Year Honored: 1986
Birth: 1861 – 1948
Born in: Wilmington, DE
Biography
Emily P. Bissell, born in 1861 to a wealthy family in Wilmington, walked a seemingly opposite path as both a prominent social activist and an anti-suffragist. She received an education in New York but returned home to settle in her native Wilmington where she became involved with a number of charitable causes. Bissell founded Wilmington’s first free kindergarten and sponsored the creation of the first public playground. In the late 1880s she established the Neighborhood House, in Wilmington’s West End, to help recent immigrants, particularly of Irish and German descent with literacy, housing, and jobs. The center also hosted the first Americanization programs in 1913. It still exists today as the West End Neighborhood House.
Bissell was the chair of social services for the Delaware State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She aided in the establishment of the Delaware Chapter of the American Red Cross in 1904 and served as secretary. She was also instrumental in passing Delaware’s first child labor law through her work on the Child Labor Commission and the Children’s Bureau. Bissell also strongly opposed the suffrage movement, testifying against suffrage before Congress in 1900 and in front of the House of Representatives in 1913. Bissell, like many women who had carved out a niche for themselves in social activism, feared that gaining the vote would cause them to lose their power. There was a separation of “spheres” for men and women – men solidly in the public sphere while a woman’s role was in the domestic sphere, typically that of a wife and mother. Around the 19th century, women took a more active role outside the home, though, as Bissell’s interests indicate, still within the confines of “family life.” Bissell’s belief was that women “contributed to society by raising the next generation of citizens,” and while they could influence legislation through the men in their lives, it would undermine their power if they were able to vote. She, and other women in her camp, saw their activities as explicitly non-partisan. “We were powerful,” Bissell said, “because we had no political entanglements.” Her fear of African American Women shaping policies through the right to vote, also played a large role in her anti-suffragist sentiments.
She is best known, however, for the creation of the Christmas Seals. Inspired by a Danish Charity Campaign, Bissell sold what were essentially stickers with holiday imagery to affix to holiday greeting cards. Bissell, President of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society from 1908 until her death in 1948, was charged with saving the Brandywine Shack, an open-air tuberculosis facility. At the time, Delaware had one of the highest tuberculosis rates in the country, and the $300 to save the facility was desperately needed. Her Christmas Seals Campaign raised over $3,000 and were sold nationwide the next year because they were so popular. A version of them is still sold today to raise money for various lung diseases by the American Lung Association. In 1980, the U.S Postal Service recognized her contributions to fighting tuberculosis by issuing a stamp in her honor.
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Sources and Additional Readings
7 Delaware women who changed the world. The First State Blog - State of Delaware. (2019, February 15). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://firststate.blogs.delaware.gov/famous-delaware-women/
Amanda B. Moniz, A. 15. (2021, December 21). Why a social activist opposed woman suffrage. National Museum of American History. Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/why-social-activist-opposed-woman-suffrage
Emily Bissell. Emily Bissell | National Postal Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/women-on-stamps-part-2-health-saving-lives-fighting-disease/emily-bissell
Emily Perkins Bissell (1861-1948) - find a grave... Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31352470/emily-perkins-bissell
Housing, meals, employment, at-risk youth assistance in Wilmington. West End Neighborhood House. (2021, April 21). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://westendnh.org/
Presentation to lwvwa convention: Looking ... - my.lwv.org. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://my.lwv.org/sites/default/files/leagues/wysiwyg/%5Bcurrent-user%3Aog-user-node%3A1%3Atitle%5D/white_paper_on_civics_education_for_2019_lwv_convention_2_word_may_7.pdf
- Collections: 1986