Henrietta Briggs-Wall
Born: Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, on December 16, 1849. Married: David L. Wall, Medina, Ohio, on October 29, 1869. Died. Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas, on May 2, 1930.
Henrietta Briggs was Daniel and Julia (Wolcott) Briggs, in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, on December 16, 1849. She married David L. Wall in Medina County, Ohio, on October 29, 1869. Daniel worked as a dry goods merchant. Briggs-Wall became active in the Ohio Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, served as franchise superintendent at the convention. She was elected to be an officer at the national meeting. They had moved to Akron, Summit County, Ohio, by 1880.
Daniel and Nettie moved to Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas, around 1885, where they established a dry goods partnership, Wall and Wall. With economic downturn in the 1890s, the Walls turned that business to rugs and carpets. Henrietta took samples and sales proposals to 25 communities to save the business.
Henrietta wanted to remind political leaders that women received unequal treatment in the laws of the land. This idea inspired her to design showing Frances Willard, temperance leader, educator, and reformer, surrounded by other disenfranchised individuals, a mentally disabled man, a convicted man, a mentally ill man, and a Native American man. She commissioned William A. Ford, a Hutchinson artist, to create a pastel portrait, American Woman and Her Political Peers. This artwork, exhibited at the Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893, created a controversy, but initiated the discussion that Briggs-Wall had hoped. She reprinted the work as postcards that sold for 5 centers or eight for 25 cents.
"It strikes the women every time. They do not realize that we are classed with idiots, criminals, and the insane as they do when they see that picture. Shocking? Well, it takes a shock to arouse some people to a sense of injustice and degradation."—Henrietta Briggs-Wall, 1894
David Wall died on September 9, 1901, and Henrietta continued to operate the rug and carpet business by herself.
She found innovative ways to support the suffrage movement in the 20th century, publishing a book of suffrage songs to use at rallies and campaigns. A True Republic, and Other Songs, was issued in March 1910.
Henrietta was chosen as secretary of “New Patriots,” in 1920, an organization she spearheaded to honor a civic birthday for young men and women on attaining their majority. The goal was to aid in educating individuals to be patriotic in their civic lives.
"In other countries, much ado is made over the crowning of kings and queens who attempt to rule over the others. There is much more occasion for rejoicing when newly enfranchised citizens attain to their share in the honors and duties of self government.—Henrietta Briggs-Wall, Akron Beacon, July 1, 1921
Briggs-Wall led efforts with the city commission, board of education, county commission, and private homeowners to plant ivy in efforts to beautify the city in 1922. She occasionally lived in Washington, D.C., where she realized a lifelong dream to be an artist in 1924. She began art studies with Ossin Perolma, a Russian artist. She died in Hutchinson, Kansas, on May 2, 1930.
Entry: Henrietta Briggs-Wall
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 2024
Date Modified: December 2024
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