The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 258

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Piekarski's selections make a strong case for her belief that women
writers' deep concern with the history and the people of the American
West has "begun to unravel the tightly woven mythos" (p. io) and re-
sulted in contributions to our literature that are only now becoming
apparent.
San Antonio JUDYTH RIGLER
A Texas Suffragist: Diaries and Writings of Jane Y. McCallum. By Janet
G. Humphrey. (Austin: Ellen C. Temple-Publisher, 1988.
Pp. viii+ 168. Acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, notes,
selected bibliography, index. $14.95, paper.)
In this welcome contribution to Texas history and women's studies,
Janet G. Humphrey has resurrected the voice of one of the foremost
leaders of the woman suffrage campaign in Texas, Jane Y. McCallum.
In her introduction and in her chronology of McCallum's life (1878-
1957), Humphrey tells us about this dynamic woman. McCallum began
her suffrage work in 1914 when she joined the Austin Woman Suffrage
Association and served two consecutive terms as president. She was
soon on the board of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and re-
mained a leader in the cause through June, 1919, when Texas became
the first southern state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony amendment to
the United States Constitution.
During the same period, she accepted leadership in the prohibition
campaign, the anti-vice crusade, and the war work effort while writing
newspaper columns, lobbying legislators, and mobilizing like-minded
Texas women. In 1917 she organized a major rally to protest Governor
James Ferguson's attack on the University of Texas. Her public career
continued and included work with the Women's Joint Legislative Coun-
cil in the 192os and three terms as Secretary of State under two differ-
ent governors.
A Texas Suffragzst draws on two major sources: McCallum's diaries for
June, 1916, through July, 1918, and for 1919, which Humphrey re-
prints in their entirety. Humphrey interrupts the diary at critical points
to provide the reader with the essentials of historical context, and her
excellent footnotes add details about the woman suffrage campaign,
the intricacies of Texas politics, Texas luminaries, and McCallum's
friends, family, and associates.
The most enjoyable aspect of these diaries is the view they provide of
how one woman combined a public career as activist with a rich family
life. Diary entries intersperse reports of lobbying and planning with
news of her family-five children, husband Arthur N. McCallum (su-

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