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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Cora Agnes Benneson/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 8 April 2024 [1].

Cora Agnes Benneson

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Nominator(s): voorts (talk/contributions) 17:20, 8 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Cora Agnes Benneson was a late-19th and early-20th century American attorney. She was one of the first women to open her own law practice in New England, a member of several organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an accomplished writer and lecturer. Benneson was also a complicated figure; she held nativist beliefs and her feminism saw marriage and raising children as natural for women (although she herself never married nor had children).

This article was written during WikiProject Women in Red's 2024 year-long education initiative, after I found Ms. Benneson in the missing articles list for Julia Ward Howe's Representative Women of New England (1904). The article was just promoted to GA after a thorough review by Sammielh. voorts (talk/contributions) 17:20, 8 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Image review

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Support from SusunW

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Hello, voorts. Happy to make your acquaintance. Thank you for writing about her and allowing me to learn her story. I warn you in advance, I am a bit methodical (okay obsessive), and agonize over reviews, so I am really slow and work in spurts. But, I view reviews as a conversation for improvement, so feel free to disagree with anything I write. Always ping me. (note 2 u's no a). SusunW (talk) 19:38, 12 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Lede:

  • I find the excessive repetition of Benneson to be distracting from comprehension, meaning that I find myself looking for the repeated word rather than the content. Please consider reducing the number of times you repeat her name with appropriate pronouns.
    • Done.

Early life:

  • First sentence uses Benneson 3 times. Perhaps use "Electa Ann (née Park) and Robert Smith Benneson".
    • Done.
  • How do we know Robert worked in lumber and real estate?
    • I can't remember or find the sources, so I've removed it for now.
  • Trueblood (p. 326) says her mother was known as Annie, but you call her Electa.
    • First sentence of the fourth paragraph on page 326 says "Miss Benneson's mother, Electa Ann Park Benneson ...".
Probably not a huge deal, but since Trueblood says "Annie Park, as she was generally called" I thought it worth mentioning. It's kind of like referring to Michael Philip Jagger as something other than Mick. Most people wouldn't know who you were talking about and likely finding sourcing would be impacted. Your call. SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My reading was that she was called Annie Park in her younger years, but not as an adult. voorts (talk/contributions) 20:05, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • If we are giving information on her ancestors who were clergy, why not include that both sides of the family were originally from England, (Cyclopedia p 399, Trueblood p 326) and that her mother descended from Richard Park (Parke) one of the original proprietors of Cambridge, Massachusetts? (ISHS Journal p 307, Trueblood p 326)
    • Done.
  • "By the age of 8" I do not see this in the Cyclopedia p 399 nor ISHS Journal p 307, but it is in Trueblood p 327 and Nazzal p 274; and "[able] to get at the pith of an argument" is a direct quote requiring citation, but only found in Trueblood p 327 and ISHS Journal p 307. Suggest splitting up the bundled citation at the end of both sentences to reflect only the citations which apply to each sentence.
    • Done.
  • How do we know that Quincy Seminary was a prep school? Was it a coeducational school? Both seem very unusual for the period, boys/men and girls/women were typically educated separately and women were not deemed to be university material. Looking at the link for the seminary class photo, it states it was the Quincy Female Seminary. This newspaper clipping confirms she was the valedictorian of the 1869 class from the Quincy Female Seminary. In my experience, "female seminaries" were typically normal schools. Searching for the curricula, I find little, but this piece on the Milwaukee Female College, where Caroline and Mary E. Chapin (why doesn't she have an article?) were principals from 1857 to 1863 makes clear that these types of schools focused on career training "suitable" for women, i.e. teaching, child care, morality, family health, and home economics. pp 21-22 But maybe it was more, as this says in Milwaukee they taught both normal and collegiate courses including math, natural science, history, geography philosophy, language, composition and literature. Chapin's obit doesn't clarify. Do you have something that confirms it was a prep school? Suggest you add "Female" to the name of the school.
    • I've removed preparatory school and added "Female".
Don't know if you think it worthwhile to mention that she was the valedictorian, per the Quincy Whig. Not a deal breaker, for me to support, but it's definitely noteworthy, IMO SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree. Added. voorts (talk/contributions) 20:17, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Higher education

  • The note says Harvard did not admit women until 1950, but Nazzal p 275, says Harvard admitted Benneson in 1896 and she completed a master's degree. But then later, on p 280 he says she got her 2nd master's from Radcliffe. Not sure if you think it is worth expanding the note to give a bit more info, i.e. Radcliffe began as the Harvard Annex to teach women, but became its own degree-granting institution in 1894.
    • The note refers to Harvard Law School specifically, not Harvard University more broadly. I don't think it's worth getting into Radcliffe's degree-granting status since when she applied there, they had already been accepting women for two years.
That's fine. SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

World travels

  • is interest "in the treatment of women and their opportunities" per the source the same as "including the rights of women" in the article? I tend to think of rights as legal or at least recognized rules or norms that people are owed. Women at that time were not typically legal entities, as they had no individual personhood in law. How they were treated and what their opportunities were, were largely dictated by a husband, father, or guardian and were considered private matters. A husband could beat his wife, rape her, take all of her money and it wasn't any type of crime because she was seen as merely an appendage of his personhood. I also note that her observations of women on her trip don't seem to be concerned with rights, rather with their appearances and societal positions, which I concede might go toward "opportunities" but rights? not sure.
    • I changed the phrase to "who was interested in foreign legal cultures and rights of women"
I like your change to status of women. Seems much nearer to the source. SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • "two year" and "four month" should have hyphens, since they are functioning as an adjective to tour.
    • Done.
  • Perhaps link Burma and Abyssinia, as they are no longer known by those names?
    • Done.
  • "Benneson wrote dispatches" does not appear in Nazzal p. 278, but rather p 285 says her notes were published after her return in The Unitarian. Dispatch, i.e. information that is published in media about recent events and typically sent by someone in a foreign country, perhaps is the wrong word? or did she publish in other media while she was traveling?
    • Fixed.
  • I find it a bit odd that you specifically mention that she went on the tour to learn about women's rights, but the descriptions of her travels you have included give none of her observations on women, which admittedly were pretty superficial.
    • Addressed above.

