archives.nypl.org -- Lola Maverick Lloyd papers (original) (raw)

Lola Maverick Lloyd was a prominent social activist involved in the international peace and world government movements during the first half of the twentieth century. She was born on November 24, 1875 in Castroville, Texas to attorney George Madison Maverick and Mary Elizabeth Vance. Lola's grandfather Samuel A. Maverick served as mayor of San Antonio from 1839-1840. He was a signatory of the Texas Declaration of Independence severing ties with Mexico, and contributed his surname to the American lexicon through his refusal to brand his cattle, which became known as "mavericks."

One of six children, Lola was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended school at the Mary Institute. She graduated from Smith College in 1897, returning to teach mathematics there for the 1901-1902 academic year. While on vacation in Rhode Island, Lola met William Bross Lloyd, son of the newspaperman and philanthropist Henry Demarest Lloyd. Henry Demarest, a muckraking journalist for the Chicago Tribune, was author of several books with a pro-labor, antitrust bent, of which the most well-known was |Wealth Against Commonwealth|. William and Lola were married in November 1902. Both were close to Henry Demarest Lloyd, whose progressive politics influenced their interests in social advocacy and reform.

From 1902 until 1914, Lola lived a relatively private life in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois, raising four children: Jessie Bross Lloyd (b. 1904), Mary Maverick Lloyd (b. 1906), William Bross Lloyd Jr. (b. 1908), and Georgia Lloyd (b. 1913). During this time, William practiced law in Chicago, and nominally served as director of the Chicago Tribune. In 1912, a rift began to develop between William and Lola, which would eventually result in their divorce in 1916.

The beginning of World War I in 1914 coincided with Lola's entrance into the public sphere. Prior to the war she had been involved in local women's and artists' groups, but attending one of the Hungarian feminist Rosika Schwimmer's antiwar lectures quickly sparked her interest in political activism. In January of 1915, Lola participated in founding the Women's Peace Party in Washington, D.C., which later became the American branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), an active group in the international pacifist movement.

In April of 1915, Lola and her husband traveled to the International Congress of Women at The Hague. The Congress' goal was to demonstrate women's opposition to war and territorial aggression, propose a peace settlement, and nominate envoys to the governments of warring nations to present this peace plan. Lola served as part of the forty-member American delegation to the conference, attending in concert with Jane Addams, Rosika Schwimmer, and the Women's Peace Party. Following the Congress, Lola and William returned to the United States, while her friend Mme. Schwimmer and others traveled to several European countries, attempting to secure agreement to an armistice.

Lola's personal life was also affected by this trip, as it proved fatal to her marriage. Following their return from the conference, Lola and her husband began discussing divorce. This eventuality -- paired with their high-profile status amongst the Chicago social elite -- brought the possibility of both a public scandal and a custody dispute over their four children. Despite warnings from friends and family to stay home-(for example, her sister Augusta's November 1915 letter suggested she "stay at home and rock the cradle--as obviously as possible." Lola continued in her political efforts, participating in the controversial Ford Peace Expedition.

In 1915, after several unsuccessful attempts to convince President Wilson to take an active role as mediator in the European conflict, Lola's friend and mentor Rosika Schwimmer enlisted the assistance of Henry Ford in planning a peace expedition to Europe. Using signed documents collected through the conference at The Hague, Schwimmer's goal was to rally neutral countries to act as negotiators, while encouraging warring countries to accept a peace plan. Lola Maverick Lloyd initially declined an invitation to join the Peace Ship, citing her ongoing divorce and custody discussions, but was convinced by Ford to bring her three oldest children along on the trip.

Following the Peace Expedition's arrival in Europe, Schwimmer and other participants set up a Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation. The Neutral Conference, headquartered in Stockholm but also traveling to Norway, Denmark and Holland, was aimed at continuing the goals of the preceding expedition over an extended period of time. Lola Maverick Lloyd was invited to serve as part of the Committee of Seven administering the Neutral Conference, but early in 1916, she returned to Chicago to finalize her divorce and custody proceedings. Subsequent to the surprisingly private closing of the divorce, Lola received primary custody of the four children.

Lola Maverick Lloyd remained active in politics on both a national and international level. Following the Neutral Conference, the remaining 28 years of her life were dedicated to various pacifist, suffragist, and internationalist causes. She demonstrated in Washington against the U.S. entry to the war in 1917; contributed to the push for woman suffrage through Alice Paul's National Woman's Party; and in 1937 founded and co-chaired the Campaign for World Government, a pioneer organization in lobbying for world government as the most effective means of preventing war. The organization advocated for a world government of the people, as opposed to the League of Nations or United Nations, which she saw as organizations comprised of, and thus representing the interests of, the war-makers--the various national governments. Lola's partner in founding this endeavor was Rosika Schwimmer, and Lola's son William Bross Lloyd, Jr. became its first director.

Lola also served as head of the Griffin Bill Committee (later Griffin-O'Day Bill Committee), which lobbied to allow foreign-born pacifists U.S. citizenship. She was extremely active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), for whom she repeatedly traveled as delegate for the American branch to numerous international conferences, served on the board beginning in 1933, and acted as National Minorities chair. Lola also participated in the 1931 WILPF Peace Caravan, which collected signatures to petition for disarmament, and she constituted part of the delegation presenting these petitions to President Hoover in October of 1931. In addition to these efforts, Lola served as president to the Women's Consultative Committee, formed through the Council of the League of Nations. This committee worked for complete equality of women in the international sphere.

Lola's interests expanded beyond pacifism and woman suffrage into the birth control movement, labor rights, the civil liberties of conscientious objectors, progressive education, and the proportional representation movement. From 1920 until 1932 she was a member of the Women's Committee for the Recognition of Soviet Russia. While she often demurred when questioned as to her political status, the collection documents Lola's membership in the Socialist Party of Illinois from the years 1905 or 1906 until 1921.

Lola Maverick Lloyd was well-known for being a philanthropist of progressive causes and activists, and maintained social and professional acquaintances with a variety of national and international public figures. One such connection was with Albert Einstein, for whom she organized two public receptions in 1931 and 1933 highlighting his support for peace. Other friends and professional acquaintances included Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams, Angelica Balabanoff, Ignazio Silone, Charles and Sofia Haag, Alice Henry, Alice Paul, and Camille Drevet. As is documented in the collection, Lola assisted many of her acquaintances financially, particularly during the Great Depression.

When Lola was not lobbying or fundraising for various causes, she published essays and letters examining these same issues. Among her writings were the "People's Mandate to Governments" and "Common Questions About the Future United States of the World." She was a co-author with Rosika Schwimmer of "Chaos, War or a New World Order?"

Despite a frenetic public schedule and time spent with family, Lola also practiced hobbies including painting, drawing, weaving and sculpture. Another of her ongoing concerns was the construction and decoration of her rather unusual and artistic house in Winnetka, Illinois, based somewhat loosely on the Arts and Crafts movement. She was a prolific letter writer and maintained especially close contact with her children, Rosika Schwimmer, the Haags, and her siblings.

Suffering from an increasing number of ailments in her last several years, Lola's health rapidly deteriorated in 1944, when it became clear that she had pancreatic cancer. She passed away on July 25, 1944.