Bessie Boies Cotton

Bessie Boies Cotton in uniform, from a 1919 publication.

Bessie Boies Cotton (April 5, 1880 – April 23, 1959) was an American staff member of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). She worked in Moscow and Petrograd during the Russian Provisional Government period.

Early life

Elizabeth Boies was born in Hudson, Michigan, the daughter of John Keep Boies and Mary Worthington Colton Boies. Her father was a politician and her mother was a teacher. Bessie Boies was an orphan at age 11, and was raised for the rest of her youth by an aunt and uncle. She was educated at the Mary Burnham School in Massachusetts and the Lake Erie College for Women in Ohio, before graduating from Smith College in 1903.[1] She pursued further studies in history at the University of Chicago, where she completed a master's degree in 1908.[2]

Career

Bessie Boies worked as a staff member of the YWCA from 1909 to 1940. She directed the organization's presence at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and in 1917 went to Russia,[3] to establish YWCA educational programs for Russian women during the Provisional Government period.[4] When the Bolsheviks took control of Russia in 1919, Boies escaped through Stockholm, but returned to northern Russia briefly, to set up canteens for American troops in Archangel.[2][1][5] "She believes in the Russian people with an unshakable faith," reported a YWCA publication, after her return to the United States in 1919.[6]

Cotton continued her work with the YWCA on a national level, organizing supports for working women. She testified at a Congressional hearing in favor of the Women's Bureau in 1920.[7] She also promoted the YWCA's continuing interest in women's status in the Soviet Union after the revolution.[8]

Personal life

Bessie Boies married American YMCA worker Thomas Cotton in 1919; they met when both were working in Russia. They had two children (John and Deborah) and divorced in 1938. Bessie Boies Cotton died in 1959, aged 79 years, in Los Angeles, California. Her papers are archived at Smith College.[2] Her daughter, Deborah Cotton Leighton, remained active in the YWCA.[9]

The artist Edna Boies Hopkins was Bessie Boies Cotton's sister-in-law for two years, while Edna was married to Bessie's older brother John Henry Boies. They remained friends after John Henry Boies died in 1894.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Emily Paruolo, "From the Archives: Fighting for Russia" Global Impressions (February 9, 2015).
  2. 1 2 3 Bessie Boies Cotton Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Boies, "Planting the Association in Russia" Association Monthly (May 1919): 194-195.
  4. ↑ Mona Domosh, "American Capitalist Experiments in Revolutionary-Era Russia" Journal of Historical Geography 39(January 2013): 43-53.
  5. ↑ "Home is the Traveler" War Work Bulletin (May 21, 1919): 1.
  6. ↑ "Announcements" The Association Monthly (April 1919): 184.
  7. ↑ "Statement of Elizabeth Boies Cotton of the Industrial Department of the National Board of Young Women's Christian Association" Women's Bureau: Hearings Before the Joint Committees on Labor, Congress of the United States (Government Printing Office 1920): 47-48.
  8. ↑ Karen Garner, Precious Fire: Maud Russell and the Chinese Revolution (University of Massachusetts Press 2003): 124. ISBN 9781558494046
  9. ↑ "Homemakers to Hear of YWCA in Russia" Bridgeport Post (December 6, 1959): 32. via Newspapers.com
  10. ↑ Dominique H. Vasseur, Edna Boies Hopkins: Strong in Character, Colorful in Expression (Ohio University Press 2007): 29-30. ISBN 9780821417690
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