Career

  • Perhaps I am wrong, but Trueblood p. 329 and the Cyclopaedia p. 399 give Law Reports as if it is a journal name, not a generic report.
    • Law reports are usually a generic name. Many publishers of case law call their publications "law reports".
  • The only source that mentions Woodrow Wilson or the quoted material is Bohan p 20
    • The other sources substantiate the unquoted portion about the fact of her moving there for a fellowship.
  • "From 1897 to 1892"?. Nazzal actually says 1897 to 1902.
  • No need to repeat that she was a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association
    • Done.
  • Do we have any idea what area of law she specialized in? The Cyclopaedia says she had "a large and successful practice", but gives no clues as to what type of law she focused upon. Likewise, do we have any clue what she did as a special commissioner?
    • No clue and I haven't found anything about her practice. Same with being a special commissioner.
I figured that would be the case, but thought I'd ask. SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Final year and death

  • While I can plainly see that Nazzal states the obituary said she died of a stroke, it doesn't actually say that (and yes, I did check that the obit you cited is the same obit Nazal cited). The obit says her health broke down from overworking.
    • Fixed.
  • Per the obit, she was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.
    • Added.

I think that's it from me. Ping me for further discussion. SusunW (talk) 23:20, 12 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@SusunW: I believe I've addressed everything. Thank you for the thorough review. voorts (talk/contributions) 19:02, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Voorts Thank you. I am happy to support. The two outstanding comments, I leave up to your discretion as they don't alter the validity or thoroughness of your work. SusunW (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@SusunW: Thank you for the support. I've addressed your remaining two comments. voorts (talk/contributions) 20:18, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support by Nick-D

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This is a short but interesting article. I have the following comments:

  • The three final sentences in the lead para refer only to the subject as 'she' (including two sentences in a row starting with this)
    • Fixed.
  • "She spent her youth reading, writing, and learning from her parents' guests" - what's the value of this? It's hardly uncommon, and wrongly implies that she was self educated.
    • Fixed
  • The last sentence of the lead should be tweaked to be two sentences. More broadly, semicolons are somewhat over-used across the article.
    • Fixed.
  • Should the Quincy Academy and/or Quincy Female Seminary be (red?)linked?
    • It can't hurt. Done.
  • What did she do between 1872 and 1875 and 1878 and 1880?
  • The sentence starting with 'Harvard rejected her application' has two full stops
    • Fixed.
  • Do we know how she funded the world tour?
    • No, but I would guess using her parents' money.
  • "She was also the founder of, counsel for, and member of several organizations" - the grammar is off here
    • In what way?
      • The sentence is trying to cover too much ground and becomes a bit of a mouthful of words as a resu;t. I'd suggest splitting this into two sentences (being the counsel for organisations seems a bit different than the other roles, for instance). Nick-D (talk) 10:14, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can anything else be said about her legal career? E.g. notable cases, clients, etc?
    • Not that I've been able to find.
  • I'm confused at why a range of articles about Benneson, including what's probably the main source for the article, are listed as 'primary sources' when they are not.
    • Fixed.
  • I note that the references to Trueblood are to the version on Wikisource - is this reproduction a reliable source? Nick-D (talk) 04:22, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    • Changed.

@Nick-D: Replied above. voorts (talk/contributions) 19:01, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nick-D: I've addressed your last comment. voorts (talk/contributions) 00:37, 21 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support My comments are now addressed. Well done with this article - it's a good example of a short but sharp FA quality article on an under-remembered person. Nick-D (talk) 08:45, 21 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support from Otuọcha

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@Voorts:: You did a very good job. I have no thought of criticism, and will express my own way of supporting the article. I will check some words out too.

  • In "Final year and death" section, this statement: "According to her obituary writer, her death was reportedly caused by overworking." Don't we need a source there. Or is The_Quincy_Daily_Herald19195-33 the next source supporting that?
    • It's supported by both of the citations at the end.
  • This is not much a problem. Isn't it just simple putting it as "Death". I don't see much emphasis on "Final year" addition.
    • I like final year because the section also notes that she stopped practicing law that year.
  • The "career section" wrote: "In 1899, she was made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Do change that "made" to "elected" or rewording: "In 1899, she was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science." AAAS fellows are elected.
    • Done.

@Otuọcha: Responded above. Thanks for your support. Best, voorts (talk/contributions) 22:45, 25 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Source review

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Spot-check upon request. Are Mary Esther Trueblood and Julia Ward Howe known to be biographers? Everything else seems to be OK. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:30, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Howe was a suffragist (perhaps best known for writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic), and Trueblood was a professor of sociology and mathematics. I'm not sure who else Trueblood wrote biographies of. The book that the Trueblood biography is in was also edited by Mary H. Graves, who was a literary editor and writer, and the publisher's note at the start of the book notes that Graves fact-checked the biographies. voorts (talk/contributions) 23:51, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Did some minor spotchecking and didn't notice anything untoward. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:39, 27 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! voorts (talk/contributions) 21:59, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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