Born in Philadelphia, Ida B. Wise Smith rose to national prominence as an Iowan dedicated to women's suffrage, prohibition, and children's rights. She pressed these causes in the political arena, achieving enactment of a state prohibition amendment during her tenure as president of the state Women's Christian Temperance Union. After serving in that post for twenty years, she was president of the national WCTU from 1933 to 1945. She also pushed for enactment of the Iowa children's code and the establishment of the child welfare research station at the University of Iowa, and she was an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ Church.