Obituaries in American Culture

A New Century

ANEW CENTURY Mrs. E. E. R. Peabody Mrs. Eleanor E. R. Peabody, widowof Arthur ]. Peabody, and one of the founders of the ColonialDames of America, died yesterdayat her home, 15 West Tenth Street. Her father, Archibald Russell, was the founder of the Five Points House of Industry,and her grandfather, the late Dr.John Watts, was the first President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mrs. Peabody was a direct descendant of Gen. William Alexander, (Lord Stirling) a member of Gen.Washington's staff, and on her maternal side she was descended from Lewis Morrisof Morrisania, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. Peabody was a manager of the Home for the Destitute Blind and a Director of many of the parochial activities of Calvary Church. New York Times, 5 November 1910 As the United States moved from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, the nation's social structures shifted, affecting the lives and the character of citizens. By the end of the 19208 Americans had changed spiritually, culturally, economically, and politically .1 The new century indeed ushered in a more consumptive and less religious America, and with it came a dramatic, substantive change in the democracy. Seventy-two years after women gathered 93 A New Century at Seneca Falls, New York, to hear radical calls for women's property rights and suffrage, ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 finally affirmed woman's political franchise. Battles over who was worthy of full citizenship had become gender based, challenging long-held beliefs about women's role in the democracy and their duty to family.2 Scholars differ in their interpretations of just how this new political role affected women in the decade following the amendment.3 Did these changes affect average women or only a small group of those who were politically active? To provide one small piece of the puzzle, this chapter examines the newspaper obituaries published in mass-circulation newspapers before and after the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment as reflectors of changing culture, gender inclusion in America, and public memory. Although women will be the primary focus here, men's obituaries of the era also offer clues about social inclusion. This chapter incorporates all 4,163 obituaries of American citizens or residents published in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle during the first week of each month in 1910 and 1930. The San Francisco paper included in this chapter adds a new region, the West, where suffrage had been granted prior to 1920. All three newspapers in these eras differentiated between an obituary and a paid death notice, with the latter giving only a chronicle of the death, funeral arrangements, and names of immediate family. Though far greater in number, these death notices were not commemorative in nature, so only obituaries are included here. THE PRESS The Times, already a powerful force in New York, gained more prestige during World War I, and in the years following the paper increased its daily size from twenty-fourpages to as many as forty and had a circulation near 500,000.^ In Chicago, competition made the prosperous Tribune somewhat sensational, according to Frank Luther Mott, but the paper was well edited, "fairly conservative," in its po94 A New Century litical positions and successful enough to publish, by 1914, a seventy -two-page Sunday edition and erect a new $8 million building in 1924-25.5 In the West, the San Francisco Chroniclehad used crusades and community projects to make a name for itself as the great San Francisco paper of the late nineteenth century, maintaining a strong circulation well into the twentieth century. Unlike its competition , the successful Hearst-owned Examiner, with its operations based in New York, control of the Chronicleremained in the region.6 Obituaries published in each of these papers provide contrasting insight into publicly stated cultural values and public memory in these eastern, midwestern, and western regions during this crucial time in American history. Just as America was changing at the turn of the century, so too was the press, and these changes likely had an impact on obituary coverage. The newspaper was still the powerhouse of the American media,7 and mainstream papers, dependent on high circulations and advertising revenue, promoted a consumer culture and looked for ways to attract new audiences. Journalists, while developing idealsof professionalism, objectivity,and public service, also made celebrities of entertainers and...