Full Name Vira Boarman Name Vira Whitehouse | Known for Suffragette | |
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Born September 16, 1875 ( 1875-09-16 ) New Orleans, Louisiana Spouse(s) James Norman de Rapelye Whitehouse Children Alice Whitehouse Harjes Died April 11, 1957, New York City, New York, United States Parents Cornelia Terrell, Robert Boarman | ||
Vira Boarman Whitehouse (September 16, 1875 – April 11, 1957) was the owner of the Whitehouse Leather Company, a suffragette and early proponent of birth control.
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Biography
Vira Boarman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 16, 1875, to Robert Boarman and Cornelia Terrell.
She attended Newcomb College in New Orleans. She married New York stockbroker James Norman de Rapelye Whitehouse (1858–1949), April 13, 1898. They had one child, Alice Whitehouse Harjes.
She was chairman in 1913 of the publicity council of the Empire State Campaign Committee and in 1916 of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party (NYSWSP). She was a leader in securing suffrage for New York women in November 1917.
In 1918, she became director of the Swiss office of the Committee on Public Information, where she worked closely with Rosika Schwimmer, the Hungarian ambassador to Switzerland, and one of the first female ambassadors in the world. Whitehouse reported her experiences in A Year as a Government Agent (1920).
In 1921, she bought the Buchan-Murphy Manufacturing Company, a leather business, renamed it the Whitehouse Leather Products Company, Inc., and reorganized it with herself as president. She managed the company for eight years, reducing the work week from 48 hours to 44 hours, among other changes.
In 1925, she was elected a member of the Democratic County Committee from Manhattan's 15th Assembly District.
The following year, she became Chairman of the Independent Women's Committee for Judge Wagner. She sold her leather company before the stock market crash of 1929.
She died at her home in New York City, April 11, 1957.
Legacy
Her papers are archived at the Harvard University Library.