in an anthology compiled by Edwin Markham, with whom she studied.[3]

Ingersoll's birthplace in the 1950s. Eva Ingersoll Wakefield was secretary of the association which maintained it.

A passionate defender of her grandfather's legacy,[10] Eva Ingersoll Wakefield published The Life and Letters of Robert G. Ingersoll in 1951, and later donated a significant amount of 'Ingersolliana' to the Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and other archives.[11][12] As well as personal collections and copies of letters kept by her mother (Ingersoll's daughter) and aunt, Wakefield gathered correspondence from letters and journals, and from the collection of Harry Houdini.[11]

Activism
Eva Ingersoll Wakefield's mother, Eva Ingersoll Brown (third from left) with fellow suffragists in 1909

Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield was one of the earliest members of the First Humanist Society of New York, founded in 1929,[4][13] and later President of the New York Chapter of the American Humanist Association.[3]

During the 1930s, Wakefield was active in the Manhattan Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[3] She was also director of the Vivisection Investigation League[3] and a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York.[3]

In addition to editing The Life and Letters of Robert G. Ingersoll, Wakefield was secretary of the Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial Association.[14][15] which maintained the Robert Ingersoll Birthplace in Dresden, N.Y., as a museum.[3]

Death

She died on 1 April 1970 at the Carolton Hospital in Fairfield, Connecticut.[3] At her memorial service, in lieu of flowers, contributions to the R.G. Ingersoll Memorial Association were requested.[16] Sherman Day Wakefield died the following year.[8]

References
  1. "Mrs Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield (1892-1970)". FindAGrave. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  2. Ingersoll, Robert Green; Wakefield, Eva Ingersoll; Pike, E. Royston, Brown, Eva Ingersoll; Ingersoll, Robert Green (1952). The life and letters of Robert G. Ingersoll. OCLC 877108082.
  3. "Mrs. Sherman Wakefield Dies; A Granddaughter of Ingersoll". The New York Times. 1970-04-02. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  4. News; Voices; Commentary; Features; Magazine, The; Entertainment, Arts &; Multimedia; Us, About; Us, Contact (2022-03-24). "On the Trail of Humanism's Hidden Women". TheHumanist.com. Retrieved 2022-03-30. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  5. Bros, Pach (n.d.). "Robert Ingersoll with Eva Ingersoll Wakefield and Robert G. Ingersoll Brown". www.chroniclingillinois.org. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  6. "Suffragists At Rally in Home of Robert Ingersoll's Daughter, Mrs. Walston Brown". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  7. "MRS. SWASEY WED TO S. D. 1AKEFIELD; (Granddaughter of Late. Robert G. Ingersoll Married in Home '". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  8. "S. D. WAKEFIELD, BIBLIOGRAPHER, 76". The New York Times. 1971-05-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  9. "I MRS. PROBASCO DIES; INGERSOLL DAUGHTER; Followed Father's Position as an Agnostic -- Also Worked for Suffrage and Peace". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  10. Brown, Eva Ingersoll (1911-10-12). "DEFENDS COL. INGERSOLL.; Agnostic's Granddaughter Eulogizes His Character and Creed". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  11. Ingersoll, Robert Green (1952). Life and letters. George A. Smathers Libraries University of Florida. London,: Watts.
  12. Treasures of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein. Carbondale. 2014. ISBN 978-0-8093-3337-0. OCLC 890676005.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  13. Ian Dowbiggin (2002-10-22). A Merciful End. Internet Archive. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-515443-6.
  14. The Humanist: Vol 8 Iss 2. Internet Archive. American Humanist Association. 1948.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. Arch Merrill (1950). Upstate Echoes.
  16. "Memorial Services". The New York Times. 1970-04-16. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
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