{{Short description|American scholar and suffrage activist}} thumb|Elizabeth Fisher Read '''Elizabeth Fisher Read''' (1872 – December 13, 1943) was an attorney, scholar, and activist working for women's suffrage and world peace. She was a close friend and political mentor of Eleanor Roosevelt and also served as Roosevelt's attorney and financial advisor.
==Early life== Elizabeth Fisher Read was born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1872,<ref name="ERPP">{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Fisher Read (1872-1943)|url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/read-elizabeth.cfm|website=The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref> the daughter of George Willis Read and Henrietta A. Miner Read. Her younger sister was editor Georgia Willis Read.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1943-12-23 |title=Meriden (news item) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/vermont-journal-meriden-news-item/142841386/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |work=Vermont Journal |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
She graduated from Smith College and University of Pennsylvania Law School.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name="GVS" /> Read also earned an M.A. from Columbia University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=!ELIZABETH F. READ, LAWYER AND WRITER; An Associate of the American Foundation 20 Years Dies |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/12/14/85140549.html |access-date=2024-08-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Columbia did not start regularly admitting female graduate students until 1900, when Read was nearly thirty. The subject of her degree is not known; however, popular subjects of study for Columbia women included psychology, philosophy, and anthropology. Given Read's interests in reform and international relations, it is possible she pursued her graduate work in one of these subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Rosalind |title=Beyond separate spheres: intellectual roots of modern feminism |date=1993 |publisher=Yale Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-300-02695-5 |edition=Nachdr. |location=New Haven |pages=86-90}}</ref>
==Career== In the 1910s, Read was a Women's Suffrage activist and represented the ideology of the ''New Woman'', financially independent, politically active, and socially emancipated. She was active in social and political causes and was an influential figure in the League of Women Voters in New York City.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name="GVS" /><ref name="Gale">{{cite book|title=A Study Guide for Blanche Wiesen Cook's "Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume one 1884-1933"|date=2016|publisher=Gale, Cengage Learning|page=17|isbn=9781410344977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nh0zDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT17|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref>
Read was a practicing lawyer and had a particular interest in international law. Beginning in about 1923 and continuing until her death twenty years later, she served as director of research for the American Foundation, a group advocating for international cooperation.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="Wildlife" /><ref name="GVS" />
Read wrote a book on international law, ''International Law and International Relations'' (1925),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Read|first1=Elizabeth Fisher|title=International Law and International Relations|date=1925|isbn=1287348440}}</ref> translated and edited a book on the World Court, and helped Lape edit a book on expert medical testimony.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name="Wildlife" /><ref name="GVS" /> In 1923 she collaborated with Lape and Gustav Frenssen to write ''Klaus Hinrich Baas: The Story Of A Self-made Man...''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frenssen|first1=Gustav|last2=Lape|first2=Esther Everett|last3=Read|first3=Elizabeth Fisher|title=Klaus Hinrich Baas: The Story Of A Self-made Man...|date=1923|isbn=1271814374}}</ref>
==Personal life== thumb|Esther Lape
Read lived with Esther Lape, educator and publicist, in Greenwich Village, at 20 East 11th Street.<ref name="GVS">{{cite web|title=Village People: Elizabeth Fisher Read and Esther Lape|url=https://gvshp.org/blog/2014/12/19/village-people-elizabeth-fisher-read-and-esther-lape/|website=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation|date=19 December 2014|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Cook">{{cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Blanche Wiesen|title=Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: The Early Years, 1884-1933|date=1993|publisher=Penguin|page=310|isbn=9781101567463|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLoUs97VUFcC&pg=PT310|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref> Despite a plaque noting that Eleanor Roosevelt lived there when she was first lady, the building was actually owned by Lape; Roosevelt rented an apartment for a time.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name="NYC LGBT">{{cite web|title=Eleanor Roosevelt Residence|url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/eleanor-roosevelt-residence/|website=NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref> Nearby, at 171 West 12th Street, lived other lesbian couples involved in the Woman's Suffrage movement and of the close-knit circle of friends of Roosevelt: Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook, Molly Dewson and Polly Porter, and Grace Hutchins and Anna Rochester.<ref name="Cook" />
[[File:Eleanor and friends at Salt Meadow (8511114962).jpg|thumb|left|Eleanor Roosevelt (right) with Malvina Thompson and Elizabeth Read at Salt Meadow]]
Read was Eleanor Roosevelt's friend. They first met in 1920 when Roosevelt became the director of the League of Women Voters' national legislation committee.<ref name="GVS" /> After 1921, she was her political and feminist mentor, became Roosevelt's personal attorney and financial advisor.<ref name="Wildlife">{{cite web|title=Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read: Pioneers for Women's Rights and Conservation|url=https://usfwsnortheast.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/esther-lape-and-elizabeth-read-pioneers-for-womens-rights-and-conservation/|website=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service|date=21 March 2016|accessdate=5 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="GVS" /><ref name="Gale" /><ref name="Cook" /> With her life partner, Lape, and others, she was part of Roosevelt's support network of female friends.<ref name="ERPP" />
Read and Lape also owned a country house, Salt Meadow, Westbrook, Connecticut, where Roosevelt was often a guest.<ref name="ERPP" /><ref name="GVS" /> In 1972, after Read's death, Lape donated Salt Meadow to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The estate is currently the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.<ref name="Wildlife" /> Refuge staff are working on a National Register of Historical Places submission for the former Salt Meadow estate that will recognize the same-sex relationship of Lape and Read.<ref>{{cite web|title=LGBTQ America|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lgbtqheritage/upload/lgbtqtheme-preservation.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024182043/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lgbtqheritage/upload/lgbtqtheme-preservation.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 24, 2016|website=nps|accessdate=5 January 2018}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>
Elizabeth Fisher Read died in New York on December 13, 1943.<ref name="ERPP" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Elizabeth Fisher}} Category:1872 births Category:1943 deaths Category:American women lawyers Category:American feminists Category:Lesbian feminists Category:LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Category:People from New Brighton, Pennsylvania Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni