Julia Archibald Holmes: Difference between revisions

Holmes was born in 1838 in [[Noel, Nova Scotia]], Canada, and moved to [[Massachusetts]] with her family in 1848. Her father, James Archibald, was an [[abolitionist]], while her mother Julia was a strong supporter of [[women's suffrage]].<ref name=hike>{{cite news|title=Woman's 1858 hike to summit blazed trail|date=May 15, 2001|work=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]|first=Jeanne|last=Davant}}</ref> The Archibald family relocated again in 1854 to [[Lawrence, Kansas]], to assist in the abolitionist efforts sparked by the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]] (see [[Bleeding Kansas]]); their Kansas home served as part of the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref name=ppld>{{cite web|url=http://more.ppld.org:8080/kids/colorado/biographies/JuliaAHolmes.pdf |title=Julia A. Holmes |publisher=[[Pikes Peak Library District]] |accessdateaccess-date=May 25, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525200406/http://more.ppld.org:8080/kids/colorado/biographies/JuliaAHolmes.pdf |archive-date=May 25, 2014 }}</ref> In 1857, she married James H. Holmes, an abolitionist whom she had met through her father's friend [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]].<ref name=hike/>

Julia and James Holmes traveled to the [[Rocky Mountains]] in [[Colorado]] in 1858 with a group of [[gold mining|gold miners]].<ref>{{cite news|title=SHEShe WOREwore THEthe PANTSpants THISthis CLIMBclimb ; Talk details historic ascent of Pikes Peak by woman|date=January 25, 2009|first=Lance|last=Benzel|work=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]}}</ref> When the party arrived at the foot of [[Pikes Peak]], the Holmeses decided to attempt to climb the mountain with J. D. Miller and George Peck. They reached the summit on August 5, 1858, making Julia Holmes the first woman to have climbed Pikes Peak.<ref name=mag>{{cite book|url=httphttps://books.google.com.au/books?id=7xCfxJWgMGgC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2|title=The Magnificent Mountain Women: Adventures in the Colorado Rockies|pages=2&ndash;6|first=Janet|last=Robertson|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|year=2003|isbn=0803289952}}</ref><ref name=women>{{cite book|chapter=Holmes, Julia Archibald (1838–1887)|year=2002|title=[[Women in World History]]|first=Morgan|last=Barbara}}</ref> From the summit, she wrote in a letter to her mother: "Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed; and now here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all."<ref name=mag/>

After climbing Pike'sPikes Peak, Holmes and her husband moved to [[Taos, New Mexico]], where she worked as a correspondent for the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]''.<ref name=hike/> She had four children before divorcing her husband in 1870 and relocating to [[Washington, D.C.]], where she worked in the Spanish Correspondence Division of the [[Bureau of Education]], the first woman member, eventually advancing to the division chief.<ref name=women/><ref name=douglas>{{cite web|url=httphttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19990616&id=aIwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M-cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6494,4305475|title=First White Woman to Climb Pikes Peak|first=June|last=Howe Jewett|date=June 16, 1999|work=[[Lawrence Journal-World]]|accessdateaccess-date=May 25, 2014}}</ref>

Holmes was heavily involved in the [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage movement]] in the 1860s and 1870s. She was a secretary for the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]] and spoke at the first National Woman Suffrage Association convention in 1869.<ref name=ppld/><ref name=douglas/> She was involved in setting up associations for the movement in Washington, D.C., and, to aid the suffrage campaign, she attempted to register to vote in 1871.<ref name=fame>{{cite news|title=10 to Be Inducted into Colorado Women's Hall of Fame|first=Carol|last=McGraw|work=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]|date=March 19, 2014}}</ref> She was a friend of [[Susan B. Anthony]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Women's Rights Wends West|date=March 3, 1986|work=El Defensor Chieftain}}</ref>

[[Category:19th-century American women journalists]]

[[Category:CanadianAmerican womenfemale journalistsclimbers]]

[[Category:FemalePeople climbersfrom Hants County, Nova Scotia]]