Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, A leader in the New South.
Biograpahy Of A Key Kentucky Suffrage Leader
By The First Woman To Pass Bar In Kentucky
Inscribed
Breckenridge, Sophonisba Preston. Madeline McDowell Breckenridge, A Leader in the New South. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [1921].
8vo.; xvi, 275; original dark blue cloth; corners bumped; extremities of spine rubbed; little soiling to back cover; short genealogical annotaions or underlining in pencil on two preliminary leaves; frontispiece portrait and 32 other plates; generally very good.
First Edition, Inscribed by the Author on the front blank, To/ Julia Leach Anderson/ from Sophonisba Preston Breckenridge./ 1934.
Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948), social worker, reformer, attorney, and suffragist, was a born into a socially prominent family of a Confederate Colonel and Congressman. Her heritage included John Breckenridge, Kentucky Senator and Attorney General under Thomas Jefferson. Her father was a Southern Liberal of the school of Wade Hampton, and a firm believer in the education of women. She was the sister-in-law of the subject of her biography. Miss Breckenridge was the first woman to pass Kentucky’s bar examination; predictably, her law practice did not prosper. By 1895, she was extremely discouraged with her prospects for a career. It was at this time that a Wellesley classmate persuaded her to come to live with her in Chicago and become the secretary to Marion Talbot, dean of women at the University of Chicago. Under the influence of Marion Talbot’s influence, Miss Breckenridge secured a fellowship in political science and began studies that led to a Ph.D., which she received in 1901. She then entered the university’s law school, graduating J.D. in 1904. Subsequently drawn to the Women’s Trade Union League and into the circle of Chicago reformers, she lived at Hull House and taught at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, eventually becoming its dean. She wrote many books and became deeply involved with the study of social conditions, welfare administration, and various social reform movements, especially those involving children, slums, public health, juvenile courts, federal child labor laws, women’s trade unions and hours of employment for women.
In 1908, Miss Breckenridge became first secretary of Chicago’s Immigrant Protective League. In 1911 she was elected a vice-president of the NAWSA. She championed the rights of Negroes as an early member of the NAACP, and was a national officer of the American Association of University Women. She worked closely with Edith Abbott at the School of Social Service Administration, and in 1927 she and Abbott established the Social Service Review and launched the University’s Social Service series of books and monographs. Of equal importance was her great influence as a teacher of social work during her various professorships at the University of Chicago. She was also the first woman delegate to the Pan-American Congress (1933).
This book is the primary source for the life of Madeline McDowell Breckenridge (1872-1920), social reformer, advocate of civic responsibility, woman suffragist, and one of Kentucky’s leading citizens. Mrs. Breckenridge had a genius for publicity and organization; the list of her accomplishments is very long. She was especially interested in higher standards in the care of the needy, encouraged rural adaptations of the urban settlement idea, was instrumental in introducing manual training into Lexington schools, and instituted other progressive educational ideas. She helped to establish a juvenile court system and the restriction of child labor, had playgrounds built for poor children, and secured better conditions for women offenders. In 1900 she was a founder of the Lexington Civic League; she remained as the League’s guiding spirit and much of her social reform projects were put into motion under its auspices. Madeline Breckenridge was the central figure in the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and
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