Inez Milholland

Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a leading American suffragist, lawyer, and peace activist. From her college days at Vassar College, she campaigned aggressively for women’s rights as the principal issue of a wide-ranging socialist agenda. In 1913, she led the dramatic Woman Suffrage Procession on horseback in advance of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, though she had to accept that her beauty earned her more notice than her politics. She was also a labour lawyer and a war correspondent, as well as a high-profile New Woman of the age, with her avant-garde lifestyle and belief in free love. She died of pernicious anemia on a speaking tour, traveling against medical advice. Early life Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Inez Milholland grew up in a wealthy family. Known as Nan, she was the eldest daughter of John Elmer Milholland and Jean Milholland née’ Torry. She had one sister, Vida, and one brother, John (Jack). Her father was a New York Tribune reporter and editorial writer who eventually headed a pneumatic tubes business that afforded his family a privileged life in both New York and London. In London she met and was impressed by the English suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. Milholland’s father supported many reforms, among them world peace, civil rights, and women's suffrage. Her mother exposed her children to cultural and intellectual stimulation. Milholland spent summers on her family's land in Lewis, Essex County, New York; the property is now the Meadowmount School of Music. Education Inez Milholland received her early education at the Comstock School in New York and Kensington Secondary School in London. After finishing school, she decided to attend Vassar but when the college wouldn't accept her graduation certificate she attended Willard School for Girls in Berlin.