Blanche Ames Ames was an artist, inventor, writer, and prominent supporter of women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

 and birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

. Born Blanche Ames in Lowell, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 General and Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 Governor Adelbert Ames

Adelbert Ames

Adelbert Ames was an American sailor, soldier, and politician. He served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War. As a Radical Republican and a Carpetbagger, he was military governor, Senator and civilian governor in Reconstruction-era Mississippi...

 and Blanche Butler Ames

Blanche Butler Ames

Blanche Butler Ames was the wife of Adelbert Ames, a decorated general of the American Civil War and Senator and Governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction....

 and the sister of Adelbert Ames Jr..

A Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

 alumna, she married Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 professor Oakes Ames

Oakes Ames (botanist)

Oakes Ames was an American botanist specializing in orchids. His estate is now the Borderland State Park in Massachusetts....

 (no relation) in 1910 and took the married name Blanche Ames Ames. The Ameses had four children: Pauline (b. 1901), Oliver (b. 1903), Amyas (b. 1906), and Evelyn (b. 1910). Among several grandchildren was George Ames Plimpton, famed sportswriter.

Their estate in North Easton, Massachusetts, called Borderland, is now Borderland State Park

Borderland State Park

Borderland is one of Massachusetts' state parks, located in the towns of Easton and Sharon. The main entrance and visitor center are located in Easton. The area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Borderland Historic District in 1997.In 1906, Oakes Ames, a Harvard botanist...

.

Further reading

• My Dear Mrs. Ames: A Study of the Life of Suffragist, Cartoonist and Birth Control Reformer, Blanche Ames Ames, 1878-1969 by Anne Biller Clark (1996)

External links

• Ames Family Papers, 1812–2008, Sophia Smith Collection, Five College Archives and Manuscript Collections