DUTCH FEMINIST | Rosa Manus Remembered

Rosa Manus (1881-1942)

Charles Leidschendam Boissevain just wrote to me about a lecture this past week about Dutch feminist Rosette Susanna ("Rosa") Manus. The lecture was by  Prof. Francisca de Haan, who edited with Myriam Everard a 700-page biography of Manus with multiple authors of specialized chapters. A 16-page report on the book – in English! 😗👍 – is available here.

In her lecture at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, Prof. de Haan argues that Manus is at least as important to the women’s movement as Aletta Jacobs, after whom a foundation is named. 

There are several connections between Manus and American suffragist Inez Milholland Boissevain. Manus:

• Was, like Inez, active in the movements for both women's rights and peace.
• Organized in 1913 an important first World Congress on women's emancipation and world peace. That was the same year as the January march in Washington led by Inez on horseback. 
• Worked on women's issues with Dr. Mia (Maria) Boissevain (1878-1959). Mia is mentioned on p. 13 of the report cited in the first paragraph above. Mia's husband Robert was the nephew of Eugen Boissevain, who married Inez Milholland in July 1913.
• Was arrested by the Nazis the year after they invaded Holland, and was killed by them in 1942 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. Mia's husband Robert was also killed by the Nazis by starvation and disease in another concentration camp. Mia and Robert, and their children including Charles, are included by Israel's Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations.

The new biography was published in Leiden in 2016 by Brill Publishers, which has been around since 1683. It is publicized by Atria, an Amsterdam nonprofit that works for a gender equality agenda. Atria's newest project is a Wiki-writing workshop on the 3rd Friday of every month to equalize the number of articles on women in Wikipedia.  One of their topics to cover is the Men's League for Woman Suffrage, in which Eugen Boissevain played a role along with his friend Max Eastman and Inez Milholland's father John E. Milholland. The director of Atria is Renée Römkens. 

References:

Atria, Netherlands Institute for Gender Equality and Women's History, Vijzelstraat 20,

1017 HK Amsterdam. info@atria.nl. Also:

• Streets of Amsterdam (AT5) on Rosa Manus, January 9, 2017

• Amsterdam: Rosa Manus was more important than Aletta Jacobs, AD and Het Parool, December 14, 2016

INEZ | 5A. Boissevain Suffragists in Holland [9]

Jan Boissevain
 (1836-1904)

I received the following email from Charles Boissevain asking us to help a woman who is writing a dissertation about five relatives of the man Inez Milholland married, Eugen Boissevain.

They are the daughters of Jan Boissevain (1836-1904), who may be found in the "Blue Book" - Nederlands Patriciaat 1988, on p. 52.

Jan's daughters would be first cousins of the children of Charles Boissevain (1842-1927) who include Eugen and his four brothers and six sisters, including my grandmother Olga Boissevain.

Dear Descendants of Jan Boissevain (1836 - 1904) and Other Interested People: 

A lady at the Dutch University of Groningen, Mrs. Esmeralda Tijhoff, is writing a most interesting Ph.D. dissertation about the five daughters of Jan Boissevain.

Jan and his wife Petronella Gerharda Johanna Brugmans (1838 - 1905) had five daughters and four sons. The five daughters were, each in her own way, active in developing citizenship for women and in advocating for women's rights. 

A dissertation like this is rare and an honor for "The Five Sisters Boissevain''.
Jan Boissevain's daughters were:

> Elisabeth Antonia, 1864 - 1904. She was married to Jan Gunning, 1859 - 1951. She died half a year after the birth of their only child, Jan Gunning jr. There are still some descendants alive.
> Helena Mensina (Heleen), 1867 - 1946. Not married. Dedicated her life to the translation of books by Plato into Dutch.
> Anna Maria, 1872 - 1924. Married to Gideon Mari Den Tex. Their son was Jan den Tex, honorary doctor of Utrecht University. No children.
> Petronella Johanna (Nella), 1873 - 1970. Married to Adriaan Floris (Aat) van Hall. Mother of ten children. Two of them well-known: Gijs van Hall, mayor of Amsterdam and Walraven van Hall, one of the most famous Resistance heroes during W.W. 2. He was shot by the Germans not long before the end of the war. Read about their lives via Google. [Aat's brother Jan van Hall, married Nella's cousin Hester Boissevain, further cementing the connections between the two families. The two families vacationed together in Drafna, about which I have written on another post. - JTM]
> Dr. Maria (Mia), 1878 - 1959. Not married. She was very active in organizing all sorts of women activities, also international ones. It is possible that descendants of Jan and Nella (or others !) know more. Especially descendants of the brothers of these Five Sisters Boissevain. 

Please let me know.
Charles Boissevain (1934, Nederlands Patriciaat p. 75). ch.boissevain@online.nl.

The descendants of Jan Boissevain are called the Jantjes in Dutch. The descendants of his brother Charles are called the Charletjes.

Besides the five Jantje sisters, the Charletjes include three women in-laws who are world-famous in suffragist history:

Marie Pijnappel, the first female member of the Dutch Parliament, who was married to Charles E. H. ("Charles Eh Hah") Boissevain.

Inez Milholland Boissevain, who is the subject of this blogsite, the first wife of Eugen Boissevain.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, who was the second wife of Eugen Boissevain.