Robinson Shattuck, Harriette Lucy (1850 - 1937)

Title

Mrs. Harriette Lucy Robinson Shattuck

Author

Robinson Shattuck, Harriette Lucy (1850 - 1937)

Date

December 4, 1850 – March 24, 1937

Place of origin

Massachusetts

Country of origin

United States of America

Language

English

Profession

Assistant clerk

Suffragist

Children author

Essayist

Campaigner for women's rights

Biographical details

Harriette Lucy Robinson was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, December 4, 1850. She was the oldest of four children of William Stevens Robinson and Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson. Her siblings were: Elizabeth Osborne (b. 1852), William Elbridge (1854-1859), and Edward Warrington (b. 1859).
Shattuck was educated in the Malden, Massachusetts public schools. In addition to studying law, she had the advantage of several years of literary training under the supervision of Theodore D. Weld, of Boston. As an adult, she continued to be a student in various subjects, philosophy and politics being the chief ones of her late years. Soon after leaving school, she began to write stories for children and articles for the newspapers on different subjects, mainly relating to women. When her father was clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, she served as assistant clerk, being the first woman to hold such a position in that State (1871–72). Shattuck served as a clerk in the office of the American Social Science Association in Boston. During the five or six years of the Concord Summer School of Philosophy, she wrote letters for the Boston Evening Transcript, in which the philosophy of the various great teachers, such as Plato, Hegel, Dante and Goethe, was carefully elucidated and made available to the general public. “The Story of Dante's Divine Comedy” (New York, 1887) was the outcome of those letters from the Concord school. Her other books, are Our Mutual Friend (Boston, 1880), a dramatization of Dickens, and Little Folks East and West (Boston, 1891), a book of children's tales.
She was interested in all movements for the advancement of women, especially in the cause of women's political enfranchisement. She made her first speech for suffrage in Rochester, New York, in 1878. Thereafter, she spoke before committees of Congress and of the Massachusetts legislature, and in many conventions in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. She was the presiding officer over one of the sessions of the first International Council of Women, held in Washington, D.C., in 1888. She was a quiet speaker and made no attempts at oratory. Her best work was done in writing, rather than in public speaking, unless we include in this term the teaching of politics and of parliamentary law, with the art of presiding and conducting public meetings. Her most popular book was the Woman's Manual of Parliamentary Law (Boston, 1891), a work that was a recognized standard. For ten years, Shattuck served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts. She was also president of the Boston Political Class, which she has conducted for seven years, and in which the science of government and the political topics of the day were considered. She was the founder of "The Old and New" of Malden, Massachusetts, one of the oldest women's clubs in the country. She was a member of the New England Woman's Press Association. On June 11, 1878, she married Sidney Doane Shattuck. She died of pneumonia at Malden Hospital, March 24, 1937. She was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

Selected publications

The story of Dante's Divine Comedy

Link to external sources

Harriette Robinson Shattuck