{{short description|American dramatist}} {{Infobox person | name = Tracy Dickinson Mygatt | image = TracyDMygatt1932.png | alt = A white woman wearing a beret, from a 1932 newspaper. | caption = Tracy D. Mygatt, from a 1932 newspaper. | birth_date = March 12, 1885 | birth_place = Brooklyn | death_date = November 22, 1973 (aged 88) | death_place = Philadelphia | occupation = Political activist, pacifist | known_for = Co-founder of the War Resisters League | partner = Frances M. Witherspoon | relatives = Daniel S. Dickinson (grandfather)<br> John Tracy (great-grandfather) }}
'''Tracy Dickinson Mygatt''' (March 12, 1885 – November 22, 1973) was an American writer and pacifist, co-founder with Frances M. Witherspoon of the War Resisters League, and longtime officer of the Campaign for World Government.<ref name="archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu">{{Cite web |title=Collection: Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers {{!}} Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-089_1 |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Mygatt was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised by her widowed mother, Minnie Clapp Mygatt.<ref>Amanda Bickel, ''Minnie Clapp Mygatt: Study in a Victorian Sex Life'' (1987).</ref> Her great-grandfather Daniel S. Dickinson and great-great-grandfather John Tracy were both prominent politicians in New York State.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=O'Flaherty|first=Mary|date=1932-11-03|title=Of Sturdy Whig Stock is Woman Socialist|pages=21|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2569503/tracy-mygatt-in-1932/|access-date=2020-05-03|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Tracy D. Mygatt graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1909. After some years as a suffrage and labor organizer in Pennsylvania, she and Witherspoon moved to New York City in 1913.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2565213/suffrage-campaign-in-pennsylvania-1912/ "Suffragettes Begin Campaign for Votes"], ''Delaware County Daily Times'' (September 28, 1912): 2. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref>
==Career and activism== In New York City, Witherspoon and Mygatt joined the Woman's Peace Party, and together edited their publication, ''Four Lights''.<ref>Erika Kuhlman, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3347203 "'Women's Ways in War': The Feminist Pacifism of the New York City Woman's Peace Party"] ''Frontiers'' 18(1)(1997): 80-100. DOI: 10.2307/3347203</ref><ref>Mark Van Wienen, "'Women's Ways in War': The Poetry and Politics of the Woman's Peace Party, 1915-1917," ''Modern Fiction Studies'' 38(3)(Fall 1992): 687-714.</ref> They also organized the Socialist Suffrage Brigade,<ref>Tracy D. Mygatt, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2569718/tracy-d-mygatt-on-socialism-and/ "The Claim of Socialism to Woman's Vote"] ''The Northwestern Worker'' (September 30, 1915): 3. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> and edited an issue of ''The Call'' about suffrage.<ref>Frances H. Early, ''[https://archive.org/details/worldwithoutwarh0000earl/page/n38 <!-- pg=13 quote=Mygatt. --> A World Without War: How U. S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I]'' (Syracuse University Press 1997): 12-18. {{ISBN|0815627645}}</ref> Mygatt joined Jessie Wallace Hughan and John Haynes Holmes in launching the Anti-Enlistment League in 1915.<ref>Ellen Baier, "Tracy D. Mygatt," in Benjamin F. Shearer, ed., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IzBxCP9QUo0C&q=Mygatt Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime, vol. 2]'' (Greenwood Publishing 2007): 624. {{ISBN|0313334226}}</ref>
Witherspoon and Mygatt continued with peace work after the war, as active members of the Women's Peace Union,<ref>Harriet Hyman Alonso, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=neoA8ZrqrsQC&dq=Tracy+Dickinson+Mygatt&pg=PA96 The Women's Peace Union and the Outlawry of War, 1921-1942]'' (Syracuse University Press 1999): 96. {{ISBN|0815604173}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1924-04-18|title=TRACY MYGATT A WOMAN.; The Times Inadvertently Referred to Peace Worker as "Mr."|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/04/18/archives/tracy-mygatt-a-woman-the-times-inadvertently-referred-to-peace.html|access-date=2020-05-03|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and as founders of the War Resisters League in 1923.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1973-12-18|title=Frances Witherspoon, 87, Of War Resisters League|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/18/archives/frances-witherspoon-87-of-war-resisters-league.html|access-date=2020-05-03|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They were charter members of the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship when it was founded in 1939. In 1961 they were recognized jointly with the WRL Peace Award.<ref>Nancy Manahan, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40003114 "Future Old Maids and Pacifist Agitators: The Story of Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon"] ''Women's Studies Quarterly'' 10(Spring 1982): 10-13.</ref>
In 1932, Mygatt ran for the New York State Assembly as the Socialist Party candidate.<ref name=":0" />
=== Campaign for World Government === From 1941 to 1969, Mygatt worked full-time for the Campaign for World Government, and was their accredited representative to the United Nations.<ref>Tracy Mygatt, "World Government is Common Sense," ''Progressive Education'' 24(October 1946): 10-11.</ref><ref>Michael Scheibach, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LsFJmiCwD80C&dq=%22Tracy+Mygatt%22+%22World+Government%22&pg=PA74 Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age with the Atom, 1945-1955]'' (McFarland 2003): 74-75. {{ISBN|0786415665}}</ref> In 1969, after moving into a retirement home in Philadelphia, she continued to serve as part-time East Coast Secretary of the Campaign for World Government till her death in 1973.<ref name="archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu"/>
=== Works === Witherspoon and Mygatt co-wrote two Biblical novels, ''The Glorious Company'' (1928) and ''Armor of Light'' (1930), and a play about Vincent van Gogh, ''Stranger Upon Earth'', among other literary collaborations.<ref>P. W. Wilson, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1928/07/22/archives/the-saints-step-out-of-their-stainedglass-windows-tracy-mygatt-and.html The Saints Step Out of their Stained-Glass Windows: Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Employ Feminine Intuition to Humanize and Revitalize the Acts of the Apostles]," ''New York Times'' (July 22, 1928): 51.</ref><ref>Alfred H. Barr, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fdCzDt666RMC&dq=%22Stranger+Upon+Earth%22+Van+Gogh&pg=PA42 Vincent Van Gogh]'' (Routledge 1967): 42. {{ISBN|0714620394}}</ref> Mygatt also wrote several plays on her own (''Children of Israel'',<ref>Tracy Dickinson Mygatt, ''Children of Israel'' (George H. Doran Company 1922).</ref> ''Watchfires'',<ref>Tracy D. Mygatt, ''[https://archive.org/details/watchfiresaplay00mygagoog Watchfires: A Play in Four Acts]'' (self-published 1917).</ref> ''Grandmother Rocker'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mygatt|first=Tracy Dickinson|url=https://archive.org/details/grandmotherrocke00myga|title=Grandmother Rocker: A Costume Play in One Act|date=1922|publisher=Walter H. Baker Company|language=en}}</ref> ''Good Friday'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mygatt|first=Tracy D. (Tracy Dickinson)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3mgcQAACAAJ|title=Good Friday; a Passion Play of Now|date=2012|publisher=HardPress Publishing|isbn=978-1-290-05075-3|language=en}}</ref> ''The Noose'',<ref>{{Cite news|date=1957-05-18|title=White Author Eulogizes the Pilgrims to Freedom|pages=16|work=The New York Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2569597/tracy-mygatts-the-noose-1957/|access-date=2020-05-03|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Early|first=Frances|date=2002-03-01|title=Whiteness and political purpose in the noose, an antilynching play by Tracy Mygatt|journal=Women's History Review|volume=11|issue=1|pages=27–48|doi=10.1080/09612020200200309|issn=0961-2025|doi-access=free}}</ref> ''Sword of the Samurai'',<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2569665/tracy_d_mygatt_sword_of_the_samurai/ "'Sword of the Samurai' to be Given by Presbyterians"] ''Mason City Globe-Gazette'' (February 27, 1931): 11. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> ''His Son'', ''Thim Socialists'', and ''Bird's Nest''), and published ''Julia Newberry's Sketch Book: or, The Life of Two Future Old Maids'' (1934), a biography of her mother and her mother's cousin.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mygatt|first=Tracy Dickinson|url=https://archive.org/details/julianewberryssk0000myga|url-access=registration|title=Julia Newberry's Sketch Book: Or, The Life of Two Future Old Maids|date=1934|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2569534/tracy_mygatt_in_1934/ "Miss Mygatt Writes Book of Sketches: Socialist Campaigner Pens Prim Records of Victorian Years"] ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' (March 11, 1934): 4. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref>
==Personal life and legacy== Mygatt lived and worked with Frances M. Witherspoon for over sixty years, in New York City, and later in Brewster, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref>James B. Lloyd, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&dq=Mygatt%20witherspoon%20buried&pg=PA481 Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967]'' (University Press of Mississippi 1981): 481. {{ISBN|0878051392}}</ref> The pair were active in the Episcopal Church.<ref>Andrew Preston, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UuhVB9xuHFsC&dq=Mygatt%20Witherspoon%20Episcopal%20Pacifist%20Fellowship&pg=PT408 Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy]'' (Anchor 2012). {{ISBN|140007858X}}</ref> They died within a month of each other, in late 1973, in Philadelphia; Mygatt was 88 years old, and had been in poor health for some time.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/24/archives/tracy-mygatt-dies-led-war-resisters.html "Tracy Mygatt Dies; Led War Resisters"] ''New York Times'' (November 24, 1973): 34.</ref> The couple's papers were donated to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.<ref>[https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG051-099/dg089MygattWitherspoon.htm Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances M. Witherspoon Papers], DG 089, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.</ref>
==External links== * [http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-089_1 Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers], in the [https://www.swarthmore.edu/peace-collection Swarthmore College Peace Collection], Swarthmore College
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mygatt, Tracy Dickinson}} Category:1885 births Category:1973 deaths Category:American pacifists Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:Activists from Brooklyn Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights