Sophonisba Breckinridge

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge

Lawyer, educator, social scientist, civil rights activist
Born April 1, 1866
Lexington, Kentucky
Died July 30, 1948(1948-07-30) (aged 82)
Chicago, Illinois

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (April 1, 1866 – July 30, 1948) was an American activist, Progressive Era social reformer, social scientist and innovator in higher education.

Background

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Sophonisba "Nisba" Preston Breckinridge was a member of the politically active and socially prominent Kentuckian elite, Desha family and Breckinridge family.[1] She was the second child of seven of Issa Desha Breckinridge, the second wife of Col. William C.P. Breckinridge, a member of Congress from Kentucky, editor and a lawyer. Her paternal grandfather was the abolitionist minister Robert Jefferson Breckinridge; her maternal grandfather was General Joseph Desha, a U.S. Representative and the ninth governor of Kentucky. Her great-grandfather was John Breckinridge, the United States Attorney General. Her cousin, John C. Breckinridge, a vice president during Buchanan's presidency, ran against Abraham Lincoln in 1860 presidential election.

Early life and education

She graduated from Wellesley College in 1888 and worked for two years as a high school teacher in Washington, D.C., teaching mathematics. She traveled in Europe for the next two years returning to Lexington in 1892 when her mother suddenly died. She studied the legal system in her father's law office and in 1895 became the first woman to be admitted to the Kentucky bar.[2]

Since she had no clients who would hire a woman lawyer, she left Kentucky to become a secretary to Marion Talbot, the Dean of Women at the University of Chicago. She enrolled as a graduate student eventually receiving a Ph.M. degree in 1897, and a Ph.D. in political science and economics in 1901 from the University of Chicago. Her thesis for the Ph.M. degree was on "The Administration of Justice in Kentucky," and her Ph.D. in Political Science came in 1903 with her dissertation, "Legal Tender: A Study in English and American Monetary History."[3] Meanwhile, she was appointed in 1902 as assistant dean of women of the university, and the next year she was hired as an instructor. In 1904, she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School. "My record there was not distinguished", she later wrote in her autobiography, "but the faculty and students were kind, and the fact that the law school, like the rest of the University...accepted men and women students on equal terms publicly".[4] She also became the first woman to be admitted to Order of the Coif, an honorary legal scholastic society. A news writer in Paris, Kentucky announced her achievement and gushed that Breckinridge, "is considered one of the most brilliant women in the South."[5]

Social scientist

As a social scientist, teaching and conducting research at the University of Chicago, Breckinridge focused on the intersection of the social problems, public policy and social reforms with an emphasis on immigrants, African Americans, child laborers, and working women in American urban centers, among other issues. From the beginning, she took an activist approach and became involved with the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), serving as a factory inspector.

In 1907 she joined the Hull House project and began in earnest to work with the leaders of the Chicago settlement house movement, Jane Addams, Mary McDowell, and Margaret Dreier Robins on such issues as vocational training, housing, juvenile delinquency and truancy. Breckinridge also collaborated with Vassar College graduate and social reformer Julia Lathrop, and social gospel minister Graham Taylor, a founder of the settlement house, Chicago Commons, to create the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, becoming its first dean.[6] By 1920, Breckinridge and Lathrop had convinced the Board of the School to merge it into the University of Chicago, forming the Graduate School of Social Service Administration. By 1927 the faculty of this new academic unit created the scholarly journal Social Service Review which remains the premier journal in the field of social work. Breckinridge was one of the founding editors and worked on its publication every year until her death in 1948.

By 1909, she had become an assistant professor of social economy, and over ten years later, in 1920, she finally convinced her male colleagues of her research abilities and earned tenure as associate professor at the University of Chicago. From 1923-1929, she was also dean in the College of Arts, Literature and Science. She earned full professorship in 1925, and in 1929 she served as the dean of pre-professional social service students and Samuel Deutsch professor of public welfare administration until her retirement from the faculty in 1933.

Works

Breckinridge extensively published on family, public welfare, and children:

Activism

In 1907, when Breckinridge obtained an appointment as a part-time professor in the Department of Household Administration which was a part of the Sociology department of the University of Chicago, she became a resident of Hull House.[7] In addition to actually resided in Hull House during her yearly vacations, teaching and conducting research at the University of Chicago, she became active in several national social and political causes, including:

She served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1911. When the women of Chicago gained limited voting rights in 1913, Breckinridge ran for alderman in Chicago on the Progressive ticket, however unsuccessfully.[8]

Organization involvement

Death

Following her retirement from the faculty of the University of Chicago, Breckinridge continued to teach courses in public welfare until 1942. In Chicago, on July 30, 1948, Sophonisba Breckinridge died from a perforated ulcer and arteriosclerosis, aged 82. She is interred in Lexington (Kentucky) Cemetery in the Breckinridge family plot.

Recognition

Breckinridge was the first woman U.S. representative to a high-level international conference, the 1933 Montevideo Conference.[9]

Breckinridge was awarded honorary degrees by:

The University of Chicago currently houses undergraduate students in Breckinridge House, named after Sophonisba Breckinridge, where students celebrate Sophie Day in the early spring.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Klotter, James C. The Breckinridges of Kentucky, 1760-1981. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
  2. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Ellen F. Academics and Activists: Women Social Scientists and the Impulse for Reform, 1892-1920. Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1981.
  3. ↑ Legal Tender: A Study in English and American Monetary History, Chicago, 1903.
  4. ↑ Legal Actions: A chronology of the University of Chicago Law School
  5. ↑ The Bourbon News, Paris, Ky., June 17, 1904, col 3, p. 5. Digital Record. KUK-bn1904061701-5, Kentuckiana Digital Library.
  6. ↑ Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy Files, 1903-1922, in the Graham Taylor Papers, 1820-1975, bulk 1866-1940, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.
  7. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Ellen F. Endless Crusade: Women Social Scientists and Progressive Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  8. ↑ Joanne L. Goodwin. Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform: Mothers' Pensions in Chicago, 1911-1929. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 133-135.
  9. ↑ Herring, George C. From colony to superpower: U.S. foreign relations since 1776. Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 499. Online at Google Books. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
  10. ↑ Breckinridge House, The University of Chicago

Further reading

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