Harriet Chalmers Bliss, later Ford, from the 1899 yearbook of Smith College
Born
Harriet Chalmers Bliss
November 28, 1876
New York, New York, U.S.
Died
February 20, 1964 (aged 87)
Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)
Editor, writer, clubwoman
Harriet Chalmers Bliss Ford (November 28, 1876 – February 20, 1964) was an American editor, writer, and clubwoman. From 1899 to 1912, she was an editor at
The CenturyMagazine. Later, she held national leadership roles in the
YWCA, and worked in Paris during
World War I. She was elected vice-president of
Smith College in 1931.
Early life and education
Bliss was born in New York City[1] and raised in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles Bliss and Harriet Maria Kopper Bliss.[2] Her father was a physician and
Union Army veteran of the
American Civil War, and her mother was born in Scotland.[3] Both of her parents died in the 1880s.[4] She graduated from Smith College in 1899.[5][6]
Career
From 1899 to 1912, Bliss was an editorial assistant and then editor at The CenturyMagazine.[7] Later, she held national leadership roles in the YWCA. She was based in Paris during World War I, at the Paris headquarters of the
American Red Cross, and as chair of the city's committee of the
Smith College Relief Unit in France.[8][9] She was decorated by the King of Montenegro and received the Médaille Argent from the French government for her wartime work.[10]
Ford was a trustee of Smith College from 1928 to 1936, and was elected vice-president of Smith College in 1931.[5] She also lived on campus for several years as resident trustee, beginning in 1931.[11] In 1937, she was named executive chair of the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. During
World War II, she was a local representative of the
Office of Price Administration in
Northampton, Massachusetts.[12]
Bliss married George Burdett Ford in 1912.[7] Her husband, an architect and city planner,[18] died after a surgery in 1930,[19][20] and she died in 1964, at the age of 87, at a nursing home in Northampton.[12] There is a collection of her papers in the Smith College Archives.[5]
^Hamersly, Lewis Randolph; Leonard, John W.; Mohr, William Frederick; Knox, Herman Warren; Holmes, Frank R.; Downs, Winfield Scott (1907).
Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 146.