Anita Lily Pollitzer was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 photographer.

Early life

Her mother, Clara Guinzburg Pollitzer (born Clara Guinzburg), was the daughter of an immigrant rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 from Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. Her father, Gustave Pollitzer, ran a cotton company at Charleston, South Carolin. Anita Pollitzer had two sisters, Carrie (born 1881) and Mabel (born 1885) and a brother, Richard. In December 1928, she married Elie Edson, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

's uncle. The couple moved to New York City and lived in an apartment on West 115th St.

Career

Pollitzer may be best known for her friendship with Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...

 whom she met at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. Pollitzer introduced O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...

 helping to forge one of the most significant artist relationships in the 20th century. In addition to her influence in art, Pollitzer was instrumental in the passage of the 19th Amendment

Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....

 and held positions of leadership in the National Woman's Party

National Woman's Party

The National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...

serving as National Chairman from 1945 until 1949.

External links

• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/profiles8.html
• http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/uscs/2005/pollit05.html
• http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/uscs/1995/poltzr95.html
• http://www.palmettohistory.org/scha/SCHA2000.pdf
• Oral History Interviews with Mabel Pollitzer, Anita Pollitzer's sister http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0047-1/menu.html, http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0047-2/menu.html from Oral Histories of the American South