Park, Maud Wood
Maud Wood Park (1871-1955), who spent a substantial part of her life in Maine, was born on January 25, 1871 in Boston. She was a Radcliffe graduate who became an organizer, civic leader, and speaker for causes that moved her. Park organized her College Equal Suffrage League.
Married at 26 and widowed, her later marriage to Robert Hunter was kept a secret. She was active in Washington DC, Boston, and Maine as a powerful National American Woman Suffrage Association lobbyist for 19th Amendment. Park was widely respected for her honest “Front Door” lobby, tact and ability.
Park moved to Cape Cottage, a village in South Portland, in 1924 and continued writing plays. Her Lucy Stone was performed in Boston in 1939. In 1946 she sold her house in Maine and moved to Boston.
She was the first president of League of Women Voters and donated the nucleus of the Schlesinger Library’s Women’s Rights Collection. Park died on May 8, 1955.
Additional resources
Harvard University Library. “Park, Maud Wood, 1871-1955. Papers in the Woman’s Rights Collection, 1870-1960: A Finding Aid. http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01035 (accessed February 13, 2012)
Park, Maud Wood. Front Door Lobby. Edited by Edna Lamprey Stantial. Boston, ME. Beacon Press. 1960. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]