Ladies’ Home Journal began in 1883. The July/August 2014 issue was the last monthly issue of the magazine and the last one that was sent to subscribers. For two years, the magazine was a quarterly, newsstand-only publication and it ceased publication in 2016.
When I was working on my dissertation, my adviser sent me on a wild goose chase. I spent hours and hours in SIUC’s Morris Library, flipping through bound issues of women’s magazines from the late 1800s. I no longer even remember why I was doing that, other than being a doctoral student meant going on a few wild goose chases.
Magazine page announcing, “After 131 incredible years, this is the last monthly issue of Ladies’ Home Journal.”
Reading the announcement in the July/August 2014 issue reminded me of the time spent going through those old magazines. One of the discoveries I made has intrigued me for years.
As I was flipping through the March 1896 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal, I came upon a two-page spread. Both articles were by Nancy Mann Waddle. The one on the left-hand page was about carnations. The one on the right-hand side was about fleur-de-lis ( iris). My mind immediately thought “Monmouth Duo.” Both Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma were founded as women’s fraternities at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, in 1867 and 1870, respectively. Pi Phi’s flower is the wine carnation, Kappa’s flower is the fleur-de-lis.
Was Nancy Mann Waddle a Pi Phi or Kappa? I could find no record of her being a member of either organization. I am not sure she even attended college. Was there a fraternity woman involved in the placement of these two articles or was it just mere coincidence that they ended up in the same two-page spread? Unfortunately, I think it’s one of those questions to which we’ll never have an answer. It’s more a mystery left to the ages.
According to encyclopedia.com, Nancy Mann Waddle was born in 1866 in Chillicothe, Ohio. She later changed the spelling of Waddle to Waddel. On August 4, 1897, she married James Wilson Woodrow, a cousin of Woodrow Wilson. Some of the other names she used as by-lines were Jane Wade and Mrs. Wilson Woodrow. According to the website, she was a “Prolific contributor of short stories and articles to magazines such as McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Life, Harper’s, American, and Good Housekeeping, wrote in a masculine voice, leading many editors to believe she was male using a female pseudonym; her style set her apart from sentimental female novelists and earnest feminists of the day; wrote 1 play and 13 novels, including The New Missioner (1907), The Silver Butterfly (1908), and The Black Pearl (1912); published series of satires of popular novels in Life (1905–06).”
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
