Suzanne Silvercruys

Baroness Suzanne Silvercruys (married names Suzanne Farnam, Suzanne Stevenson; May 29, 1898 – March 31, 1973) was a Belgian-American sculptor and political activist, founder and first president of the Minute Women of the U.S.A.

Life and career

Suzanne Silvercruys was born in Maaseik, Belgium,^[1]^[2] where her father, Baron Frantz (François) Silvercruys, was a Conseiller (justice) and later president of the Court of Cassation.^[3]^[4]^[5] The family came to the United States in 1915 in flight from World War I; she became a US citizen in 1922.^[6]^[7] Her brother, Baron Robert Silvercruys [de], was a poet and professor of French and later the Belgian ambassador to Canada and then for many years to the United States.^[5]

In 1917, she was one of 1,500 people present at a dinner in Philadelphia where Secretary of War Newton D. Baker was to speak; when he failed to appear, she was invited to speak instead and described the Rape of Belgium by the invading Germans.^[4]^[8] She subsequently toured the US and Canada as "the little Belgian girl", publicizing the Belgians' plight and raising a million dollars for relief to them.^[6]^[9] She received honors from the King and Queen of Belgium,^[4]^[10] including the Order of Leopold^[11] and the Order of the Crown; she was also awarded the British Coronation Medal and was an officer of the French Academy.^[7]

Silvercruys originally hoped for a career as a musician; she became interested in sculpture when she was ill with tuberculosis and a friend gave her some modeling clay; she sculpted her dog's head.^[12]^[13] She graduated from the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1928^[6] and worked as a sculptor, mainly producing portraits of famous people; she also painted portraits.^[6] She had a one-person sculpture show in New York in 1930.^[10] She also lectured on sculpture, often sculpting one or more members of the audience,^[6] and taught the first college class in sculpture at Wichita Falls, Texas.^[14] In the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she represented Belgium as a sculptor in the art competition.^[15]

She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Temple University^[7] and, in 1966, an LL.D. by Mount Allison University, where her papers are preserved.^[16] She lived for many years in Norwalk, Connecticut, and in Tucson, Arizona,^[17] where she was living when she died in Washington, D. C., while on a lecture tour.^[6]

Political career

In World War II Silvercruys was again active on behalf of Belgian relief.^[4]^[18] After the war she became a prominent anti-Socialist speaker and activist. She was one of the organizers of the Young Republican League of Connecticut and was the founder and president of Minute Women of the U.S.A.;^[19]^[n 1] she left that position in 1952 to co-found the Constitution Party,^[6] but soon in turn left the party, disenchanted with her treatment as a foreign-born Catholic and believing it harbored anti-Semites.^[20]^[21] Her political feminism prefigured that of Phyllis Schlafly: she sought to mobilize conservative women in defence of traditional American values, was much influenced by John T. Flynn,^[22] and treasured a letter from Senator Joseph McCarthy, which was shown to hesitant Minute Women recruits.^[23]

She assisted in placing a candidate on the Connecticut delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1950,^[24] and twice sought a place in Congress herself: as a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1946 election for the House of Representatives^[6] and as an independent right-wing Republican candidate against incumbent Republican Prescott Bush in the 1956 election for the Senate.^[25]^[26]

Private life

Silvercruys was married twice, to Henry W. Farnam, Jr., son of a Yale professor,^[27]^[28]^[29] and to Edward Ford Stevenson,^[2] who had filmed the Tehran and Yalta conferences during World War II^[6] and was later a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve,^[19] advertising executive, and producer; he died before her.

Selected works

Bust of Lord Tweedsmuir, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York^[6]^[7]^[8]^[30]
Bust of Herbert Hoover for the library at the University of Louvain,^[6]^[8]^[12] now in the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven^[31]
Bust of Anthony McAuliffe, Place McAuliffe, Bastogne (1946–1947)^[32]^[33]
Memorial group portrait of Queen Astrid of Belgium and children^[8]^[12]
Group portrait of the Dionne quintuplets at the age of five^[6]^[7]^[8]^[34]
Statue of Francisco Eusebio Kino, one of the two statues from Arizona in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D. C.^[17]
Trophy presented to Amelia Earhart by the Zonta Club of New York after her first solo trans-Atlantic flight^[7]^[35]
Twice life-size bust of Robert A. Taft^[36]
Statue of Princess Noccalula (1969), at Noccalula Falls Park, Gadsden, Alabama^[37]^[38]

Publications

Suzanne of Belgium: The Story of a Modern Girl (autobiography, with Marion Clyde McCarroll). New York: Dutton, [1932]. OCLC 5224112.^[6]^[13]^[39]
The Epic of America (pageant)^[3]
There Is No Death (drama, 1935)^[6]^[13]^[40]
A Primer of Sculpture. New York: Putnam, [1942]. OCLC 1509301.^[6]^[13]

Notes

^ There are varying accounts of whether she was the sole founder of the Minute Women. George Norris Green, The Establishment in Texas Politics: The Primitive Years, 1938–1957, Contributions in Political Science 21, Westport, Connecticut / London: Greenwood, 1979, ISBN 9780313205255, p. 123, also presents her as sole founder; however, according to Allan J. Lichtman, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008, ISBN 9780871139849, p. 152, she co-founded the organization with Vivian Kellems.

