Mary Hutcheson Page

Suffrage organizer and leader

Library of Congress

Quick Facts

Significance:

Suffrage organizer and leader

Place of Birth:

Columbus, Ohio

Date of Birth:

March 16, 1860

Place of Death:

February 10, 1940

Date of Death:

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Mount Auburn Cemetery

“A born executive,"¹ Mary Hutcheson Page made invaluable contributions to the suffrage movement in Massachusetts and the United States through her dedicated leadership, organizing, and fundraising.

Born on March 16, 1860, in Columbus, Ohio, Mary Hutcheson spent five years of her youth living in Germany and France before returning to America following the death of her father, a prominent banker. Her mother’s death soon followed, and Page became an orphan at the age of 16. She enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study biology and chemistry. As one of the first women to study at MIT, she graduated as a member of the class of 1888.²

Hutcheson married George Hyde Page in 1890.³ Her husband George later recalled, “When I entered the bonds of matrimony I did not understand that one of the specifications of the contract was a belief in Woman Suffrage."⁴ Mary and George grew active in the suffrage movement together.

Page created the Discussion Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, where she resided with her husband. Page welcomed women into her home where they gathered to share essays, engage in discussions, debate, and hear lectures from guest speakers on various social subjects.⁵ The Club later developed into the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association, formed on June 10, 1895. Page served as the Chairman of its Executive Committee, alongside President Mary Schlesinger. The Association organized events, such as performances of two suffrage plays by Page’s husband at local theatres. They also supported statewide efforts, such as the May Festival hosting national suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt at Faneuil Hall.⁸

Page’s work spread across local and state organizations. Alongside Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Fanny B. Ames, and Maud Wood Park, Page organized the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG) in 1901.⁹ She simultaneously served in executive positions for the organizations in Brookline and Boston, as well as the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association (MWSA).

Page actively conducted the considerable day-to-day work of suffrage organizing as part of her duties across the different groups. She spearheaded fundraising efforts, organized meetings, and published writings in various newspapers and journals.While not known as an orator like some of her peers, she had great influence within the movement.

In one of her most important essays titled “The Subjection of Sex,” she argued for the political freedoms and rights for women:

When we give to both men and women equal liberty and equal rights, we can learn what the strength of a true democracy is by founding a social system that represents the needs of all concerned.¹⁰

A strong belief in the cause allowed for Page’s success in convincing others to donate both funds and time to suffrage work. Page’s ability to fundraise helped the Massachusetts suffrage organizations raise thousands of dollars.¹¹ She had a knack for getting others to join the cause, even at times when other women disliked her bluntness and viewed her control as autocratic. Maud Wood Park remembered Page’s talent in recruiting people for suffrage work as “actual genius.”¹² Years later, Park reflected:

Again and again I tried to fathom the secret of Mary's power to influence others, but I never succeeded, though I realized its foundation was her own profound conviction that injustice to women must be stopped.¹³

Page worked tirelessly to increase membership and participation in local suffrage organizations. Where others struggled, she successfully convinced women to accept positions in her organizations and show up to meetings and events. Page often remarked she would “try to make them have a good time.”¹⁴

Page’s suffrage work built community. As a member of the Women’s Trade Union League, she built coalitions between women’s suffrage groups, working women, and local labor unions. By 1909, Page reported to the MWSA that 235 labor unions in Massachusetts endorsed suffrage.¹⁵

Similar to many other suffragists at the time, Page became inspired by the English suffragettes. In 1909, she briefly hosted English suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst at her home. During Parkhurst’s visit to the United States, the MWSA held the first suffrage parade in Boston.¹⁶ Open to new ideas, Page and other suffrage leaders in the state followed the path of English suffragettes by directing their energy towards more public efforts. They began to receive significant attention from the public by adopting the English suffragettes’ tactics such as parades, open-air meetings, and rallies. Page helped push the MWSA to open a storefront in downtown Boston, where women conducted their open-air speeches outside the building. She also appointed Susan Walker Fitzgerald to direct open-air meetings for the MWSA and BESAGG’s Votes for Women Committee.¹⁷

In addition to her local work, she became involved in the national movement. In 1910, Page served as the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.¹⁸ Later, Page and her daughter Anne marched in the 1913 National American Woman Suffrage Association’s parade held in Washington, D.C. as part of the Massachusetts delegation.¹⁹

