Outlaw Marriages (9 page)

Despite Smith's opposition, Addams agreed to preside at the conference. She and forty-six other American women—Smith stayed in Chicago to make sure Hull House continued to function smoothly—sailed to The Hague in April 1915. The travelers encountered considerable difficulty, as British officials blocked their ship for several days. When the Americans finally arrived, they joined eleven hundred other delegates from ten European countries, including the warring Germany and Great Britain.
46

The most significant proposal that emerged from the conference was for world powers that were still neutral to organize mediation sessions with the warring nations. Immediately after the conference, Addams and a handful of other women traveled to Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium to lobby the leaders of those countries to support their proposal. The United States was still neutral at this point, so Addams also met with President Woodrow Wilson six times between July and December of 1915 in an effort to persuade him to lead the mediation sessions.
47

Wilson rejected her plea, however, because German submarines had sunk the British passenger ship
Lusitania
off the Irish coast in May 1915, killing more than one hundred Americans. That incident followed by the sinking of several U.S. ships led Wilson to ask Congress to declare war in April 1917. After the United States entered the fighting, a highly disappointed Addams committed her energies to traveling around the country encouraging citizens to conserve food.
48

Although Smith had initially opposed Addams taking a leading role in the international peace movement, she joined her partner's efforts, after World War I had ended, to provide food relief for war-torn Europe. In the summer of 1919, the two women were the first U.S. civilians to enter Germany, delivering desperately needed food to that beleaguered nation.
49

As the 1920s unfolded, the couple continued to balance their work at Hull House with their commitment to global issues. Addams helped found the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, and she chaired the group's annual meetings in Vienna, Dublin, and Prague. Smith attended
those events as well, expanding each trip into a vacation and even managing to stretch the one in 1923 into a nine-month journey around the world, with lengthy stops in India, the Philippines, Japan, and China.
50

While many people her age—she turned sixty in 1920—were retiring, Addams took on new causes. She helped found the American Civil Liberties Union, and she also became a leading advocate for prison reform. In 1925, she delivered a widely reported attack on the controversial issue of capital punishment.
51

In 1931, Addams made history by becoming the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The citation accompanying the prestigious award first lauded her as “the foremost woman of her nation.” It then continued, “In Jane Addams there are assembled all the best womanly attributes which shall help us to establish peace in the world. She clung to her idealism in the difficult period when other demands and interests overshadowed peace.”
52

It wasn't until a devastating event occurred in 1934 that the wind finally went out of Addams's sails. Mary Rozet Smith became ill with pneumonia early in the year, and by February she grew tired after even minimal effort. On the fateful final day of her life, Smith had written letters to several long-time acquaintances, telling them that Addams was weak after having suffered a heart attack. Smith went quietly to bed that night, and she never woke up.
53

Newspaper obituaries reported that Smith had been a stalwart volunteer and financial patron at Hull House. They only hinted at her intimate relationship with Addams, however, by mentioning that the two women often had traveled together.
54

Addams's friends observed that she never recovered from the loss of the woman who'd been the central figure in her life for four decades. Addams seemed continually ill at ease and even grew impatient with the people she worked with, something no one had ever witnessed when Smith was alive.
55

After dinner one evening in May 1935, Addams complained of abdominal pains so severe that she could barely stand. She was taken to a hospital where the doctors discovered she was suffering from intestinal cancer that had advanced so far that an operation was useless. She died a few days later.
56

Newspapers around the country carried obituaries that lauded Jane Addams's groundbreaking contributions both as a social reformer and a peace advocate. Many of the publications, including the
New York Times
, placed their tributes on page one. None of the lengthy articles, however, made any mention whatsoever of Addams's forty-three-year relationship with Mary Rozet Smith.
57

Founding the Field of Interior Design

…

Elsie de Wolfe was the first person in this country to earn a livelihood by telling other people what furniture to buy, what color to paint their walls, and what other steps to take so their homes would be stylish and attractive. In addition to founding the field of interior design, de Wolfe also revolutionized American home decor by banishing the dark colors and heavy furniture that defined the Victorian Era, replacing them with light color schemes and pieces that were more delicate.

De Wolfe's path to success wasn't an easy one. During the final decade of the nineteenth century, she had struggled in her attempts to become a professional actress. Each time she read another negative review, she became more discouraged. Her same-sex partner, Bessie Marbury, then took it upon herself to provide emotional support and also to make a series of suggestions that ultimately propelled de Wolfe on the course that led to her creating the field of interior designer and transforming American home decor.

