Frances Willard

Nineteen Beautiful Years. New York: Harper, 1864. Willard’s first book, eulogizing her beloved sister, Mary, who died of typhoid in 1862.

Woman and Temperance, or, The Work and Workers of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Company, 1883. Biographical sketches of women working for temperance; historical sketch of the WCTU, and descriptions of its various endeavors and accomplishments.

How to Win: A Book for Girls. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1888. Willard’s exhortation to young women to think about their futures, go beyond traditional expectations, and plan for a career.

Glimpses of Fifty Years. New York: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1889. Willard’s autobiography, based on her journals, letters, and memories.

Woman in the Pulpit. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1888. Willard’s argument in favor of women being ordained as ministers, with commentary from leading male preachers.

The Year’s Bright Chain. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1889. Quotations from Willard’s writings and speeches, one for each day of the year. Another edition was published in 1894.

A Classic Town: The Story of Evanston, by “An Old Timer.” Chicago: Women’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1891. An informal history/memoir of Evanston from its beginnings, with biographical sketches of residents.

A Woman of the Century. Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, editors. Buffalo, NY: C.W. Moulton, 1893. Over 1400 biographical sketches (accompanied by portraits) of 19th-century American women in all walks of life.

A Great Mother: Sketches of Madam Willard. Frances E. Willard and Minerva Brace Norton. Chicago: Women’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1894. Call Number: University Archives Faculty Collection. Willard and her cousin wrote this memoir to commemorate the influence and support that Willard’s mother, who died in 1892, provided to her family and to a wide circle of women.

A Wheel within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1895. Willard recounts her difficulties learning to ride a two-wheeler, and the lessons learned along the way.

Do Everything: A Handbook for the World’s White Ribboners. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1895. A history of the WCTU, a defense of the “Do-Everything” Policy (based on her belief that working for temperance while ignoring other needed reforms was counter-productive), and a Plan of Work for new and expanding unions around the world.

Occupations for Women. A Book of Practical Suggestions for the Material Advancement, the Mental and Physical Development, and the Moral and Spiritual Uplift of Women. Frances Willard; Helen M Winslow; Sallie Elizabeth Joy White; NY: Success Co., 1897

Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson. Frances Willard: A Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. Still the most recent full-length scholarly biography of Willard, considering her in the context of women’s history and social reform.

Buehle, Mary Jo. Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1981. In Chapter 2, the author talks about Willard in the context of radical reform.

Dillon, Mary Earhart. Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944. The first serious biography of Willard, by a Northwestern alumna. Focuses on Willard’s political activism and leadership of women.

Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte, ed. Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-96. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1995. Excerpts from Willard’s 50 journals, dating between 1855 and 1896, with extensive annotations and background information.

Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte. “Frances Willard.” Women Building Chicago 1790-1990 : A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2001. Biographical entries highlighting Chicago’s most distinguished and industrious women of the last two centuries.

Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte, and Amy R. Slagell, eds. Let Something Good Be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E. Willard. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. Excerpts or full texts of significant speeches, articles, and books, annotated and contextualized, including a complete list of Willard’s works and a time line.

Gordon, Anna A. The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1898. Eulogistic biography/memoir by Willard’s long-time secretary.

Graham, Jane Robson. “The Ideally Active: Frances Willard’s Pedagogical Ministry.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, 2008. Graham examines Willard’s teaching practices, finding that her form of rhetorical pedagogy enacted at two institutions–the Evanston College for Ladies and the WCTU–focused on creating a Christian citizen-orator, which conflicted with the late-nineteenth century academy’s emphasis on purely intellectual endeavor and professionalization. Graham concludes that Willard’s approach worked for the WCTU because it trained successful female rhetoricians.

Leeman, Richard W. “Do Everything” Reform: The Oratory of Frances Willard. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. A critical analysis of Willard’s speaking style, with text of representative speeches. In Greenwood’s Great American Orators Series.

Slagell, Amy. “A Good Woman Speaking Well: The Oratory Of Frances E. Willard.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992. Part I of this “oratorical biography” explores Willard’s early life and rise to the platform, focusing on her self-conscious decision to speak in a “womanly style” on behalf of women’s advancement. Part II provides fifty-two texts, with detailed headnotes, illustrating critical moments and issues of Willard’s career. The Appendix contains a bibliographic guide to 186 complete and partial speech texts.

Bohlmann, Rachel E. “‘Our ‘House Beautiful’”: The Woman’s Temple and the WCTU Effort to Establish Place and Identity in Downtown Chicago, 1887-1898.” Journal of Women’s History 11.2 (1999) 110-134. In 1892, the WCTU built a state-of-the-art skyscraper in downtown Chicago to provide office space for the National WCTU, to bring in rental income, and to establish an icon of female reform power in the heart of Chicago. However, financial problems resulting from the depression of 1893-1897 exacerbated tensions within the WCTU, revealing deep divisions among its members as to what constituted women’s proper involvement in social reform in the United States.

Bohlmann, Rachel E. “Drunken Husbands, Drunken State: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s Challenge to American Families and Public Communities in Chicago, 1874-1920.” Ph.D. dissertation, the University of Iowa, 2001. The study focuses on how temperance reform, specifically questions of alcohol use and abuse by men, motivated women to join the WCTU in their efforts to address and resolve conflicts between themselves and their husbands.

Bordin, Ruth. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. A comprehensive history of the WCTU from its formation to 1900.

Tyrrell, Ian. Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Tells how a handful of women sought to change the mores of the world — not only by abolishing alcohol but also by promoting peace and attacking prostitution, poverty, and male control of democratic political structures.

• Frances Willard Collection
• Frances Willard Journal Transcriptions
• William P. Jones Papers
• Records of the North Western Female College
• Records of the Evanston College for Ladies
• Records of the Woman’s College of Northwestern
• Records of the Women’s Educational Aid Association
• The Tripod, Vidette, and Northwestern (early Northwestern student newspapers)
• NU Presidents virtual exhibit (for Erastus Haven, Charles Fowler, Oliver Marcy)
• Microfilms of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Records
  In 1977, records of the WCTU and issues of the Union Signal newspaper were microfilmed as part of a larger project to film records of many Temperance and Prohibition organizations. The microfilms were purchased by numerous research libraries in the US and abroad. Northwestern University Library owns Series III, the WCTU Records, 1853-1939 (49 microfilm rolls), which consists mainly of Annual Meeting minutes, Correspondence (much of it Willard’s), Historical files, and Scrapbooks. The Union Signal (Series XXI), which Northwestern does not own, but which is available through ILL, consists of 37 rolls of microfilm.
  • Temperance and Prohibition Papers, a joint microfilm publication of the Ohio Historical Society, the Michigan Historical Collections, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Columbus: Microfilmed by the Ohio Historical Society, 1977.
  • Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Temperance and Prohibition Papers, edited by Randall C. Jimerson, Francis X. Blouin, Charles A. Isetts ; [joint project of] Michigan Historical Collections, The Ohio Historical Society, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, published by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1977.

Frances Willard House Museum & Archives, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston

The Willard Memorial Library and Archives, housed in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Administration Building, behind the Willard House.