McDowell, Mary Eliza (1854-1936)

Image

Item Relations

Member of (5)
Mentions (1)
Mentioned in (96)
Written by (13)
Received by (3)
Comments (0)

American Committee for the Relief of Russian Women and Children

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, United States Section

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Chicago Stockyard Strike (1904)

Idea of the Social Settlement, July 12, 1903 (excerpt)

The Idea of the Social Settlement, July 12, 1903 (excerpts)

Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk to Jane Addams, April 7, 1904

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, August 9, 1904

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, August 15, 1904

Jane Addams to Lillian D. Wald, October 3, 1904

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, October 5, 1904

Address to the Women's Trade Union League, March 26, 1905 (excerpt)

Jane Addams to Lillian D. Wald, April 7, 1905

Testimony Before State Judicial Committee on Child Labor, April 13, 1905 (excerpts)

Social Settlements in Illinois, January 25, 1906

Charles Patrick Neill to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, January 29, 1906

Charles Frederick Weller to Jane Addams, March 16, 1906

Hull-House Year Book 1906-1907

Ellen Martin Henrotin to Jane Addams, February 10, 1908

Gaylord S. White to Jane Addams, May 7, 1908

Mary Jane Hawes Wilmarth to Jane Addams, July 28, 1908

Jane Addams to Irene Osgood, November 5, 1908

Irene Osgood to Jane Addams, November 19, 1908

Jane Addams to Robert Archey Woods, March 8, 1910

Speech at Progressive Rally, October 17, 1912 (excerpts)

Margaret Dreier Robins to Jane Addams, November 5, 1912

Harold LeClair Ickes to Jane Addams, January 6, 1913

Illinois Progressive Service Committee List, ca. January 18, 1913

Paul Underwood Kellogg to John Rogers Commons, April 10, 1913

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Louise de Koven Bowen, April 12, 1913

Samuel McCune Lindsay to Paul Underwood Kellogg, July 17, 1913

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Frances Alice Kellor, July 18, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, August 19, 1913

Jane Addams to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, August 25, 1913

Should the Chicago Aldermanic Elections Next Spring Be Non-Partisan?, November 7, 1913

Should the Chicago Aldermanic Elections Next Spring Be Non-Partisan?, November 29, 1913

Harold LeClair Ickes to Jane Addams, July 8, 1914

Minutes of the Emergency Peace Committee, December 19, 1914

News of the Chicago Women's Clubs, January 17, 1915

Robert Archey Woods to Jane Addams, May 1, 1916

National Public Ownership League circular, ca. June 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Jane Addams, September 28, 1916

Jane Addams to Arthur Piper Kellogg, October 25, 1916

Arthur Piper Kellogg to Jane Addams, October 28, 1916

Sophonisba P. Breckinridge to ICWPP--International Congress of Women After the War--Delegates and Alternates--U.S., November 21, 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, July 18, 1917

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, July 20, 1917

Lillian D. Wald to Jane Addams, November 13, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Jane Addams, Anna Garlin Spencer, and Lucia Ames Mead, November 20, 1917

Woman's Peace Party Delegates and Alternatives, November 1918

Introductory Remarks at a memorial meeting for Mary Jane Hawes Wilmarth, October 21, 1919

A Pioneer Settlement, June 10, 1920

Browse all documents that mention "McDowell, Mary Eliza (1854-1936)"

Jane Addams to Mary Eliza McDowell, July 26, 1904

Secretary to Jane Addams to Mary Eliza McDowell, January 25, 1915

Jane Addams to the Delegates of the International Congress of Women, November 5, 1918

Comments

Birth Date

1854-11-30

Death Date

1936-10-16

Birthplace

Cincinnati, Ohio

Biographical Text

Mary E. McDowell was an important part of the settlement movement in Chicago. She helped found the University of Chicago Settlement, which was later renamed in her honor. She got her start in the settlement field by working at Hull House. Her political activism led her to eventually be appointed Commissioner of the Department of Public Welfare in Chicago. She was an advocate for women's suffrage and helped start the Women's Club at Hull-House. She was also an advocate for public health reform and forced the city of Chicago to adopt several reforms that helped clean the city up and make it safer. She was also involved in the Temperance Movement and advocated for a federal Woman's Bureau to study the conditions of American Women. She was known as the "Angel of the Stockyards" and had a focus on improving race relations. McDowell died in 1936.

McDowell worked with Jane Addams while working as a kindergarten teacher at Hull-House. Addams recommended McDowell to work as the head of the Back of the Yards settlement house. The two often corresponded about the issues of the time and worked together closely.

Occupation

Public health activist

Settlement house resident

Social reform activist

Temperance activist

Woman suffrage activist

Source

Moffett, Chicago. Mary E. McDowell, University of Chicago Settlement, Stock-Yards District. Chicago Illinois United States, 1900. [to 1916] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,