Alaska Packard Davidson
Born
Alaska Packard

(1868-03-01)March 1, 1868
Warren, Ohio
DiedJuly 16, 1934(1934-07-16) (aged 66)
Alexandria, Virginia
OccupationFBI special agent
Spouses
  • Ephraim B. McCrum (m. 1893)
  • James B. Davidson (1905-1929)

Alaska Packard Davidson (March 1, 1868 – July 16, 1934) was an American law enforcement officer who is best known for being the first female special agent in the FBI.

Early life

Davidson was born in Warren, Ohio, on March 1, 1868, to Warren and Mary Elizabeth Doud Packard.[1] Her two brothers, James Ward Packard and William Doud Packard, founded Packard, an automobile manufacturer later taken over by Studebaker.[2] She grew up in one of the largest houses in Warren and was likely named after the U.S. territory of Alaska. [3][4]

Little is known about her personal life, except that she only had three years of public schooling and no university education[5] and that she had one child, Esther, who died in 1902.[2] She was also said to be a "well-known equestrian" who won awards in her teenage years, and enjoyed riding bicycles.[3][4] Apart from her brothers James Ward and William Doud, she had two sisters: Carlotta Packard[6] and Cornelia Olive Packard.[7][8]

In 1890, she would be put in charge of the New York and Ohio plant, which was unusual at the time, as few women were running factories at that time.[1][9] It later became the Ohio Lamp Division. Her management of the plant has been described as "quite an achievement."[3][1] On November 8, 1893, she would marry Ephraim B. McCrum, a close friend of her brother, Warren Doud. She would have one child with him, Esther, in November 1894, before divorcing him in 1900.[3] At that time, she and Esther were living in a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Esther died in April 1902 from pneumonia.[3]

She married a second time in 1905 to James B. Davidson, a man originally from Warren who the family knew well.[3][4] By 1910, they would be living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The following year, she would purchase land in Accotink, Virginia, near Mount Vernon, where she, and her husband, also known as Jim, would live until their deaths, raising a dog and horses.[3][4]

FBI career

On October 11, 1922, at age 54, Davidson was hired by director William J. Burns to work at the Bureau of Investigation (the former name of the FBI) as a special investigator.[10][11][12] she was the first female special agent.[13] Trained in New York City,[14] she was later assigned to the Washington, D.C. field office.[15] Her starting salary was $7 a day plus $4 when traveling.[16] She was said to be earning the equivalent of $102 a day in present-day value.[1] It has also been alleged that an attorney encouraged her to join the agency.[3] In a 1927 letter, Harriet Taylor Upton stated that she encouraged Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty to hire Davidson, and said that she was surprised that he appointed her to the BOI, under Burns, where she got, a "$2300.00 a year salary", in her words, driving "back and forth from her plantation" every day for her work.[17][9]

The Bureau was interested in hiring female agents to work on cases related to the Mann Act, which aimed to combat interstate sex trafficking.[2] However, since she was considered "very refined", the order was given that she wasn't to be put on "rough" cases.[1] This, combined with her limited schooling, meant that she was considered to be of limited use when it came to prosecuting such crimes.[2][13] During her work at the Washington field office, she was also involved in a case against another agent who was selling classified Department of Justice information to criminals.[15] She also informed the agency about the activities of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,[18] at the organization's Fourth International Congress in May 1924,[19] under the name "A.P. Davidson".[20]

After J. Edgar Hoover became acting director of the Bureau in 1924 following the Teapot Dome scandal, he asked for Davidson's resignation when the Special Agent in Charge at the Washington field office reported that he had "no particular work for a woman agent".[21][22] She resigned on June 10, 1924.[4][23] Before her resignation, she gave testimony before a select committee of the United States House of Representatives about her surveillance of Gaston B. Means in October 1923, watching movement in and out of Means' house, and again in March 1924.[24]

