Park, Maud Wood (1871–1955)

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Park, Maud Wood (1871–1955)

American suffragist. Born Maud May Wood in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 25, 1871; died in Reading, Massachusetts, on May 8, 1955; eldest of three children of James Rodney Wood and Mary Russell (Collins) Wood; graduated summa cum laude from Radcliffe, 1898; married Charles Edward Park (d. 1904), in 1898; married Robert Hunter, in 1908 (died 1928); children: none.

In 1900, Maud Wood Park was the youngest delegate to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). One year later, she had replaced Alice Stone Blackwell as chair of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Park would remain at that post for seven years. Adept at lobbying, she was also a member of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and, from 1919 to 1924, was the first president of the League of Women Voters. With Alice McLellan Birney , Park helped organize the first Parent-Teacher Association in Boston. When not stumping for reform, Maud Park was writing. She authored the play Lucy Stone (1936) and co-authored Victory, How Women Won It: A Centennial Symposium, 1840–1940. Her chronicle of the passing of the 19th amendment, Front Door Lobbying, was published posthumously in 1960.