Tracy Dickinson Mygatt (March 12, 1885 – November 22, 1973) was an American writer and pacifist, co-founder with Frances M. Witherspoon of the War Resisters League, and longtime officer of the Campaign for World Government.

Early life and education Mygatt was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised by her widowed mother, Minnie Clapp Mygatt.Amanda Bickel, Minnie Clapp Mygatt: Study in a Victorian Sex Life (1987). Her great-grandfather Daniel S. Dickinson and great-great-grandfather John Tracy were both prominent politicians in New York State. Tracy D. Mygatt graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1909. After some years as a suffrage and labor organizer in Pennsylvania, she and Witherspoon moved to New York City in 1913."Suffragettes Begin Campaign for Votes", Delaware County Daily Times (September 28, 1912): 2. via Newspapers.com

Career and activism In New York City, Witherspoon and Mygatt joined the Woman's Peace Party, and together edited their publication, Four Lights.Erika Kuhlman, "'Women's Ways in War': The Feminist Pacifism of the New York City Woman's Peace Party" Frontiers 18(1)(1997): 80-100. DOI: 10.2307/3347203Mark Van Wienen, "'Women's Ways in War': The Poetry and Politics of the Woman's Peace Party, 1915-1917," Modern Fiction Studies 38(3)(Fall 1992): 687-714. They also organized the Socialist Suffrage Brigade,Tracy D. Mygatt, "The Claim of Socialism to Woman's Vote" The Northwestern Worker (September 30, 1915): 3. via Newspapers.com and edited an issue of The Call about suffrage.Frances H. Early, A World Without War: How U. S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I (Syracuse University Press 1997): 12-18. Mygatt joined Jessie Wallace Hughan and John Haynes Holmes in launching the Anti-Enlistment League in 1915.Ellen Baier, "Tracy D. Mygatt," in Benjamin F. Shearer, ed., Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime, vol. 2 (Greenwood Publishing 2007): 624.

Witherspoon and Mygatt continued with peace work after the war, as active members of the Women's Peace Union,Harriet Hyman Alonso, The Women's Peace Union and the Outlawry of War, 1921-1942 (Syracuse University Press 1999): 96. and as founders of the War Resisters League in 1923. They were charter members of the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship when it was founded in 1939. In 1961 they were recognized jointly with the WRL Peace Award.Nancy Manahan, "Future Old Maids and Pacifist Agitators: The Story of Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon" Women's Studies Quarterly 10(Spring 1982): 10-13.

In 1932, Mygatt ran for the New York State Assembly as the Socialist Party candidate.

Campaign for World Government From 1941 to 1969, Mygatt worked full-time for the Campaign for World Government, and was their accredited representative to the United Nations.Tracy Mygatt, "World Government is Common Sense," Progressive Education 24(October 1946): 10-11.Michael Scheibach, Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age with the Atom, 1945-1955 (McFarland 2003): 74-75. In 1969, after moving into a retirement home in Philadelphia, she continued to serve as part-time East Coast Secretary of the Campaign for World Government till her death in 1973.

Works Witherspoon and Mygatt co-wrote two Biblical novels, The Glorious Company (1928) and Armor of Light (1930), and a play about Vincent van Gogh, Stranger Upon Earth, among other literary collaborations.P. W. Wilson, "The Saints Step Out of their Stained-Glass Windows: Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Employ Feminine Intuition to Humanize and Revitalize the Acts of the Apostles," New York Times (July 22, 1928): 51.Alfred H. Barr, Vincent Van Gogh (Routledge 1967): 42. Mygatt also wrote several plays on her own (Children of Israel,Tracy Dickinson Mygatt, Children of Israel (George H. Doran Company 1922). Watchfires,Tracy D. Mygatt, Watchfires: A Play in Four Acts (self-published 1917). Grandmother Rocker, Good Friday, The Noose, Sword of the Samurai,"'Sword of the Samurai' to be Given by Presbyterians" Mason City Globe-Gazette (February 27, 1931): 11. via Newspapers.com His Son, Thim Socialists, and Bird's Nest), and published Julia Newberry's Sketch Book: or, The Life of Two Future Old Maids (1934), a biography of her mother and her mother's cousin."Miss Mygatt Writes Book of Sketches: Socialist Campaigner Pens Prim Records of Victorian Years" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 11, 1934): 4. via Newspapers.com

Personal life and legacy Mygatt lived and worked with Frances M. Witherspoon for over sixty years, in New York City, and later in Brewster, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.James B. Lloyd, Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967 (University Press of Mississippi 1981): 481. The pair were active in the Episcopal Church.Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy (Anchor 2012). They died within a month of each other, in late 1973, in Philadelphia; Mygatt was 88 years old, and had been in poor health for some time."Tracy Mygatt Dies; Led War Resisters" New York Times (November 24, 1973): 34. The couple's papers were donated to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances M. Witherspoon Papers, DG 089, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

External links Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers, in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore College

References