"A Rat in a Trap"
In a letter smuggled out of the Washington District Jail in November 1917, Gertrude Crocker tells her mother that she reminds herself of “a rat in a trap,” caught there “merely for holding a banner in front of the White House.” Crocker wrote this letter while serving her first of three sentences during the suffrage campaign of the National Woman’s Party (NWP).
Gertrude Lynde Crocker was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 7, 1884 and grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois where her father worked for the railroad. By late 1914, Crocker had joined the Congressional Union for Woman’s Suffrage (CU) (which became the NWP in March of 1917) and was working at CU headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she helped organize the deputation that visited President Wilson on January 6, 1915.
In 1915, Crocker worked as an organizer in her home state of Illinois sending reports to Lucy Burns in Washington, D.C. to be published in the CU’s newspaper, The Suffragist, and hosting Alice Paul at her home in Hinsdale when Paul visited the state in August 1915.
Gertrude Crocker, of Hinsdale, Illinois. Crocker was an active member of the National Woman’s Party and the fight for women’s suffrage during the late 1910s. After the suffrage campaign, she settled in Arlington and opened the Little Tea House on Arlington Ridge Road.
Crocker put her degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago to use as the Assistant Treasurer for the CU in 1916 and as the Treasurer of the NWP for several months in 1917.
"Militant" Tactics
On January 10, 1917, the CU began practicing “militant” tactics and Crocker was among the 12 women who participated in the first ever picket protest outside the White House. The “Silent Sentinels,” as they were called, continued the picket campaign for over two years until they had won women the right to vote in every state in the U.S.
Fighting for their political beliefs, the suffragists—including Crocker and her sister, Ruth—endured harassment and attacks by angry mobs during their silent picketing.
They were illegally arrested, tried, and convicted on charges of “obstructing traffic” and “burning effigies,” and were the first U.S. citizens to claim they were being held as political prisoners, an issue they highlighted by participating in days-long hunger strikes that occasionally resulted in force-feeding while imprisoned.
Gertrude Crocker (middle) is assisted out of an automobile upon her return to NWP headquarters after a six-day hunger strike following her arrest and imprisonment at the abandoned workhouse for a demonstration in Lafayette Square on August 6, 1918. Collection of National Women's Party at Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument.
The Little Tea House
Following the success of the suffrage campaign, Crocker settled in Arlington where she and her sister Ruth opened the Little Tea House on Arlington Ridge Road.
In addition to running her own business, Crocker was active in local civic organizations such as the Soroptimist International of Arlington, of which she was a charter member and President from 1946-1947; Arlingtonians for a Better County (ABC); the League of Women Voters; and the Arlington Civic Federation, of which she served as President of the Library Committee in 1954.
Gertrude Crocker with her dog, date unknown.
Silent Sentinel, Political Activist, Entrepreneur— Gertrude Crocker's efforts helped to shape the County, and the country we know today.
Related Archival Material
Archival items relating to Gertrude Crocker reside in:
- Center for Local History Collection PG 215: The Little Tea House, 1921-1925
- Library of Congress Collection Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party
- Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument National Woman’s Party Photograph Collection
Citations for Outside Collections
First Row, left to right
Image: Crocker_First_Picket
Harris & Ewing, photographer. The first suffrage picket line leaving the National Woman's Party headquarters to march to the White House gates on January 10, 1917. From left to right: Miss Berta Crone, of San Francisco, Miss Vivian Pierce, of San Diego, Miss Mildred Gilbert of San Francisco, Miss Maude Jamieson, of Norfolk. Photograph. Washington D.C.: Harris & Ewing, 1917. From Library of Congress: National Woman’s Party Records. Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000216/. (Accessed March 16, 2018.)
Image: DC_Prison
Harris & Ewing, photographer. D.C. prison where suffrage pickets were confined. Washington D.C.: Harris & Ewing, ca. 1917. Photograph. From Library of Congress: National Woman’s Party Records. Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000238/. (Accessed March 16, 2018.)
Image: 1918_001_079_02r corr
Pickets—Arrests and Imprisonment, August, 1918. Photograph. August 20, 1918. From National Woman’s Party at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument: National Woman’s Party Photograph Collection. Retrieved from National Women's Party at the Belmost-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, http://nationalwomansparty.pastperfectonline.com/photo/A7B81714-B626-4BC1-AD79-144228332700. (Accessed March 16, 2018.)
Second Row, left to right
Image: Crocker_Portrait
Harris & Ewing, photographer. Miss Gertrude Crocker of Illinois, Treasurer of National Woman's Party. Photograph. Washington, D.C.: Harris & Ewing, c. 1916. From Library of Congress: National Woman’s Party Records. Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000357/. (Accessed March 16, 2018.)
Image: Crocker_Portrait_Signature
Harris & Ewing, photographer. Crocker, Gertrude. Photograph. Washington D.C.: Harris & Ewing, 1917. From Library of Congress: Harris & Ewing Collection. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016868515/. (Accessed March 16, 2018.)
Third Row, left to right
Document: October 1917 Demonstration Department Report_Cropped
Arnold, Virginia. “Report of the Demonstration Department Month of October 1917.” National Woman’s Party. October 1917. Library of Congress: National Woman’s Party Records.
Document: 1917_11_08_Letter_From_District_Jail_Crocker_to_Beulah_Amidon
Correspondence from Gertrude Crocker to Beulah Amidon, 8 November 1917, Box I:80, National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
Document: 1918_08_17_Women’s Protest against Disenfranchisement – Suffragist
National Woman’s Party. “Women’s Protest Against Disenfranchisement Broken Up by Federal Police.” The Suffragist, 6, no. 30 (1918): 5-6. Courtesy of the National Woman’s Party at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument.