Julia E. Landers

(June 19, 1874-Apr. 12, 1953). A native of Indianapolis, Landers was born in her family home at 802 North Pennsylvania, later the site of the Central Library. After attending May Wright Sewall’S Girls Classical School, Landers graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia.

Returning to Indianapolis, she served as assistant to Sewall until the school’s closing in 1907. Afterward, Landers worked at a girls’ school known as Knickerbacker Hall, at 15^th  Street and Central Avenue, which she operated until World War I.

Appointed acting chair of the woman’s committee of the Indiana State Council of Defense in 1917, Landers mobilized more than 5,000 Indiana women in the production of shirts and bedding for soldiers.

She achieved many firsts for the women of Indiana: first woman appointed district chairman of the Democratic Party, the first woman to serve on an election board, and the first woman from Indiana to be elected Democratic national committeewoman.

An ardent suffragist, Landers worked for the passage of the 19^th  Amendment and was an organizer of the League Of Women Voters (see women’s rights and suffrage). Other memberships included the Woman’s Franchise League, the Woman’S Department Club, and the Indiana Women’s Democratic Club.

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