Women Philanthropists Born in the 1860's

Women Philanthropists Born in the 1860’s

Helen Hartley Jenkins (1860-1934) inherited a large fortune in 1902 and immediately began helping in the areas of education, medicine and social welfare.  As a trustee of Teachers College, Columbia from 1907 to 1934 she funded the creation of the department of nursing and health which trained graduate nurses in administration.  She supported the School of Nursing at Memorial Hospital, Morristown, New Jersey and was one of the principal donors to the New York Polyclinic Hospital in 1912.

Mary Gwendolin Caldwell (1863-1909) and her sister Mary Elizabeth inherited from their father several million dollars.  Of Mary Gwendolin’s share, when she was 21 years old, one third was to go to the Catholic Church to found a university.  In 1884 her money founded what became the Catholic University of America. 

The two sisters traveled to Europe, moved in fashionable circles, and both married European titled men.  Both broke away from the Catholic faith.  Mary Gwendolin’s portrait was removed from a University building, but her name still identifies one of the buildings.

Kate Macy Ladd (1863-1945) inherited a fortune in oil securities from her father in 1876.  She followed a family pattern of philanthropy when she turned her interest to health care which included free hospital care for the poor in New York, Philadelphia and other cities and adding an infirmary to the New Jersey College for Women at New Brunswick (which became Douglass College.) In 1930 she established the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation with $5,000,000, dedicated to combining scientific medical research with social sciences.  At her death the foundation received another $19,000,000.  For years she contributed to the Berry Schools in Georgia.

Ellen Scripps Booth (1863-1948) inherited her fortune from the Scripps newspapers which, added to money from the Booth newspapers, established the Cranbrook Foundation in 1927 in Bloomfield Hills, a Detroit suburb.  The foundation money built schools, a science museum and the famous Cranbrook Academy of Art with its building designed by Eliel Saarinen.  The Academy enjoys a fine international reputation for training advanced students in painting, architecture, sculpture and handicrafts.  The Academy also is famous for its exhibits of modern art and its extensive library.

Lizzie Bliss (1864-1931), daughter of a wealthy New York businessman, was a patron of musicians and artists.  She supported the Kneisel Quartet at the turn of the century and served on the advisory committee of the Juilliard Foundation.  She soon became interested in modern art, supported and probably helped finance the famous New York Armory Show of 1913.  She bought many works of modern French painters.  Lizzie Bliss, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Sullivan launched the Museum of Modern Art in 1929 and she left 150 paintings to its collection.  She also left generous amounts to the New York Hospital, the Broadway Tabernacle (Congregational) and the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864-1953) endowed the first pension fund for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1916 in memory of her parents.  She contributed up to $50,000 annually for 10 years to her cousin Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Bureau of Educational Experiments.  She gave $100,000 to the Anti-Tuberculosis Association and underwrote what became the Berkshire String Quartet.  In 1923 she sponsored a festival in Rome and she financed other foreign festivals.  In 1925 she established the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress and endowed the foundation with trust funds ensuring a yearly income of about $25,000.  Other grants and bequeaths made possible the construction of the Coolidge Auditorium.  The Coolidge Foundation supported modern music; it commissioned Copland’s Appalachian Spring, choreographed by Martha Graham in 1944, as well as works of many other composers.

Carrie Bamberger Fuld (1864-1944) and her brother Louis Bamberger co-founded the Institute for Advance Study at Princeton with an initial endowment of $5,000,000.  It opened in 1933 with Albert Einstein as the first professor.  Another endowment of $3,000,000 created a school of economics and politics.  Total benefactions came to about $18,000,000. Carrie Fuld gave to many other groups, including the Jewish Day Nursery and Neighborhood House in the slums of Newark.  In 1941 it was renamed the Fuld Neighborhood House.

Anita McCormick Blaine (1866-1954), daughter of Nettie McCormick, widowed in 1892, used her enormous wealth to aid in solving urban problems by using Progressive ideals of group cooperation.  In 1899 she founded the Chicago Institute to train teachers in Progressive methods.  It merged with the University of Chicago in 1901.  She contributed more than $3,000,000 to the Francis W. Parker School.  In 1900 she joined Jane Addams in the City Homes Association to investigate tenement conditions.

She campaigned for American entry into the League of Nations.  In 1943 she gave $100,000 to Madame Chiang Kai-shek to aid Chinese war orphans.  She supported the 1945 San Francisco Conference and the United Nations.  In 1948 she contributed more than $1,000,000 to establish the Foundation for World Government. During her lifetime her philanthropies totaled more than $10,000,000.  Her will gave another $20,000,000 to causes, notably the New World Foundation.

Grace Rainey Rogers (1867-1943) began collecting Persian and French 18^th century paintings at an early age.  She served on the advisory council of the Cleveland Museum of Art and was one of the original trustees (1929-1934) of the Museum of Modern Art.  In 1942 she donated a complete 18^th century room to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  At her death she left gifts to The Seeing Eye, the Children’s Aid Society and the SPCA.

She also provided $400,000 for the Grace Rainey Rogers Memorial Annex to the Museum of Modern Art.  Completed in 1950, it houses studios and workshops.  The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, a concert hall in the Metropolitan Museum opened in 1954 with several hundred thousand dollars toward the million dollar cost coming from her estate.

Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867-1919), better known as Madame C. J. Walker, was the first black businesswoman to amass a million dollar estate.  She developed preparations for black hair, sold them through franchises and employed a workforce of about 3000.  Her philanthropies included large donations to the NAACP, the YWCA, and to homes for the aged.  She supported the Palmer Memorial Institute and provided scholarships for young women at Tuskegee Institution.

Annie Turnbo-Malone (1869-1957) began advertising and selling a product in 1900 for improving hair texture and sheen.  After successful sales at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair her business flourished and she was a national success by 1910.  In 1918 she built a 5-story factory and beauty-training school which she named Poro College.  The building was headquarters for the National Negro Business League.  Her franchises in North and South America, Africa and the Philippines created jobs for about 75,000 women.  She gave thousands to Howard University Medical School and $25,000 to the YMCA in 1925.  In 1919 she gave property and construction money for the St. Louis Colored Orphans Home.

References used include

Notable American Women, 1609-1950

Notable American Women, The Modern Period

Notable American Women, Completing the 
Twentieth  Century

History of Woman Suffrage Slack, Charles.  Hetty . . . America’s First Female Tycoon.  2004.

I will continue with women born after 1869 who gave graciously to education, the handicapped, the arts, and mental health issues.