Jessie Haver Butler was born on Pueblo, Colorado cattle ranch in 1886. She received an A.B. from Smith College in 1909. She was secretary and assistant Director of New York City's Pulitzer School of Journalism, and from 1917-18, she was secretary and lobbyist for the National Consumers League. Butler lobbied for minimum wage for women in industry. She was a legislative advocate for the League of Women Voters in 1919, and in 1918 and 1919, she accompanied Carrie Chapman Catt on a cross-country lecture trip for suffrage. In 1920, she married Hugh Butler. In the 1920s, she lived in London, where she studied public speaking and lectured to women's groups. She also underwent psychoanalysis with the first Jungian Clinic Psychoanalyst in Europe, James Hadfield. In the 1930s and 40s, she taught public speaking to wives of congressmen and diplomats in Washington, D.C., and she wrote 3 books on public speaking. In the 1950s, she organized a League of Women Voters chapter in Pomona, California. She was active in the National Organization for Women, and she helped to establish daycare centers in Pomona in the 1970s. She was interested in religion and the "Community Church." Butler died in 1985.

The Jessie Haver Butler Papers (1920-78) consist of 1 linear foot of material. They contain biographical information; photographs, including photos of Carrie Chapman Catt and Queen Mary; personal correspondence; a scrapbook on daycare centers; a tape and video; a book inscribed by George Bernard Shaw; and Butler's book Time to Speak Up, a Speaker's Handbook for Women.

NOTE: The container list for this collection is available in the Sophia Smith Collection. Please contact us to request a copy.