Described as a kind, gentle, truly understanding woman and humanitarian, Emily Bissell
was born into a prominent Wilmington family. Educated in private schools in Delaware
and New York, Miss Bissell learned the value of charity work. At the age of fifteen she
began the volunteer work that she would continue through her lifetime.
Emily Bissell
helped establish the West End Reading Room in Wilmington, which provided the city's first
free kindergarten. She promoted children's causes and
also worked to provide Americanization classes for new immigrants.
Emily Bissell's strong concern for the welfare of all people, especially
women, led her to become a strong opponent of woman suffrage. On February
13, 1900, Miss Bissell addressed the United States Senate Committee on woman suffrage:
"The woman
suffrage movement is the only women's movement in existence after fifty years
- hardwork
finds itself not only in the minority, but with strong associations of women banded
against it." She believed that politics was not an appropriate
arena for women.
In 1907, at the request of her cousin Dr. John Wales,
Miss Bissell began a fight against tuberculosis that
would change her life, and ours. Dr. Wales, who worked at the "Brandywine
Shack," an open-air tuberculosis sanatorium, warned that without better funding,
patients would be sent home, spreading the disease before they died.
Dr. Wales asked Bissell for her help. Having read about Christmas Stamp sales
in Denmark, Miss Bissell decided to try the idea in the United States. She hoped to raise
$300. With money borrowed from friends, she designed a small postage-sized stamp,
found an artist to render her design, and a printer who agreed to print 50,000 stamps in
the brightest red they could find. She made arrangements to sell them at the post
office, for one penny each to give even the most humble person a chance
to help fight against tuberculosis.
When sales lagged, Emily
Bissell used her influence with the editor of a Philadelphia
newspaper, the North American. With the paper's support she raised
$3,000
the first year and the "shack" was saved. Her success sparked interest in
a national campaign in 1908. Delaware's famous illustrator, Howard Pyle, designed
the second stamp. Sold nationally, it raised over $100,000.
Emily Bissell devoted
the rest of her life to the anti-tuberculosis movement. She is recognized for her pivotal part in making Americans conscious of the fact
that tuberculosis can be conquered and that the fight against the disease is a war in which
there is a universal need for cooperation.
Emily
P. Bissell