Emily Edson Briggs

Emily Pomona Edson Briggs (September 14, 1830 – July 3, 1910) was a journalist in Washington, D.C. during the 19th century. She was one of the first American women to become nationally known as a reporter. She came to national attention during the Civil War for her writing under the pen name Olivia in the Washington Chronicle and Philadelphia Press.

Early life

Emily Pomona Edson was born in Burton, Ohio, in 1830. Her parents were Mary Umberfield (previously Umberville) and Robert Edson, a blacksmith. She grew up in Ohio and later on a farm in Illinois outside Chicago after 1840. Her family moved to Chicago in 1854, where her father found success in real estate.

Edson worked briefly as a teacher in Painesville, Ohio, before marrying John R. Briggs around 1854. The couple had two children, John and Arthur, the latter of whom died at a young age. When her husband became a part-owner of the Keokuk, Iowa, Daily Whig (later renamed the Gate City), they moved westward.

Career

After the Keokuk newspaper went bankrupt, the Briggses moved from Iowa to Washington, D.C., in 1861. Her husband had been asked by President Abraham Lincoln to work as a financial clerk for the House of Representatives. While living in Washington, Briggs became interested in reporting and commenting on national politics.

After she wrote an angry letter to the Washington Chronicle in support of women being employed by the government, amid criticism of the female clerks replacing men sent off to war, she was hired to write for the paper. She began writing under the pen name "Olivia," by which she became well known nationally, because of taboos against a woman's name appearing in print except upon her marriage or death. In addition to the Chronicle, her writing was published regularly in the Philadelphia Press, a sister publication to the Chronicle, and her work was reprinted in newspapers across the country. After starting out writing book reviews, she was asked to write a daily column, which became very popular. Her column was unusual for a female journalist of the period for its incisive political commentary, although it also covered society and fashion.