author
Frances W. Graham
A writer and reformer, she helped document the early history of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in New York while also serving as one of its best-known leaders. Her work offers a close look at the organizing energy behind the temperance movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
1 Audiobook
Two Decades A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York
by Frances W. Graham, Georgeanna M. Gardenier
About the author
Born Frances W. Hamilton in 1857, Frances W. Graham was an American author, editor, singer, and temperance activist. She became closely associated with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, especially in New York, where she later served as president of the state organization.
Graham is remembered not only for her leadership but also for preserving the movement's story in print. She wrote Two Decades: A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York and later Sixty Years of Action, helping record the people, campaigns, and ideals that shaped the organization.
She also served as musical director of the National WCTU, showing how central public speaking, song, and shared culture were to reform work in her era. Graham died in 1940, leaving behind a body of writing that is useful both as history and as a window into women's activism in her time.