McCormick, Katharine Dexter (1875-1967)

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Stanley R. McCormick to Jane Addams, September 5, 1904

Jane Addams to Ada Lois James, February 2, 1912

Jane Addams to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, May 7, 1912

Abigail (Abba) Bass to Jane Addams, July 1912

Jane Addams to Anita McCormick Blaine, July 11, 1912

Jane Addams to [Grace or Edith?] Abbott, August 31, 1912

Speech on Woman Suffrage, March 9, 1914

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge to Jane Addams, November 18, 1914

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams et al. October 16, 1919

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Birth Date

1875-08-27

Death Date

1967-12-28

Birthplace

Dexter, Michigan

Biographical Text

Katharine Dexter McCormick was suffragist and philanthropist who funded most of the research behind the first birth control pill. She attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1904. While attending MIT, she became a women's rights activist, starting by fighting MIT's rule that women must wear feathered hats. She later became the vice president and treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and funded their publication, the Woman's Journal. She was also a member of the Committee of 100, a group of women who promoted birth control. During World War I, she worked as a chairwoman of the association's War Service Department and was a member of the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. In 1920 she was the vice president of the League of Women Voters. McCormick also created a research center for the care of mentally ill patients at Worcester State Hospital and funded the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology as Gregory Goodwin Pincus researched birth control. Afterward, she donated money to found the Stanley McCormick Hall, the first female dormitory at MIT that allowed more women to attend the school. When she died, she left in her will $5 million to be donated to Stanford University School of Medicine, $5 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, $1 million to the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and $500,000 to the Chicago Art Institute.

McCormick married Stanley McCormick, of the McCormick-International Harvester family, in 1904. McCormick died in 1967.

Map

Edited By

Sciancalepore, Victoria

Lichon, Sara Catherine

Rights

Rightsholder being researched

Gender

Female

First appears

1904

Bibliography and Links

Kleiman, Miriam, "Rich, Famous, and Questionably Sane: When a Wealthy Heir's Family Sought Help from a Hospital for the Insane," Prologue Magazine, Summer 2007, Vol. 39, No. 2

SNAC

Thomas, D. M. "Men Who Love Too Much," The New York Times Books, Feb. 8, 1998

Wikipedia

Citation

“McCormick, Katharine Dexter (1875-1967),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed July 26, 2024, https://mail.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/2042.