Only three women became agents in the 1920s. With the resignation of Davidson and fellow agent Jessie B. Duckstein in 1924 and Lenore Houston in 1928,[25][26] the FBI had no female agents between 1929 and 1972.[15][22][27] While the FBI claims that Davidson and Duckstein resigned as "part of the Bureau’s reduction of force",[28] scholar Meredith Donovan writes that Hoover fired both women during a round of cuts at the agency in May 1924.[29] The FBI also notes, on the agency's official website, that in the 1920s, expectations for agents "changed to a patriarchal approach as to what positions were appropriate for women."[30]

Later life

In 1925, after the death of her brother, William, she signed a petition, along with her sisters, brother, and other individuals, to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division calling for appraisal of a transfer tax of property owned by William, known as Packard Manor, in the State of New York.[7]

Davidson exchanged letters, in May 1927, with Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt told her about a story she heard from her friend, Harriet Taylor Upton, about a list of suffragettes which were reportedly compiled by the Bureau of Investigation, with information provided by Mary Kilberth and Robert Eichelberger.[31] Catt asked that Davidson let her be named if the government inquired into the list,[31] to which Davidson agreed to, and remembered the list, but only vaguely.[32] Catt, writing to Davidson in June 1927, later apologized for not responding more promptly to Davidson's letter.[33] The same month, Upton wrote to Catt, calling Davidson someone she had known "for years" and a sister of "the Packard men who made the Packard machine." She further commented that Davidson has married "rather unfortunately," and noted that Davidson had thrown the list into the waste basket.[17]

In May 1929, Davidson's husband, Jim, passed away. She would continue living in Virginia, on her family, with her dogs, until her death.[3] Davidson died on July 16, 1934, at the age of 66.[2] She would be buried in Paltzgrove Cemetery, in Lordstown, Ohio.[1]

Legacy

Despite the fact that she resigned from the FBI in 1924, the agency still mentioned her in their post celebrating women who worked as agents for the Bureau.[28] Cindee Mines, a volunteer with the National Packard Museum, stated that Davidson lived an "unusual life" and argued that she was "ahead of her time."[1] Others called Davidson, along with other women in the same Packard family, "trailblazers in their own right."[34]

