The subject of this portrait titled Mrs. W  bears a striking resemblance to the American educator, reformer and women’s suffragist Frances Willard. In 1858, the Willard family moved to Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Illinois was also the home to photographer Herbert Arthur Hess, living in Jacksonville, Illinois at the time the portrait was taken. We are tentatively attributing this portrait to Willard, although further research is needed. Please also see Portrait of Woman Writing, a platinum print in our archive. Could this also be an unknown portrait of Willard towards the end her life?

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard: 1839-1898

Willard… was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women’s suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth (on Prohibition) and Nineteenth (on women’s suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan “Do Everything” for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education.

Willard’s accomplishments include raising the age of consent in many states and passing labor reforms, most notably including the eight-hour work day. She also advocated for prison reform, scientific temperance instruction, Christian socialism, and the global expansion of women’s rights. -Wikipedia (2024)

Herbert Arthur Hess

From Photograms of the year 1903:

In Illinois we find a number of workers of more than ordinary merit. Herbert Arthur Hess, of Jacksonville, formerly of Boston, is one of our younger workers of great promise, and has lately been admitted as an associate of the Photo Secession. Mr. Hess (see p. 36) does figure, portrait, and landscape work almost equally well, but has gained his greatest prominence through his outdoor nude studies, some of which have appeared in previous issues of Photograms of the Year. (p. 40)