Born: 12 August 1833, United States
Died: 30 December 1913
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Tiger Lily, Elizabeth Johnson Devereux
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
American woman suffragist and reformer. She married in 1855, Frank G. Q. Umsted, a Philadelphia lawyer, who died in 1859, leaving her with two children to support. She turned her attention to literary work, and completed several successful novels. In 1866 she married Grinfill Blake, a New York merchant. She was one of the active promoters of the movement that resulted in the founding of Barnard College and was prominent as a speaker on educational topics. Having identified herself with the woman’s suffrage movement, she delivered many addresses on the subject throughout the country. Mrs. Blake was president of the New York State Woman’s Suffrage Association from 1879-1890, and was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the law permitting woman’s suffrage in school elections. She was the author of the law providing for matrons in the police stations, passed in 1891, and of that requiring storekeepers to provide seats for saleswomen.