Eliza Ritchie (1856 - 1933)

Eliza Ritchie suffragist,scholar, educator, author, aesthete, Philanthropist, and feminist in Nova Scotia, Canada. She taught at Dalhousie University. She was on the executive of the Local Council of Women of Halifax.She also has a stained glass window in St. Paul's Church (Halifax) dedicated to her.

Biography

Eliza Ritchie is Notable.

Eliza Ritchie was a part of the Suffragette Movement.

Eliza Ritchie was born in^[1] Halifax,Nova Scotia her parents were John William Ritchie who was a senator and Amelia Rebecca Almon.Eliza had a privileged upbringing and private education, she attended Dalhousie University in 1882–83, the year after women were first admitted as undergraduates. In 1887 Eliza she obtained a Bachelor of Letters with first-class honours in philosophy.In 1889 she completed a doctorate with a major in German philosophy Eliza Ritchie was probably the first female graduate of a Canadian university to earn a phD.

In 1890 for almost a decade she was instructor and then associate professor at the women’s college, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Her employment at Wellesley ended in the autumn of 1899, some faculty members had found themselves out of favour with President Julia Irvine. Although Eliza may have been dismissed, it is also possible that her departure simply coincided with the changes, as she would remain an admirer of the College.

Eliza returned to Nova Scotia as Warden of Forest Hall at Dalhousie University , Eliza contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals and was an active member of the editorial board of the Dalhousie Review from its founding in 1921 until her death. In 1919 she became the first woman in Canada to sit on a university's Board of Governors, where she served Dalhousie as alumnae representative, in addition to being warden for the school's first women's residence. She was active in the Halifax Local Council of Women and held leadership positions in the Victoria School of Fine Art.

Eliza was interested in literature and encouraged authors such as such as Archibald McKellar MacMechan, William Bliss Carman, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Charles George Douglas Roberts.She edited Songs of the Maritimes (1931), but her own book of poems, ^[2]In the Gloaming (1935), did not appear until two years after her death. She also took an active part in philanthropy and reform projects, the Victorian Order of Nurses she was also leader of the ^[3]Maritime suffrage movement.

Eliza Ritchie said that ignorance bred indifference and that women’s ability to fulfil their potential as citizens depended upon the educational, political, and work opportunities available to them',Both before and after World War1 Eliza was a leader of the campaign to achieve women’s suffrage. Claiming that suffrage would make political life purer, would lessen graft and give women a better opportunity in individual life and that “the spirit of the age is democracy, .In 1895 she joined ^[4]Halifax’s Local Council of Women ,she was also a member of the the Women’s Christian Temperance Union , she voted with the majority of delegates of the National Council of Women of Canada in favour of enfranchisement at the annual convention in 1910.In her later years Eliza Ritchie focused on Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia College of Art in 1919 She was made alumnae representative to the Dalhousie board of governors In 1927 she was the first woman to receive an honorary LLD from Dalhousie

In her hometown she was known as the most brilliant of Dalhousie’s girl graduates, in Dalhousie University circles as our most distinguished woman graduate, ^[5]Eliza died of heart disease in 1933 and was buried at St. John's Cemetery in Halifax.

Sources

1. ↑ Family Search - Citing this Record - "Canada Census, 1871," index, FamilySearch , Eliza Ritchie in household of Leliah Ritchie, Ward 01, West Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; citing p. 110, line 19; Library and Archives Canada film number C-10550, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 2229138.
2. ↑ Google Books - Canadian Poetry Eliza Ritchie
3. ↑ [1] - “Temperance and Tea Socials”- Discerning the Significance of the Sackville Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1894-1895 By Clayton Burrill
4. ↑ BiblicalWritings.com - Local Council of Women of Halifax
5. ↑ Family Search - "Nova Scotia, Vital Records, 1763-1957," index, Family Search , Eliza Ritchie, 1933, Death; citing p. 659, volume 137, Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• Canadian Encyclopedia
• Local Council of Women Halifax
• Simon Fraser University Library
• Eliza Ritchie Wikipedia
• Eliza Ritchie (1856-1933) on Find A Grave: Memorial #192467652