References

^ "Suzanne Silvercruys Farnam", Olympic Sports, Sports Reference, retrieved August 24, 2016.
^ ^a ^b Evelyn de Rostaing McMann, Biographical Index of Artists in Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto, 2003, ISBN 9780802027900, p. 219.
^ ^a ^b Mary Margaret M'Bride, "Government Effect On Family Life Is Now Arousing Interest of Women in United States", The Spartanburg Herald, September 12, 1934, p. 3.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Associated Press, "Relief Plea Made By Belgian Woman", The Montreal Gazette, June 10, 1940, p. 7.
^ ^a ^b "Silvercruys, Robert, Papers", Georgetown University Archival Resources, Georgetown University Library, retrieved August 28, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o "Suzanne Silvercruys, 74, Dies; Sculptor, Painter and Lecturer", The New York Times, April 2, 1973, p. 38.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Noted Sculptor Will Give Lecture-Demonstration For AAUW", Schenectady Gazette, February 10, 1948, p. 13.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e George Tucker, "Man About Manhattan", Ellensburg Daily Record, November 29, 1939, p. 6.
^ Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I, New York: New York University, 2004, ISBN 9780814797044, p. 194.
^ ^a ^b Lee Hennessy, Central Press, "Six Interesting Faces Selected", The Spartanburg Herald, December 1, 1933, p. 17.
^ International News Service, "Nazis Hold Belgian King Virtual Prisoner, Friend Of Royal Family Declares", St. Petersburg Times, December 15, 1940, p. A7.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Owes Her Fame To A Chance Present", The Montreal Gazette, January 6, 1937, p. 7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Pat Ingram, "Fascinated Reporter Gets Hurried Interview With Madame Silvercruys", The Breeze, Madison College, February 13, 1948, p. 1.
^ "Suzanne to Teach In Texas College", Sunday Herald (Bridgeport, Connecticut), December 2, 1956, p. 10.
^ "Suzanne Silvercruys Farnam". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
^ "Fonds 12 – Suzanne Silvercruys Stevenson", Archives CANB, retrieved August 26, 2016.
^ ^a ^b C. L. Sonnichsen, Tucson: The Life and Times of an American City, Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1982, ISBN 9780806118239, p. 307.
^ "Famine in Europe Seen; Mme. Silvercruys Stresses the Burden on Allied Nations", The New York Times, June 4, 1940.
^ ^a ^b Don E. Carleton, Red Scare! Right-Wing Hysteria, Fifties Fanaticism, and Their Legacy in Texas, Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1985, ISBN 9780932012906, p. 111.
^ Allan J. Lichtman, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008, ISBN 9780871139849, p. 152.
^ Carleton, pp. 121–22.
^ Carleton, pp. 111–12.
^ George Norris Green, The Establishment in Texas Politics: The Primitive Years, 1938–1957, Contributions in Political Science 21, Westport, Connecticut / London: Greenwood, 1979, ISBN 9780313205255, p. 123.
^ "Suzanne Out of Running", Sunday Herald (Bridgeport, Connecticut), May 28, 1950, p. 18.
^ Frances Lewine, Associated Press, "Women Try To Double Congressional Hold", Ocala Star-Banner, October 28, 1956, p. 3.
^ "Another Close Race Looms in Connecticut", Congressional Quarterly, via St. Petersburg Times, October 20, 1956, p. 2.
^ "Miss Silvercruys To Wed H.W. Farnam Jr.", The New York Times, April 20, 1922, p. 17.
^ "American's Belgian Bride", The Washington Post, May 21, 1922, p. 22, Online at Newspapers.com, subscription required.
^ "Farnam, Hy Walcott Jr.", New York Times Index for the Published News 10.2, p. 185.
^ Preston Remington, "Notes", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34.12 (December 1939), 288–91, p. 289.
^ Jan Van Impe, "Grand Staircase and First-Floor Hall", The University Library of Leuven: Historical Walking Guide, rev. ed. Leuven: Leuven University, 2012, ISBN 9789058679253.
^ Silvercruys, Suzanne, Connaître la Wallonie, retrieved August 29, 2016 (in French).
^ Guy Blockmans, "General Mc Auliffe Monument", Pays de Bastogne, Maison du Tourisme, retrieved August 29, 2016.
^ Associated Press, "N.Y. Sees Dionnes; But As Sculptures", The Montreal Gazette, November 9, 1939, p. 12.
^ "Flier's Memorial Planned By Zonta", The Montreal Gazette, November 4, 1938, p. 6.
^ "Twice Life-Size", The Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina), June 19, 1958, p. 4.
^ George Butler, "Statue Of Noccalula Expected To Arrive Here In Late August", The Gadsden Times, June 29, 1969, p. 13.
^ "Our View: Preserving a piece of history", The Gadsden Times, March 11, 2013.
^ The Book Review Digest 29 (1934) p. 301.
^ George Tucker, "Man About Manhattan", The Gettysburg Times, March 14, 1935, p. 8.