Biography
Camilla Whitcomb was a member of the National Woman's Party and one of the "Silent Sentinels" imprisoned during the 1917-1919 campaign to picket the Wilson White House for woman suffrage. Held at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia or the District of Columbia Jail, many of these prisoners joined hunger strikes and were force-fed. A Worcester, Massachusetts suffragist.
Updated Boston custody chronology: arrested and incarcerated February 24, 1919; sentenced February 25; released March 4, 1919. The dated stay is eight elapsed days. These dates follow the supplied record correction; earlier source notes are retained as historical background where accounts differ.
Updated Boston custody dates
Updated Boston custody chronology: arrested and incarcerated February 24, 1919; sentenced February 25; released March 4, 1919. The dated stay is eight elapsed days. These dates follow the supplied record correction; earlier source notes are retained as historical background where accounts differ.
Stevens individually identifies the picketer and records: Thirty days in jail after the November 10, 1917 picket. This imposed term does not establish actual service or new endpoints.
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, Appendix 4, PDF pages 17.
Kenneally individually identifies Camilla Whitcomb among the women jailed at Charles Street following the February 1919 Boston suffrage demonstration and proceedings before Chief Justice Wilfred A. Bolster. This is separate from the 1917 Washington/Occoquan case. The eight-day sentence was nominal; the article describes early releases after fines were paid, without supplying an individually established complete duration for this prisoner.
Kenneally, Historical Journal of Massachusetts 45(1), Winter 2017, printed pages 113–118.
Stevens identifies Whitcomb of Worcester as chairman of the Massachusetts National Woman’s Party organization in the fourth congressional district. This is a historical organizing position.
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, Appendix 4, printed page 370.
