The pioneers who won recognition for women in the National Capital were not women lawyers, doctors or even educators, but the women who, in the early days of city life here, kept pace with men in the newspaper profession. — Vylla Poe Wilson, “Anne Royall, Pioneer Woman Publicist,” The Washington Post, May 10, 1931
Whether it’s Jenn White (NPR), or Christine Amanpour (CNN), or Robin Roberts (ABC), or Norah O’Donnell (CBS), or Judy Woodruff (PBS), or Sally Jenkins (The Washington Post), or other great journalists, the landscape for news reporting is fully enriched by these and many other women.
Much, of course, is owed to the pioneers such as Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Ida B. Wells and Mary Ann Shadd Cary.
We recently came across another trail blazer, Emily Edson Briggs (1830-1910). From 1861 to 1881, she was a regular correspondent for the Washington Chronicle and the Philadelphia Press. Let’s take a brief look at her life.
Life for Emily Briggs began in 1830 in the rural town of Burton, Ohio. Missouri had become the 24th state in 1821, with Ohio no longer on the edge of the western frontier.
Emily's father Robert and mother Mary raised her and her three sisters. Robert bent metal as a blacksmith. Emily taught school and in 1854 married John R. Briggs, who had a brief run as publisher of the Daily Whig in Keokuk, Iowa. John and Emily had two children, John and Arthur. Only John survived infancy and worked in real estate.
The path of so many Americans was changed by the Civil War. In 1861, after President Lincoln appointed Briggs as assistant clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives, the couple moved to Washington. The city was still one of “magnificent distances,” but the population during the four-year conflict swelled from 75,000 to 200,000. There were stories around every corner.
For most women, their fate was sealed by the societal norms of the day. Some made the news, but rarely did they write the stories. There were, however, a few remarkable exceptions in Washington before the Civil War.
Jane Swisshelm (1815-1884) blazed trails as not only one of the first women journalists (National Era), but also as publisher of the short-lived Reconstructionist. Sarah Jane Lippincott (1823-1904) turned heads, writing with the pen name Grace Greenwood. Not to be forgotten is Anne Royall, who published the Paul Pry from 1831 to 1836. Margaret Smith (1778-1844) knocked down barriers as a writer for the influential National Intelligencer.
Emily Briggs began her career in 1861. After seeing prejudice against women who worked as government clerks in Washington, she fired off a letter to the Washington Chronicle. John W. Forney (1817-1881), edited the Sunday paper. Forney knew talent when he saw it, and hired Briggs.
What was the news scene like during Emily’s time?
Fred A. Emery (“Washington Newspapers,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, DC, 1937) and Donald A. Ritchie (“Press Gallery, Congress and the Washington Correspondents”) fill us in.
At the dawn of the Civil War, the Washington Chronicle was one of four major papers in the city. In a situation that could never happen now, but was not uncommon at the time, Forney, the paper’s publisher, was Secretary of the Senate (1861-1868). The other major newspapers were the National Republican, the Evening Star, and the National Intelligencer. The pro-abolitionist National Era had shut down in 1860. Paul Dickson tells us the National Intelligencer was the main city paper and a leading one in the nation until 1870.
The newspaper buildings, the Western Union telegraphic office, and the Willard and the Ebbitt hotels dotted the streets north of Pennsylvania, east of 14th, south of F and west of 7th. Some time after the war, 14th Street between F and Pennsylvania earned the nickname “Newspaper Row.”
The website, "DC Writers Homes" tells us Briggs lived in the National Hotel at Pennsylvania and 6th. That put her just a short walk from the Chronicle and gave her more time for her work.
Ritchie describes the reporters covering Washington after the Civil War as "hard-drinking, nose-for-news types." They were middle-class and well-educated professionals. Reporters wrote in long hand and type was set by hand.
Breaking into the inner circles of this all male club of cigars, liquor, and spittoons was impossible for women. But that did not stop Emily from covering the news. The Notable American Women website tells us she was the first woman to regularly go to the White House for news.
Emily’s male counterparts were an impressive group that included George Adams (New York World), H. A. Preston (New York Herald), Crosby Noyes (Evening Star), H.V. Boynton (Cincinnati Gazette), George Alfred Townshend (Washington Capitol), and Frederick Douglass (North Star).
It’s hard to know if Emily ever met Douglass, but in her columns, she mentioned him in a good light. Writing about Senator Revels, she said — “he is a good man, but not great after the manner of Frederick Douglass.”
Readers of her columns in the Washington Chronicle and the Philadelphia Press knew Briggs as “Olivia.” She began by writing book reviews and descriptions of the city during the war.
One of them read:
Washington is a Southern city in every sense of the word. Slavery is dead, it is true, but the black man is not a citizen…. A bookstore has a set of pictures — General Washington being in the center, Jeff Davis on one side and Jesus Christ on the other.
