Tracy Dickinson Mygatt

Tracy Dickinson Mygatt (March 12, 1885 – November 22, 1973) was an American writer and pacifist, co-founder with Frances M. Witherspoon of the War Resisters League, and longtime officer of the Campaign for World Government.

Early life and education

Mygatt was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised by her widowed mother, Minnie Clapp Mygatt.[1] Her great-grandfather Daniel S. Dickinson and great-great-grandfather John Tracy were both prominent politicians in New York State.[2] Tracy D. Mygatt graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1909. After some years as a suffrage and labor organizer in Pennsylvania, she and Witherspoon moved to New York City in 1913.[3]

Career and activism

In New York City Witherspoon and Mygatt joined the Woman's Peace Party, and together edited their publication, Four Lights.[4][5] They also organized the Socialist Suffrage Brigade,[6] and edited an issue of The Call about suffrage.[7] Mygatt joined Jessie Wallace Hughan and John Haynes Holmes in launching the Anti-Enlistment League in 1915.[8]

Witherspoon and Mygatt continued with peace work after the war, as active members of the Women's Peace Union,[9] and as founders of the War Resisters League in 1923.[10] They were charter members of the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship when it was founded in 1939. In 1961 they were recognized jointly with the WRL Peace Award.[11]

In 1932, Mygatt ran for the New York State Assembly as the Socialist Party candidate.[12] From 1941 to 1969, Mygatt worked full-time for the Campaign for World Government, and was their accredited representative to the United Nations.[13][14]

Witherspoon and Mygatt co-wrote two Biblical novels, The Glorious Company (1928) and Armor of Light (1930), and a play about Vincent Van Gogh, Stranger Upon Earth, among other literary collaborations.[15][16] Mygatt also wrote several plays on her own (Children of Israel,[17] Watchfires,[18] Grandmother Rocker,[19] Good Friday,[20] The Noose,[21] Sword of the Samurai,[22] His Son, Thim Socialists, and Bird's Nest), and published Julia Newberry's Sketch Book: or, The Life of Two Future Old Maids (1934), a biography of her mother and her mother's cousin.[23][24]

Personal life and legacy

Mygatt lived and worked with Frances M. Witherspoon for over sixty years, in New York City, and later in Brewster, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[25] The pair were active in the Episcopal Church.[26] They died within a month of each other, in late 1973, in Philadelphia; Mygatt was 88 years old, and had been in poor health for some time.[27] The couple's papers were donated to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.[28]

References

  1. ↑ Amanda Bickel, Minnie Clapp Mygatt: Study in a Victorian Sex Life (1987).
  2. ↑ Mary O'Flaherty, "Of Sturdy Whig Stock is Woman Socialist," Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 3, 1932): 21. via Newspapers.com
  3. ↑ "Suffragettes Begin Campaign for Votes," Delaware County Daily Times (September 28, 1912): 2. via Newspapers.com
  4. ↑ Erika Kuhlman, "'Women's Ways in War': The Feminist Pacifism of the New York City Woman's Peace Party," Frontiers 18(1)(1997): 80-100.
  5. ↑ Mark Van Wienen, "'Women's Ways in War': The Poetry and Politics of the Woman's Peace Party, 1915-1917," Modern Fiction Studies 38(3)(Fall 1992): 687-714.
  6. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt, "The Claim of Socialism to a Woman's Vote," The Northwestern Worker (September 30, 1915): 3. via Newspapers.com
  7. ↑ Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U. S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I (Syracuse University Press 1997): 15. ISBN 0815627645
  8. ↑ Ellen Baier, "Tracy D. Mygatt," in Benjamin F. Shearer, ed., Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime, vol. 2 (Greenwood Publishing 2007): 624. ISBN 0313334226
  9. ↑ Harriet Hyman Alonso, The Women's Peace Union and the Outlawry of War, 1921-1942 (Syracuse University Press 1999): 96. ISBN 0815604173
  10. ↑ "Frances Witherspoon, 87, of War Resisters League," New York Times (December 18, 1973): 44.
  11. ↑ Nancy Manahan, "Future Old Maids and Pacifist Agitators: The Story of Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon," Women's Studies Quarterly 10(Spring 1982): 10-13.
  12. ↑ Mary O'Flaherty, "Of Sturdy Whig Stock is Woman Socialist," Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 3, 1932): 21. via Newspapers.com
  13. ↑ Tracy Mygatt, "World Government is Common Sense," Progressive Education 24(October 1946): 10-11.
  14. ↑ Michael Scheibach, Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age with the Atom, 1945-1955 (McFarland 2003): 74-75. ISBN 0786415665
  15. ↑ P. W. Wilson, "The Saints Step Out of their Stained-Glass Windows: Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Employ Feminine Intuition to Humanize and Revitalize the Acts of the Apostles," New York Times (July 22, 1928): 51.
  16. ↑ Alfred H. Barr, Vincent Van Gogh (Routledge 1967): 42. ISBN 0714620394
  17. ↑ Tracy Dickinson Mygatt, Children of Israel (George H. Doran Company 1922)
  18. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt, Watchfires: A Play in Four Acts (self-published 1917).
  19. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt, Grandmother Rocker: A Costume Play in One Act (Walter H. Baker & Company 1922).
  20. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt, Good Friday: A Passion Play of Now (Hardpress 2012).
  21. ↑ "White Author Eulogizes the Pilgrims to Freedom," New York Age (May 18, 1957): 16. via Newspapers.com
  22. ↑ "'Sword of the Samurai' to be Given by Presbyterians," Mason City Globe-Gazette (February 27, 1931): 11. via Newspapers.com
  23. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt, Julia Newberry's Sketch Book: Or, The Life of Two Future Old Maids (W. W. Norton & Company 1934).
  24. ↑ "Miss Mygatt Writes Book of Sketches: Socialist Campaigner Pens Prim Records of Victorian Years," Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 11, 1934): 4. via Newspapers.com
  25. ↑ James B. Lloyd, Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967 (University Press of Mississippi 1981): 481. ISBN 0878051392
  26. ↑ Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy (Anchor 2012). ISBN 140007858X
  27. ↑ "Tracy Mygatt Dies; Led War Resisters," New York Times (November 24, 1973): 34.
  28. ↑ Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances M. Witherspoon Papers, DG 089, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
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