Maude A. K. Wetmore

Maude Alice Keteltas Wetmore (February 7, 1873 – November 3, 1951) was an American political organizer and historical preservationist, based in Newport, Rhode Island. She and her sister lived in the Wetmore family mansion, Chateau-sur-Mer, now a museum in Newport.

Maude A. K. Wetmore
Maude A. K. Wetmore, from a 1901 publication.
Born
Maude Alice Keteltas Wetmore

(1873-02-07)February 7, 1873
Paris
DiedNovember 3, 1951(1951-11-03) (aged 78)
Newport, Rhode Island
Other namesMaude K. Wetmore
OccupationPolitical organizer, historic preservationist, golfer

Early life

Wetmore was born to American parents in Paris, the daughter of George Peabody Wetmore and Edith Malvina Keteltas Wetmore. Her father was a politician; he served as Governor of Rhode Island and as a United States Senator representing the state.[1][2]

Career
Chateau-sur-Mer, Newport, Rhode Island

Politics

Following her father into Republican Party activities, Wetmore was a member of the Republican National Committee, president of the Women's National Republican Club and president of the Newport County Women's Republican Club. She laid the cornerstone of the Women's National Republican Club's New York headquarters in 1933.[3] She was a delegate to several Republican National Conventions. She chaired the Women's Organization for Prohibition Reform, the National League for Women's Service,[1] and the Women's Department of the National Civic Federation.[4][5][6] She hosted Republican fundraisers at her Newport mansion.[7]

Wetmore was an enthusiastic automobile driver and drove herself to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 1936. She chaired the Republican Women's National Motor Corps, a group that organized rides to events and provided special vehicles for parades.[8]

War work

During World War I, Wetmore served on the Committee on Women's Defense Work, and was a member of the National Patriotic Relief Committee, and worked with Herbert Hoover, then the National Food Administrator.[2] She was also a member of the American section of Committee for Relief of Belgian Prisoners in Germany.[9] Though she never supported the suffrage movement,[10] she hoped that war work with empower women to peacetime reforms: "If some of the war enthusiasm can be rekindled and women made to understand and see and then in mass demand for their children what the Government, in honor bound, is obligated to give them, there would be no difficult in solving the school problem," she proclaimed in a 1920 speech. "The coming generation would be finer and women, consequently, finer citizens."[11]

During World War II, she was vice president of the American Friends of France.[8]

Historic preservation and society in Newport

Wetmore and her older sister Edith K. Wetmore were active in historical preservation in Newport, Rhode Island.[2][12] They took particular interest in the Seamen's Church Institute and the Old State House.[1] The Wetmore sisters donated many of the valuable objects they inherited to museums, including French earthenware to the Cooper Hewitt Museum,[13][14] a "ladies' phaeton" to the carriage gallery of the New-York Historical Society,[15] and a collection of silver toys and family portraits to the Yale University Art Gallery.[16]

The Wetmores hosted cultural events at Chateau-sur-Mer, including a garden party honoring Navy admiral Joseph Mason Reeves in 1934,[17] and a chamber music concert in 1938, with Leonard Bernstein, then a Harvard undergraduate, performing as piano soloist.[18]

Schools and camps

Maude Wetmore was involved in the Reform School for Girls of the District of Columbia, serving on the board of trustees in 1907,[19] and donating a piano, sheet music, and books in 1909.[20] In 1915, she and philanthropist Anne Morgan welcomed 300 young women to their Camp Inkowa at Greenwood Lake, with an opening program given by Charles Eastman.[21]

Sports

Wetmore was an active lawn tennis player[22] and golfer, as a member of the Newport Country Club.[23] She reached the finals of the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1898, where she lost to Beatrix Hoyt.[24][25]

Personal life

Maude A. K. Wetmore died in 1951, aged 78, from a heart attack, at her home in Newport, Chateau-sur-Mer.[1][8] Her sister died in 1966.[26] In her will, Maude bequeathed the Wetmore mansion to her sister's use and then to the New England Society for the Preservation of Antiquities.[16] The Preservation Society of Newport County now operates Chateau-sur-Mer as a museum.

References
  1. "Fatally Stricken; Active Member of GOP, Civic Groups was 78". Newport Mercury. November 9, 1951. p. 3. Retrieved July 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Collins, Holly. Rites of Passage: The Wetmores of Chateau sur Mer (The Preservation Society of Newport County, 2002).
  3. Miller, Tom (2018-12-01). "Daytonian in Manhattan: The Women's National Republican Club - 3-5 West 51st Street". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  4. "National Civic Federation records". New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  5. Directory of Social and Health Agencies of New York City. Columbia University Press. 1914. pp. 575–576.
  6. "Deplores Voter Apathy; Miss Maude Wetmore Sees Party Government in Danger". The New York Times. December 14, 1927. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Maude Wetmore, Newport Hostess". The New York Times. September 7, 1934. p. 26 – via ProQuest.
  8. "Maude Wetmore Dead in Newport; Ex-Head of Woman's National Republican Club Here, Once Prominent as a Golfer". The New York Times. November 4, 1951. p. 85 – via ProQuest.
  9. Clarke, Ida Clyde. "Chapter XXXII: Relief for Belgium". American Women and the World War. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  10. "Republican Women, Appointed by Hays, Never Sought Vote". Hartford Courant. March 2, 1919. p. 2. Retrieved July 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Tells What Women Can Do; Solution of School Problem in Their Power, Says Miss Wetmore". The New York Times. January 30, 1920. p. 7 – via ProQuest.
  12. Cahill, John (October 12, 1941). "Dares Newport's Chamber of Horrors". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. 65. Retrieved July 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Plate (France), ca. 1885". Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  14. "Maude Wetmore". Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  15. Downing, Paul H. (1974-10-01). The Carriage Journal: Vol 12, No.2 Autumn 1974. Carriage Assoc. of America.
  16. "Society to Inherit Newport Mansion". The New York Times. November 24, 1951. p. 10 – via ProQuest.
  17. "Officers of Fleet Feted in Newport". The New York Times. August 3, 1934. p. 20 – via ProQuest.
  18. "Newport Concert Largely Attended; Chamber Music Event at Home of the Misses Wetmore". The New York Times. July 22, 1938. p. 20 – via ProQuest.
  19. United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1907. p. 117.
  20. Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General. 1909. p. 370.
  21. "Vacation Camp for Girls Begins Summer Season". The Sun. June 20, 1915. p. 26. Retrieved July 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Women on Casino Courts; Misses Wetmore and Busk Win Hard Match at Newport". The New York Times. July 26, 1905. p. 4 – via ProQuest.
  23. Patten, William (1901). The book of sport. J. F. Taylor. pp. 12–13, 17, 26.
  24. "Golf". Outing. Vol. 33. November 1898. pp. 206–207.
  25. Lynch, Sharon; Morrison, Wayne (June 12, 2018). "Beatrix Hoyt: The First Teenage Golf Sensation". USGA.
  26. "Edith Wetmore of Newport Dies; Leader in Society, 95, Had Maintained Traditions". The New York Times. March 11, 1966. p. 25 – via ProQuest.
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