Elisabeth Marbury was born into one of New York City's most affluent and socially prominent families in 1856. Her father was a successful attorney and real estate speculator, and her mother had a reputation as one of the city's most elegant hostesses.
1

Bessie—as she was known from an early age—attended the most exclusive private schools in the city. She particularly enjoyed reading the works of William Shakespeare.
2

During her teenage years, Marbury adamantly refused to become a debutante. “I had danced and played long enough,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I had the germ of independence in my system.” And so, instead of attending cotillions, she spent her time going to the theater. Her sense of defiance also surfaced in her appearance, as she refused to maintain the slender figure that was expected for a young woman of her high social class.
3

By the age of twenty, Marbury had made it clear that she had no intention of marrying but planned to remain single and devote her life to writing plays. Going this route was very much at odds with the social dictates of the day, but the Marbury name had such high status that Bessie's unconventional decision did little more than raise a few eyebrows.
4

Elsie de Wolfe was born in New York City in 1865. Her father was a physician, and her mother took care of the couple's children. During her early years, Elsie attended private school in Manhattan. Her father's medical practice wasn't successful, however, and the costs involved in raising five children became a financial strain on the de Wolfes.
5

Because of her family's difficulties, de Wolfe was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, at the age of sixteen to live with her mother's cousin. The girl's next several years were defined by a whirl of social activities, such as attending formal teas and costume balls. De Wolfe enjoyed these events immensely and, in particular, thrived on the attention that came with being the only American girl in her circle of friends.
6

The young woman also stood apart from her contemporaries because she paid an enormous amount of attention to her appearance. She kept up with the latest trends in the fashion world and repeatedly experimented with new hairstyles, always determined to look her best.

De Wolfe returned to the United States in 1885 and drifted into the amateur drama clubs that were popular at the time. She loved the spotlight and saw the stage as the venue that could give her the celebrity status she increasingly desired.
7

By 1887, many members of New York society were noticing Elsie de Wolfe both on stage and at the late-night parties that followed the performances. The admirer who ultimately would play the most important role in the young woman's life was Bessie Marbury, who later recalled the first time she saw de Wolfe, writing, “There was a buzz of excitement when a slim and graceful young girl passed through the ballroom.”
8

Marbury soon began asking de Wolfe to private luncheons and dinners, with the actress eagerly accepting every invitation. On a practical level, the two women shared not only an interest in the theater—Marbury wrote plays, de Wolfe acted in them—but also a driving desire to become financially independent of any man. On an emotional level, they were falling in love.
9

The two women created a stereotypical butch/femme couple. Marbury was twelve years older and spoke in a deep and authoritative voice, pulled her dark brown hair into a severe knot on top of her head, and wore clothes whose only virtue was that they covered her massive body—she had a particular fondness for corduroy suits. De Wolfe, by contrast, spoke in a soft and coquettish voice, spent many hours curling her light brown hair, dressed in the latest fashions, and followed a strict exercise regimen to make sure she stayed slender.
10

For the next several years, the two women continued to live with their respective families while spending many of their days and evenings with each other. They also traveled together on lengthy holidays to Paris and the French countryside, riding bicycles from town to town.
11

The women didn't spend much time vacationing, though, as they both embarked on substantive career paths. Marbury decided she wasn't a strong enough writer to create successful plays, so she became a theatrical agent instead. In this role, she served as the American representative for European playwrights, overseeing tasks such as having scripts translated, booking U.S. performances, and scheduling the rehearsals. De Wolfe opted to become a professional actress, appearing in plays performed in various East Coast cities.
12

In 1892, Marbury and de Wolfe moved in together. Their home was on the corner of Seventeenth Street and Irving Place, two blocks below Gramercy Park. The house was the former home of author Washington Irving, and he'd written several of his novels while sitting on the veranda that overlooked the East River.
13

Marbury's career as a theatrical agent took off. She gained such a strong reputation as a reliable businesswoman that she was hired to represent the entire membership of the French Society of Dramatic Authors as well as British playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Indeed, she soon had so
many clients that she hired other agents to work for her and set up offices in Paris, London, Vienna, Milan, and Moscow.
14

De Wolfe's career as an actress, however, didn't go well. Marbury used her theater connections to help her partner secure her first Broadway role, but the reviews weren't flattering. The only positive comments about her performances had to do with how fashionably she dressed while on stage—she insisted on wearing her own clothes. The weekly New York newspaper
Town Topics
published a fictitious vignette, for example, in which one theatergoer asked, “What did you think of Miss de Wolfe?” and another responded, “I thought she was splendid in the second dress.”
15

Every time de Wolfe read another critical assessment of her acting, she fell into a funk. She had desperately wanted to succeed as an actress, but her efforts clearly weren't working. Marbury tried to raise her partner's spirits by praising her talent, but she soon decided that what de Wolfe really needed was a hobby to distract her.
16

So Marbury suggested that her partner redecorate their home. When the women had moved into the Seventeenth Street house, they'd found dark woodwork and heavily patterned wallpaper, plus thick velvet drapes covering the windows. De Wolfe had commented at the time that she found the decor depressing, and now, with Marbury's encouragement, she decided to do something about it.
17