Briggs penned her reports and observations for over twenty years. For the Philadelphia paper, a messenger would hop on the train and deliver her column for publication in the morning paper.
According to Ritchie, Briggs became one of the first women correspondents to use the telegraph for “spot news,” a sudden flash of important and late-breaking information." He writes her “real talents laid in her colorful descriptions, her keen eye for social and fashion trends, and her witty style of writing.”
Emily accompanied her husband when he reported to President Lincoln, and was a favorite of the First Family.
About the President she wrote:
At that time, as all Americans know, Lincoln was the most jovial of men and the contrast in his appearance when I saw him at the levee was startling…. he stood there in perpetual fear of a dagger thrust or a bullet, and the warning notes of internecine strife sounding from the South. Every line in his face evidenced the kind, rugged character of the man, and every pose of his gigantic figure indicated Democratic nobility.
Of Mrs. Lincoln:
She reminded me very much of a very dear friend at home. She was graceful, modest and kind to everybody.
Martha Joynt Kumar ("Origins of the White House Beat," White House Transition Project, 1997-2017) writes that:
One of the best known social correspondents was Emily Briggs. She cast a wide news net, including her copy information on the operation of the WH. Her approach became standard operating procedure for all WH correspondents, not just those tracking social receptions. She provided early institutional coverage of the WH in addition to her reporting of receptions.
The “Rambler” (Evening Star), a pioneer of sorts himself, gave Briggs her due in 1927. He pointed out she and her husband initially lived at “Casparis House.” Its site is near the Capitol and can be seen in “Early photographic view of Washington, D.C. from the Capitol, looking southeast.” The address was at 11 A (Independence) Street, SE. This location was close to the Capitol, but a long walk from the beating heart of the newspapers, downtown hotels, and the White House.
Briggs had a flair for writing about Washington society, but she wrote many a piece on politics, woman suffrage and even world affairs. Her columns were typically about 1,200 to 1,800 words. She covered Reconstruction, including a piece titled, “Delegates from the Southland.” In it, Briggs gave the following description of John Mercer Langston (1829-1897).
The smooth, handsome sentence of Professor Langston fell from his tongue like coin from the mint, each word having an appreciable value. Like all of his race at the capital, he takes the deepest interest in the welfare of the freedmen farther South.
Emily no doubt admired the women campaigning for suffrage. In one of her pieces, she wrote:
In attendance were Elizabeth Cady Stanton — majestic and beautiful as a snowy landscape, Mrs. Pauline Davis, another exquisite picture of snow, Susan B. Anthony — hard, obdurate, uncompromising, Josephine Green — best among women.
Emily also covered world affairs. Her June 20, 1868 column was titled, “Anson Burlingame, His Triumphant Capture of the Inhabitants of the Flowery Kingdom.”
From 1862 to 1867, Burlingame, who had represented Massachusetts in Congress from 1855 to 1861, served as Minister to China. The relationship was a good one, leading to the signing of the landmark Burlingame Treaty. The agreement fostered trade and encouraged Chinese immigration to the US.
Briggs wrote:
A new and startling drama is performing on the world’s stage.The Occident and the Orient are at last united.Gray-bearded China, after being hermetically sealed during the long ages, opens her arms to embrace Young America. A countryman of ours has shown what genius and courage can accomplish in the great field of diplomacy.
Whilst this Chinese panorama was unfolding, a graceful woman for a moment was pictured on the canvas — Mrs. Burlingame, the only woman who accompanies the party.There was a gleam of a pair of dark, lustrous eyes, a shadow cast by the heavy coils of black, wavy hair, something blue and films as Oriental gauze enveloped her fine figure: a side door opened, and the vision was gone.
Emily wrote until 1882. She might have written even more, but as Ritchie tells us, male-dominated newspapers squeezed women out by not giving them the full time work that would have allowed them to have the credentials. In desiring to remove lobbyists from the press, a reform movement in the late 1870s set standards.
Banished, Emily turned her time and talents to other meaningful projects. In 1882, she was elected founding president of the Women’s National Press Association.
Emily must have been very proud of herself in 1906 when a collection (84) of her columns (“The Olivia Letters”) was published. She covered many topics, including, A Plea for the Negro, At the Impeachment Trial, President Grant’s Inaugural, Woman Suffrage, Sessions of Congress, Charles Sumner, Georgetown Aristocracy, and Kate Chase Sprague.
In 1872, Emily and John acquired a notable large dwelling about six blocks south and east of the Capitol (619 D Street, SE). It was initially known in the newspapers as Maple Square before being called The Maples.
With the purchase, John and Emily (sadly, he died six months later) had some serious bragging rights. William Mayne Duncanson, an early investor in the city of Washington, built the Georgian-style house in 1796. Helen Betts points out “Duncanson, a British Army officer, could look from his house down to the Anacostia River to see ships sailing along the river.”
