File:Frances Willard House (7345674556).jpg

The Frances Willand House in Evanston, a national landmark (1865). Frances Willard moved to Evanston when she was 18 to study at the Northwestern Female College. She stayed after the university after graduating to teach, eventually becoming the President of the college and the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University. In the 1860s, Willard's father and sister died. Her brother became an alcoholic, gambling away most of the family's money. After resigning from Northwestern in 1874, Willard traveled east to participate in the temperance movement. She became a major speaker on the issue, giving four hundred lectures a year. In 1874, she became one of the founders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) as its secretary. She quickly became the President of the Chicago chapter of the WCTU and became head of their publications. She was elected president of the National WCTU in 1879. Willard died of influenza in 1898. She was the first woman honored in the Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol.

This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 66000318.