Ruza Wenclawska
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ruza Wenclawska (December 15, 1889 – April 16, 1934), more widely known as Rose Winslow and later as Rose Lyons by marriage, was a Polish-American
suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...
, factory inspector and trade union organizer. She was a dedicated member of the
National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP ...
. Wenclawska's main goal within this organization was to advocate fair treatment in the workplace for women. She also worked as an actress and a poet.


Early life

Wenclawska was born in
Suwałki Suwałki (; ; or סוּוואַלק) is a city in northeastern Poland with a population of 69,206 (2021). It is the capital of Suwałki County and one of the most important centers of commerce in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. A relatively young ci ...
,
Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
, and immigrated to the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
with her parents when she was an infant. At the age of eleven, she began work as a mill girl in the hosiery industry in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. Her father was a miner and her brother a slate picker. Wenclawska also worked in factories in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. When she was nineteen, she caught
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
, and was unable to work for two years. During this time, Wenclawska put herself through night school, and began working as a labor organizer.


Later life

Wenclawska worked as a factory inspector and a trade union organizer in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
with the National Consumers' League and the
National Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL pla ...
. She also worked with th
Woman’s Political Union
by 1913 before joining the National Woman's Party. Wenclawska became an excellent public speaker during her years of union activism and would travel across the country speaking to suffrage rallies, often with National Woman's Party founder
Alice Paul Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Unit ...
. However, Wenclawska would advocate for the inclusion of working-class women and men into the National Woman's Party while Paul did not wish to organize men and did not encourage a pro-labor message in her platform.Groff, B. (2014). Prison Writings of a Radical Suffragist. ''Defining Documents: The 1920s'', 155–158. In February 1914, Wenclawska and
Doris Stevens Doris Stevens (born Dora Caroline Stevens; October 26, 1888 – March 22, 1963) was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first chai ...
spoke at a mass meeting for working women and organized a mass suffrage parade in which working women marched to the White House to meet with Woodrow Wilson on suffrage rights. Also in 1914, Wenclawska and
Lucy Burns Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate.Bland, 1981 (p. 8) She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns w ...
were leaders of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage's campaign in
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
to urge voters to oppose Democratic congressional candidates. She did similar work with other organizers in
Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
during the electoral campaigns of 1916. During this time, she also wrote a poem, "The 'New Freedom' for Women," that was published in ''
The Suffragist ''The Suffragist'' was a weekly newspaper published by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1913 to advance the cause of women's suffrage. The publication was first envisioned as a small pamphlet by the Congressional Union (CU), a new ...
''. There she compared Wilson unfavorably to Abraham Lincoln, who sacrificed his life to give freedom to slaves. Wilson, in contrast, told suffrage advocates, "You can afford to wait." In September and October of 1916, Wenclawska went out west as a speaker for the National Woman's Party to lobby for the federal woman suffrage amendment and oppose Democratic candidates. She spoke mostly in Colorado and Arizona. She got very ill during those speaking engagements, and had to make only one speech per day, and rest a lot. In 1917, she was part of the
Silent Sentinels The Silent Sentinels, also known as the Sentinels of Liberty, were an American group of over 2,000 women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, who nonviolently protested in front of the White House ...
protests at the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
. On October 15, 1917, Wenclawska was arrested, sentenced to seven months in jail, and was sent to the
Occoquan Workhouse The Lorton Reformatory, also known as the Lorton Correctional Complex, is a former prison complex in Lorton, Virginia, established in 1910 for the District of Columbia, United States. The complex began as a prison farm called the Occoquan W ...
in Virginia. Once in jail, Wenclawska and her fellow picketers were threatened, assaulted, and abused. Wenclawska, herself, was placed in
solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...
for at least five weeks. These abuses resulted in a
hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...
, a symbolic protest that forced the authorities to either release them or torture them by
force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric tube, nasogastric) or mouth (o ...
. This demonstration also intended to identify the picketers as political rather than criminal prisoners. During this time, Wenclawska smuggled letters out to her husband, Philip Lyons, and her friends. In one of these letters she writes, "I am waiting to see what happens when the President realizes that brutal bullying isn’t quite a statesmanlike method for settling a demand for justice at home...All the officers here know we are making this hunger strike that women fighting for liberty may be considered political prisoners; we have told them. God knows we don’t want other women ever to have to do this over again." Eventually all of the women were released and courts ruled that the arrests had been improper. Following more than two years of White House picketing, Congress approved the 19th Amendment and sent it out to the states for ratification, which followed in August 1920. Her engagement in political activism appears to have ended with her White House picketing and subsequent jail time. Wenclawska married Phil Lyons before 1910. By 1917, they were living in Greenwich Village where they lived until the mid 1920s according to letters, and the 1920 census. She listed herself as an actress and performed in several plays in New York City, including a part in Eugene O'Neill's ''
Desire Under the Elms ''Desire Under the Elms'' is a 1924 play written by Eugene O'Neill. Like ''Mourning Becomes Electra'', ''Desire Under the Elms'' signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy to a rural New England settin ...
'', on Broadway in 1924. She performed under her maiden name, Ruza Wenclawska. Wenclawska and Lyons divorced in 1926. The 1930 census lists her as an inmate at the Central Islip State Hospital in New York. She is listed in the New York State Death Index as having died on April 16, 1934, in Islip, NY.


