Eva Perry Moore

Eva Perry Moore (July 24, 1852 – April 28, 1931) was an American clubwoman based in St. Louis, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Council of Women.[1]

Eva Perry Moore
Eva Perry Moore,
Notable women of St. Louis, 1914
Born
Mary Eva Perry

(1852-07-24)July 24, 1852
Rockford, Illinois
DiedApril 8, 1931(1931-04-08) (aged 78)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materVassar College
Spouse
Philip North Moore
​
​
(m. 1879⁠–⁠1930)​
his death

Early life

Mary Eva Perry was born in Rockford, Illinois, the daughter of Seely Perry and Elizabeth Benedict Perry. Her father had been a schoolmaster, and in 1858 was elected mayor of Rockford.[2] Eva Perry graduated from Vassar College in 1873.[3]

Career
Eva Perry Moore, from a 1910 publication.

Eva Perry Moore was a longtime officer of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, from 1894 to 1912; she was president of the national organization from 1908 to 1912. Before that, she was president of the Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs (1902-1908).[4] Moore became president of the National Council of Women in 1914, and held that office until 1925; she was also vice-president of the International Council of Women from 1920 to 1930.[1] Moore, herself active on behalf of women's suffrage and other progressive reforms, saw the strategic advantage of a national organization of women perceived to be apolitical. "We have no platform unless it is the care of women and children, and the home, the latter meaning the four walls of the city as well as the four walls of brick and mortar," she stated in 1910.[5]

Moore was an alumnae trustee at Vassar College, president of the Nurses' Association of St. Louis, president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae,[6] president of the Wednesday Club of St. Louis, director of the St. Louis Provident Association, vice-president of the National Conservation Congress, vice-president of the St. Louis School of Philanthropy, founder of the Musical Club of St. Louis, and a member of the Superior Jury of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904).[7]

Moore spoke at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention when it was held in Baltimore in 1906. In 1909, she traveled with William Howard Taft to the Panama Canal Zone Federation of Women's Clubs meeting. During World War I, she served on the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. In 1918, she was appointed to the executive committee of the League to Enforce Peace, along with Anna Howard Shaw, M. Carey Thomas, and Frances Folsom Cleveland Preston.[8]

Personal life

Eva Perry married mining engineer Philip North Moore in 1879. They had two children, Elizabeth (b. 1881) and Perry (b. 1886). She was widowed in 1930, and died in 1931, aged 78 years.[1]

References
  1. Karen J. Blair, "Eva Perry Moore" in American National Biography Online (Oxford University Press 2000).
  2. "19th Century Mayors of Rockford" Rockford Historical Society.
  3. John William Leonard, Woman's Who's Who of America (American Commonwealth Publishing 1914): 573.
  4. Eva Perry Moore Papers, General Federation of Women's Clubs, International Presidents Papers, Women's History and Resource Center.
  5. Judith N. McArthur, Creating the New Woman: The rise of Southern Women's Progressive Culture in Texas, 1893-1918 (University of Illinois Press 1998): 29. ISBN 9780252066795
  6. "College Women Busy in Annual Session" Atlanta Constitution (November 24, 1905): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  7. Frances Squire Potter, "Eva Perry Moore" Twentieth Century Magazine 6(July 1912): 54-57.
  8. "Women in Campaign for Permanent Peace" New York Times (January 21, 1918).
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