The mention of Davidson as the first female FBI agent by Lana Kane in the Archer episode, "Waxing Gibbous" was noted as an example of the show's habit of using obscure references.[35] In their review of the episode, Vulture noted that Kane has "pointed dialogue" about disappointing hiring practices of intelligence sector, including a "shout-out" to Davidson, who is described as a "trailblazing agent."[36]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Coupland, Bob (September 2, 2019). "Packard offspring's life was anything but conventional". Tribune Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Delgado, Miguel A. (February 4, 2017). "Alaska Packard, la primera agente del FBI despedida por ser mujer" [Alaska Packard, the first FBI agent fired for being a woman]. El Español (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mines, Cindee. "Packard, Alaska (1868-1934)". Trumbull County Historical Society. Archived from the original on February 5, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Alaska Packard Davidson". New York Heritage Digital Collections. Empire State Library Network. Archived from the original on September 2, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  5. ^ Holden, Henry M. (2008). FBI 100 Years. Zenith Imprint. p. 37. ISBN 9781610607186.
  6. ^ Gray, Andy (November 28, 2016). "Book chronicles Packard family history". Tribune Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 29, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Petition of September 3, 1925, for Order Directing Appraisal of Transfer Tax". State of New York Supreme Court Appellate Division Fourth Department. New York: State of New York. 1928. pp. 224–299.
  8. ^ Coupland, Bob (October 25, 2021). "Residents tour Warren's oldest cemetery". Tribune Chronicle. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Six Notable Residents of Trumbull County". Trumbull County Ohio Tourism Bureau. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  10. ^ David, Dick. "National Packard Museum in Warren is worth a road trip". GoErie.com. Gannett Company. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  11. ^ Koletar, Joseph W. (2006). The FBI Career Guide: Inside Information on Getting Chosen for and Succeeding in One of the Toughest, Most Prestigious Jobs in the World. New York: AMACOM. p. 4. ISBN 9780814429587.
  12. ^ Holden, Henry M. (2008). FBI 100 Years: An Unofficial History. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Zenith Imprint. p. 37. ISBN 9781610607186.
  13. ^ a b Theoharis, Athan G. (1999). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 321–322. ISBN 9780897749916.
  14. ^ "March is Women's History Month!". U.S. Embassy and Consulate Poland. U.S. State Department. March 2, 2019. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Mullenbach, Cheryl (2016). Women in Blue: 16 Brave Officers, Forensics Experts, Police Chiefs, and More. Chicago Review Press. p. 143. ISBN 9781613734254.
  16. ^ Vines, Lynn (1993). "Federal Bureau of Investigation: The First Female Agents". In Nix, Jonnie (ed.). Women in Law Enforcement. Washington, D.C.: Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. p. 77. Reprinted from The Investigator
  17. ^ a b Harriet Taylor, Upton (May 17, 1927). "Alaska Packard Davidson". Letter to Carrie Chapman Catt. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 2, 2023. letter continues here
  18. ^ Davidson, Alaska Packard (May 7, 1924). Re - Women's International League of Peace and Freedom: Report of Fourth International Congress (Report). FBI. pp. 2–9. File 287. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  19. ^ Davidson, Alaska Packard (May 5, 1924). Re - Women's International League of Peace and Freedom: Report of Fourth International Congress (Report). FBI. pp. 18–25. File 4237. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  20. ^ Davidson, Alaska Packard (May 5, 1924). Re - Women's International League of Peace and Freedom: Report of Fourth International Congress (Report). FBI. pp. 26–39. File 61-1538. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  21. ^ "FBI Washington Field Office". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on November 5, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  22. ^ a b Riga, Suzanne (May 5, 2016). "Alaska Davidson, First Female FBI Special Agent". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  23. ^ Newton, Michael (2015). The FBI Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, North Carolina. p. 85. ISBN 9781476604176.
  24. ^ "Testimony of Mrs. Alaska Packard Davidson, Special Agent, Department of Justice". Investigation of Hon. Henry Daughtery Formerly Attorney General of the United States] Hearings Before the Select Committee on the Investigation of the Attorney General, United States Congress, Senate Sixty-Eighth Congress First Session Persuant to S. Res 157 Directing a Committee to Investigate the Failure of the Attorney General to Prosecute or Defend Certain Criminal and Civil Actions Wherein the Government is Interested: May 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, and 22, 1924 [Part 9] (Report). Government Printing Office. 1924. pp. 2492–2495. Retrieved September 2, 2023. Davidson also mentioned on pages 2489, 2666
  25. ^ The FBI: A Centennial History, 1908-2008. Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2008. p. 8. ISBN 9780160809545.
  26. ^ Stamper, Norm (2009). Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing. New York: Nation Books. p. 113. ISBN 9780786736249.
  27. ^ Holden, Henry M. (2005). To Be an FBI Special Agent. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Zenith Press. p. 13. ISBN 9781610600873.
  28. ^ a b "Celebrating Women Special Agents". FBI. May 16, 2012. Archived from the original on February 12, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  29. ^ Donovan, Meredith (December 2019). FBI Investigations into the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (Bachelors). Columbus State University. pp. 17–18. Archived from the original on September 2, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  30. ^ "Female Special Agent's Briefcase". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  31. ^ a b Carrie Chapman, Catt (May 26, 1927). "Kilberth's List". Letter to Alaska Packard Davidson. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  32. ^ Alaska Packard, Davidson (May 30, 1927). "Kilberth's List". Letter to Carrie Chapman Catt. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  33. ^ Carrie Chapman, Catt (June 25, 1927). "Kilberth's List". Letter to Alaska Packard Davidson. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  34. ^ Edsall, Larry (March 8, 2018). "Packard women (one was first female FBI agent) featured in museum presentation". ClassicCars.com Journal. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  35. ^ Hughes, William (May 10, 2017). "Archer goes full-on horror movie with its most brutal rampage yet". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  36. ^ Bramesco, Charles (May 10, 2017). "Archer Recap: Of Merkins and Musicals". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2023.

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