In 1915, various states including Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, had women’s suffrage on the ballot. Page helped organize rallies and parades to convince voters to support Massachusetts’ ballot measure on women’s suffrage. However, voters in the state defeated the referendum. Just days after, Page attended the Faneuil Hall “Victory Rally” on November 4, where she presided on stage alongside others such as Maud Wood Park and Alice Stone Blackwell. In a letter addressed to members of the BESAGG a month after the referendum’s defeat, she wrote:

We did not win, but we are not disheartened. We are going about our work with fresh zeal and enthusiasm, sure of ultimate victory.

The Federal Amendment before Congress and the coming campaigns in Iowa, West Virginia, and South Dakota will keep suffrage before the country and will help us here, especially in case of victories.²⁰

Though she remained involved, Page resigned from her executive positions in the suffrage movement, retiring to California with her husband George in 1918. She continued correspondence with fellow suffragists, regarding national efforts and the passage of the 19th Amendment. She returned to Massachusetts following George’s death in 1923.²¹

Mary Hutcheson Page died on February 10, 1940, at her daughter Katherine’s house in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Katherine Page Hersey wrote that her mother “had had a wonderfully full and active life, a devoted family, and many many loyal friends, and a great and successful cause for which to work.”²²

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Footnotes

1. Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, and historical material re: Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government, 1940, n.d.. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1892-1943, M-133, reel D29; WRC 653-653b, 653., Box: 05A. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
2. Sharon Hartman Strom, “Leadership and Tactics in the American Woman Suffrage Movement: A New Perspective from Massachusetts,” The Journal of American History 62, no. 2 (1975): 301; Boston Globe, October 7, 1915, 10; “I burned with indignation” MIT Technology Review, “I burned with indignation” | MIT Technology Review; "Mary Hutcheson Page," U.S. Passport Applications, Ancestry.com, U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 - Ancestry.com; “Mary Hutcheson Page,” Find a Grave­, Mary Hutcheson Page (1860-1940) - Find a Grave Memorial.
3. Ancestry; Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
4. George Hyde Page, 1902, n.d.. Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 2.11., Box: 2. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
5.  Mary Hutcheson Page is mapped at Edgehill Road in Brookline, Massachusetts where she lived for a time and held club meetings. Discussion Club, 1895-1897. Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 1.7., Box: 1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute. 
6. Boston Globe, October 7, 1915; Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 1.2., Box: 1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.; Brookline Equal Suffrage Association, 1895-1900.; Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 1.1., Box: 1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
7. Strom, 278.
8. Boston Globe, October 7, 1915; Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 1.2., Box: 1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.; Brookline Equal Suffrage Association, 1895-1900.; Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939, MC 955, 1.1., Box: 1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
9. “The Subjection of Sex,” Woman’s Journal, December 29, 1894.
10. Strom, 302.
11. Image 5, Blackwell Family, Blackwell Family Papers: Lucy Stone Papers, 1759 to 1960; Subject File, 1853 to 1960; Lucy Stone, a Chronicle Play, by Maud Wood Park, ; Correspondence; “P” miscellaneous. - 1960, 1759, Manuscript/Mixed Material, https://www.loc.gov/item/mss1288002057/; Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
12. Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
13. Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
14. Strom, 303.
15. Strom, 311; Woman's Journal, Militant Methods: Emmeline Pankhurst in Boston, Woman's Journal, Boston, Massachusetts, 10-30- 0:00, 1909, Manuscript/Mixed Material, https://www.loc.gov/item/rbcmiller003910/.
16. Strom, 307-309.
17. Strom, 303.
18. Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute; Boston Globe, October 7, 1915, 10.
19. Correspondence, 1905, 1910-1915, n.d.. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1892-1943, M-133, reel D29; WRC 653-653b, 653b., Box: 05A. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute; Scrapbook, 1892-1930 (most 1901-1918).. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1892-1943, M-133, reel D29; WRC 653-653b, Vol. 23ao., FolioPlus_Box: 29. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
20. Correspondence, 1905, 1910-1915, n.d.. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
21. Correspondence, 1905, 1910-1915, n.d.. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute; Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
22. Biographical re: Mary Hutcheson Page, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.