Biography
Iris Calderhead Walker 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. Doris Stevens recorded her term as: July 4, 1917: three days.
Stevens identifies Iris Calderhead as then married to John Brisben Walker and as the daughter of a former Kansas representative. Her entry describes University of Kansas graduation, study at Bryn Mawr and leaving school teaching to organize and speak for the National Woman’s Party.
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, Appendix 4, printed page 369.
A 2020 Panhandle-Plains Historical Review history names Iris Calderhead alongside Lucile Shields among the thirteen women arrested while picketing the White House on July 4, 1917. It identifies Judge Andrew Mullowney in the blocking-traffic proceeding and reports that the defendants rejected the $25 fine and conditional personal bonds, choosing the three-day jail sentence. This describes the imposed alternative and their decision to enter jail; the separately recorded custody dates remain the basis of the duration. Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, volume XCI (2020), “Women’s Suffrage,” printed pages 15–16 and notes 28–31.