Other owners included Francis Scott Key, Major Augustus Nicholson (US Marines), Senator and Secretary of State John Clayton, and Count Louis Francois de Pourtales. The house became associated with Key, but he and his family may not have lived there except for brief stays.
The house and property certainly stand out from the norm. It is one of the oldest on Capitol Hill and still includes a strip of greenery that is uncommon in the row-house neighborhoods.
The Rambler wrote this description in 1927:
The garden of the house, co-extensive with the square, was set with maple trees and the place had the name Maple Square.
A 1930 article in the Washington Times described Maples as:
… roomy house of colonial style, surrounded by spacious grounds, in which large maples grow. The rooms are full of old furniture and relics of bygone time. In the library, the bibliophile would find a thousand treasures in rare old books.
Emily lived out her life there. She joined that grand Washington tradition as hostess of teas and events. The newspapers reported on her activities from time to time. In 1899, the New York Tribune wrote about Baltimore hosting the ninth annual convention of the International League of Press Clubs. The article highlighted Emily as well as Belva Lockwood. Other women attending were Mrs. Juliette Babbitt and Abbie G. Baker, both special correspondents.
In the summer of 1918, with the US forces still fighting in World War II, Emily hosted an Independence Day celebration. John Clagett Proctor, who wrote articles with a bent towards history in the Evening Star, read the Declaration of Independence.
The following summer the papers told its readers:
Mr. and Mrs. J Edson Briggs announce the engagement of their daughter, Flora Amelia to Mr Charles K Hoover, formerly of Winchester now of Washington. Marriage will take place at home of the bride, Maple Square.
Flora and her husband made The Maples their home. They had acquired it from Flora’s father, and Emily’s son John Edson Briggs (1850-1928). He passed away at Maples in September, 1928. His obituary in the Evening Star pointed out he was one of the first presidents of the National Amateur Press Association, as well as a member of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia. A graduate of Georgetown, he became a real estate developer.
In 1937, the Hoovers sold the home and lot 801 to the Friendship House Association. Emily likely would have been pleased. The Friendship House was a settlement house, designed to “help organize the poor to advocate for themselves and create community” (Johanna Bockman, “The Lost Connections of the Friendship House”).
In 1940, the D.A.R. unveiled a bronze tablet affixed to the home. The thinking at that time was that George Washington might have stayed over, but a review of his diary does not reflect this.
In 1954, Catherine Harrington wrote an article in The Washington Post (“Friendship House Door Has Been Open 50 years”) about the organization. A guiding light was Lydia Burklin, who shepherded Friendship House starting in 1909. Though the years, a number of events were held there to support charities.
Emily’s grandson, Edson W. Briggs, made the news a few times. Like his father, John Edson Briggs, he worked in real estate. Briggs took things to a higher level, developing a number of neighborhoods, including Colonial Village in the upper reaches of the District near Silver Spring.
Edson W. Briggs was first married to Minnie Louise (1886-1955). Jessie Fant Evans told her readers ("First Woman White House Correspondent," Jul 1952, Evening Star):
“The tree etchings of Minnie L. Briggs, now Mrs Henry Raul, are familiar to devotees of the old rotogravure section of the Star, in her series (1938) Washington Trees and later one, in 1942, “Tree Companions of the Road.”
In her 2019 article, “Mary Nimmo Moran and Minnie Briggs Raul,” Frances Williams details some of Minnie’s story. Her second marriage was to Harry Lewis Raul, a noted sculptor and Art Curator with the Department of Interior. She founded and served as the VP of the Society of Washington Etchers.
Emily lived long enough to see the birth of her great grandson, Vernon Mason Briggs (1908-1987). With Anne, he had two sons, Robert and Vernon Mason Jr. They lived in Catonsville, Maryland. Like his father, Edson, he, too, worked in real estate.
Emily Briggs passed away in 1910. As a resident and a reporter, she had seen many things take place in the nation's capital. Perhaps she was proud of the two newspapers that were thriving, the older Evening Star and The Washington Post.
Emily was mourned locally and then laid to rest beside her husband in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago. We all have our thoughts on what she would think of today’s world. There are still inequities for woman journalists and they continue to endure harassment, prejudice and double standards.
Personally, I think Emily would tell them to continue to push forward, and that she would be pleased to see the gains women have made. They probably don’t all know of Emily Edson Briggs, but they would surely be proud to know she blazed trails for them.
Note:
In 1850, the book, "Ellen Parry, or Trials of the Heart" was published. The author is listed as Olivia. Apparently this was Emily, but I could find no indications in the newspapers. The Wilmington Journal (North Carolina) wrote: "This work is written with much vivacity, and delineates the influence of the misfortunes and trials of life to unfold the virtues and graces of woman’s lovely spirit."
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