Theatre

Wenclawska started acting professionally in Redemption or
The Living Corpse ''The Living Corpse'' () is a Russian play by Leo Tolstoy. Although written around 1900, it was only published shortly after his death—Tolstoy had never considered the work finished. An immediate success, it is still performed. Arthur Hopkins ...
in October 1918. The play opened at the Plymouth Theater on Broadway, now the Schoenfeld Theater. It was produced by
Arthur Hopkins Arthur Hopkins (October 4, 1878 – March 22, 1950) was an American Broadway theatre producer in the early twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1948, he produced and staged more than 80 plays – an average of more than two per year – occasiona ...
, and
John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly a ...
played the lead role. Wenclawska played "a maid" and was credited as Ruza Wenclaw. In December 1918, she started performing with The Provincetown Players in Greenwich Village, under the name Ruza Wenclaw. She was Kate in The Rescue. She then played the role of 0555 in 5050 by Robert Allerton Parker in January 1919. In April 1919, she appeared as Annie in The Rope by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...
. After a few years in Europe, Wenclawska went back to New York, and started working at the
Provincetown Playhouse The Provincetown Playhouse is a historic theatre at 133 MacDougal Street between West 3rd and 4th streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the forme ...
again. This time as Ruza Wenclawska. In January 1924, she appeared in the Playhouse's production of The Spook Sonata (
The Ghost Sonata ''The Ghost Sonata'' () is a play in three acts by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. Written in 1907, it was first produced at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre in Stockholm on 21 January 1908. Since then, it has been staged by such notable ...
). She played the Janitress. She then played Prudence in Fashion by Anna Cora Mowatt. The play was produced at the
Provincetown Playhouse The Provincetown Playhouse is a historic theatre at 133 MacDougal Street between West 3rd and 4th streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the forme ...
from February to April 1924. It then moved to the
Greenwich Village Theatre Greenwich Village Theatre (GVT) was an arts venue in Greenwich Village, New York which opened in 1917 and closed for the last time in 1930. Herman Lee Meader was the architect and it was located in Sheridan Square at 4th Street and Seventh Av ...
until July 1924. It moved to the Cort Theater, now James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway in July 1924. Fashion closed on July 1924. Wenclawska was a singer in S.S. Glencairn by O'Neill at the Provincetown Playhouse in November 1924.
Desire Under the Elms ''Desire Under the Elms'' is a 1924 play written by Eugene O'Neill. Like ''Mourning Becomes Electra'', ''Desire Under the Elms'' signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy to a rural New England settin ...
by O'Neill opened at the Greenwich Village in November 1924. Ruza Wenclawska was "other folks from surrounding farms". It played there until January 1925. It then transferred to the
Earl Carroll Theatre The Earl Carroll Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 753 Seventh Avenue near 50th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by impresario Earl Carroll and designed by architect George Keister, it opened on Feb ...
on Broadway. It played there until June 1925. The production then transferred to the George M. Cohan's Theatre until September 1925. It seems that Wenclawska left in July 1925 as an article from the New York Herald announced her return in Paris.


Legacy

Doris Stevens Doris Stevens (born Dora Caroline Stevens; October 26, 1888 – March 22, 1963) was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first chai ...
published excerpts of Wenclawska's smuggled diary scraps from her time spent in the
Occoquan Workhouse The Lorton Reformatory, also known as the Lorton Correctional Complex, is a former prison complex in Lorton, Virginia, established in 1910 for the District of Columbia, United States. The complex began as a prison farm called the Occoquan W ...
in ''
Jailed for Freedom ''Jailed for Freedom'' is a book by Doris Stevens. Originally published in 1920, it was reissued by New Sage Press in 1995 in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This commemorati ...
'' (1920), a history of militant suffragists in the United States between 1913 and 1919. She was portrayed by
Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress. Farmiga began her professional acting career on stage in the original Broadway production of '' Taking Sides'' (1996). After expanding to television and film, her breakthrough ...
in the 2004 film ''
Iron Jawed Angels ''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 American historical drama film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelic ...
''. In this film, however, Wenclawska's character is utilized as a composite character to represent all working-class women that contributed to the women's suffrage movement, and her role in the suffrage movement is downplayed; in real life, Wenclawska was a major player in the suffrage movement. The film indicates that Wenclawska was inspired to join the suffrage movement after Alice Paul pointed out that a woman with the right to vote is also a woman able to voice her opinions, such as the need for a safer working environment. It is unclear as to when Wenclawska was first introduced to Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, but it is known that Wenclawska was a political activist before this introduction and that she would do much greater things than suggested in ''
Iron Jawed Angels ''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 American historical drama film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelic ...
''. In 2017 the book ''Feminist Essays'' by Nancy Quinn Collins was published; it was dedicated to Wenclawska. Wenclawska is a character in the musical ''
Suffs ''Suffs'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Shaina Taub, based on suffragists and the American women's suffrage movement, focusing primarily on the historical events leading up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the ...
''. The role was originated off-Broadway by Hannah Cruz in 2022, and on Broadway in 2024 by Kim Blanck.


References


External links

*
Excerpt from Ruza Wenclawska's Occuquan Workhouse diary

rememberingruza

Biographical Sketch of Rose Winslow (Ruza Wenclawska)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenclawska, Ruza 1889 births 20th-century American actresses American people of Polish descent American stage actresses American suffragists Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States National Woman's Party activists 1934 deaths