Jane Hungerford Milbank (April 10, 1871 - March 4, 1931) was an American suffragette who organized the Army of Columbians.
Early life She was born on April 10, 1871, in Sparta, Georgia, as Jane Hungerford Henry.Passport application from 19 January 1923 She claimed to have posed for artist John La Farge as a young woman, and to have been the model for his "Adoration" and "St. John."Lorinda Munson Bryant, American Pictures and their Painters (John Lane Company 1920): 80-82.
Activism Mrs. Milbank was best known for proposing an "Army of Columbians," a military regiment of women, during World War I, complete with a uniform she designed and wore.Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford University Press 2008): 115-116. Elaine F. Weiss, Fruits of Victory: The Land Army of America in the Great War (Potomac Books 2008): 13. She held weekly training sessions for a handful of recruits, with wooden guns."'Army' of 7 Women Trains Its Recruit; General Milbank Complains at Fourteenth Regiment Armory of Too Much Ego," New York Times (May 19, 1915): 4. "My only fear is that they will be too savage warriors," she assured doubters.Mrs. J. Hungerford Milbank, "Now for an Army of Women Soldiers: The First Women's Regiment Organized to Make its Members Manly and Able to Fight Side by Side with their Husbands, Fathers, Sons and Brothers," Washington Post (February 22, 1914): 37. She also suggested that military training might decrease domestic discord."Drill to End Divorce: Many Fair New York 'Soldiers' Now in Awkward Squad," Washington Post (February 14, 1914): 4. Her program was formalized by 1915 as the International Order of Military Women, with Milbank presiding."Co-Education Plan for Military Camp," New York Times (June 13, 1916): 11."Mrs. Milbank Hurt by Fall: Steps into Open Elevator Door and Drops Ten Feet," New York Times (August 27, 1915): 9.
She was also an author and poet, using the name "J. Hungerford Milbank" to publish a collection of miscellaneous short works titled Florence Gardiner Sings.J. Hungerford Milbank,Florence Gardiner Sings: Some Thoughts and Some Bridges (Goerck Art Press, 1910) She was a member of the Century Theatre Club for more than twenty years."Obituaries: Milbank," New York Times (March 7, 1931): 16.
Personal life She first married Cedric (or Carl) Augustus Erlund in 1893, and had two sons during their marriage, named Cambridge Erlund (b. 1896) and Charles Hungerford Erlund (Milbank) (b. 1901). She married a second time, to Charles Budd Milbank, in 1904. She was widowed when Mr. Milbank died in 1920, and she died on March 4, 1931, in Freeport, Long Island."Necrology: Charles Budd Milbank," in Lewis Effingham de Forest, ed., The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, Year Book for 1920-1921 (1921): 166.
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