100 Years Ago: IL League of Women Voters Leader Visits Alton Ahead of St. Louis's National Convention

ALTON - Emily Taft, field secretary for the Illinois League of Women Voters, visited Alton on March 31, 1926, and met with a number of local women. The annual meeting of the National League of Women Voters was scheduled for April 14 – 21, 1926, in St. Louis. Many Alton women belonged to the state organization and planned to attend the national convention, so Taft’s visit to Alton was to coordinate those plans and encourage attendance at the convention. “The purpose of the League is to educate women in the state of citizenship, and membership is open to all women from every political party who realize they ought to base their vote on facts and not on hearsay.” Women came from virtually every state to attend the convention in St. Louis.

The St. Louis Star and Times reported on April 15, 1926, “The national convention of the League of Women Voters has brought to St. Louis this week a body of intelligent, earnest women, leaders in their communities, who realize their responsibilities as citizens. Their organization is performing a useful service. Many of its members, having helped to get the ballot, are centering the organization’s activities on the task of educating women to use it. They are concerned with measures rather than with individual candidates.”

Emily Taft was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 10, 1899. She was the daughter of renowned sculptor Lorado Taft and his wife Ada Bartlett Taft. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1920 with a BA in economics and political science. While serving as field secretary for the Illinois League of Women Voters, Taft met her future husband, Paul Howard Douglas, a University of Chicago economics professor and future U.S. Senator (from 1949 to 1967). They married in 1931. Emily Taft Douglas went into politics as well. She served as a U.S. representative at-large from 1945 until 1947, becoming the first female Democrat elected to Congress from Illinois. She lost her reelection bid, but was appointed U.S. Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1950. She died on January 28, 1994, in White Plains, New York.

Sources

“DOUGLAS, Emily Taft.” History, Art & Archives – United States House of Representatives, 2026.https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/12396

“Emily Taft Here In Interest of Voters’ League.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), March 23, 1926.

“Miss Emily Taft At Conference Today.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 14, 1926.

“‘Steering Committee’ for National Convention of League of Women Voters.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), April 6, 1926.

“‘The Women Voters’ League.” The St. Louis Star (St. Louis, MO), April 6, 1926.

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