Florence Trail (1854-1905)
Florence Trail was practically destined to become an intellectual. She was born into a prominent Maryland family, which afforded her opportunities not available to most women of her day. She attended the Frederick Female Seminary and the Mount Vernon institute, where she graduated with honors. Despite an illness that left her with impaired hearing, she studied music at the Peabody Conservatory, which likely contributed to her book of musical criticism, Meanings of Music (1918). Trail never married and publicly advocated for women’s suffrage, attending suffrage conventions and writing in favor of the vote. She cared deeply about the improvement of women, and seemed driven to write and publish critical essays at a time when women were frequently excluded from intellectual discourse. Her prose is erudite and exhibits a wide range of reference. She is capable of a historian’s objectivity while also taking an American woman’s view of the world. Trail received a letter of recognition from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy for her book, History of Italian Literature (1903). This high distinction was recognized both by the Club and the Baltimore Sun, which regularly recognized her literary accomplishments. Trail was a non-resident member of the WLCB from 1899-1908.
Sources
Hurley, William N., Our Maryland Heritage: The Trail Families. Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2001.
Livermore, Mary A., and Frances E. Willard. A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893.
Baldwin, Frances E. “New Honors For Woman Writer,” Baltmore Sun, Oct. 14, 1928.
“Purely Personal,” The News (Frederick, MD), April 28, 1916.
Contributors
Marina Fazio; Alessia Hughes