Frances Kellor
Encyclopedia
Frances Alice Kellor was an American social reformer and investigator, who specialized in the study of immigrants to the United States and women.
. She grew up in Ohio and then in Michigan. She received her law degree in 1897 from Cornell Law School
, joining the small group of women professionals, and studied at the University of Chicago
and at the New York Summer School of Philanthropy. She believed that if the people listened to the poor living in the most diminishing areas, there could be great change in society for the better. Kellor, a progressive, thought that environment was principal the cause of crime.
She was secretary and treasurer of the New York State Immigration Commission in 1909 and chief investigator for the Bureau of Industries and Immigration of New York State in 1910-13. She became managing director of the North American Civic League for Immigrants and a member of the Progressive National Committee.
She directed the National Americanization Committee (NAC), the most important private organization promoting Americanization during World War I. Speaking for the NAC in 1916, proposed to combine efficiency and patriotism in her Americanization programs. It would be more efficient, she argued, once the factory workers could all understand English and therefore better understand orders and avoid accidents. Once Americanized, they would grasp American industrial ideals and be open to American influences and not subject only to strike agitators or foreign propagandists. The result, she argued would transform indifferent and ignorant residents into understanding voters, to make their homes into American homes, and to establish American standards of living throughout the ethnic communities. Ultimately, she argued it would "unite foreign-born and native alike in enthusiastic loyalty to our national ideals of liberty and justice.
Kellor never married. She maintained a long-term relationship with another woman, Mary Dreier
, one of two wealthy sisters who played leading roles in the progressive movement in New York. They shared a home from 1905 until Kellor's death.
She died in New York City on January 4, 1952.
Biography
Frances Alice Kellor was born October 20, 1873 in Columbus, OhioColumbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. She grew up in Ohio and then in Michigan. She received her law degree in 1897 from Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School, located in Ithaca, New York, is a graduate school of Cornell University and one of the five Ivy League law schools. The school confers three law degrees...
, joining the small group of women professionals, and studied at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and at the New York Summer School of Philanthropy. She believed that if the people listened to the poor living in the most diminishing areas, there could be great change in society for the better. Kellor, a progressive, thought that environment was principal the cause of crime.
She was secretary and treasurer of the New York State Immigration Commission in 1909 and chief investigator for the Bureau of Industries and Immigration of New York State in 1910-13. She became managing director of the North American Civic League for Immigrants and a member of the Progressive National Committee.
She directed the National Americanization Committee (NAC), the most important private organization promoting Americanization during World War I. Speaking for the NAC in 1916, proposed to combine efficiency and patriotism in her Americanization programs. It would be more efficient, she argued, once the factory workers could all understand English and therefore better understand orders and avoid accidents. Once Americanized, they would grasp American industrial ideals and be open to American influences and not subject only to strike agitators or foreign propagandists. The result, she argued would transform indifferent and ignorant residents into understanding voters, to make their homes into American homes, and to establish American standards of living throughout the ethnic communities. Ultimately, she argued it would "unite foreign-born and native alike in enthusiastic loyalty to our national ideals of liberty and justice.
Kellor never married. She maintained a long-term relationship with another woman, Mary Dreier
Mary Dreier
Mary Dreier was a New York social reformerPersonal Life: Early Life Mary Elisabeth Dreier was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1875, one of 5 children of Theodor Dreier, an immigrant from Berman, Germany, and Dorothea Adelheid Dreier, his cousin. In 1864 he returned to Germany...
, one of two wealthy sisters who played leading roles in the progressive movement in New York. They shared a home from 1905 until Kellor's death.
She died in New York City on January 4, 1952.
Books
- Experimental Sociology: Descriptive and Analytical (1901)
- Out of Work (1904) with Gertrude Dudley
- Athletic Games in the Education of Women (1909)
- Notaries Public and Immigrants (1909)
- Straight America: A Call to National Service (1916)
- Immigration and the Future (1920)
- The Federal Administration and the Alien (1921)
Articles
- "Arbitration and the Legal Profession" (undated)
- "Sex and Crime" in International Journal of Ethics (October 1898)
- "Immigration and Household Labor" in Charities (1904)
- "Where Slave Girls are Sold" in The New York Herald (February 14, 1904)
- "Emigration From the South – The Women" in Charities (October 1905)
- "The Immigrant Woman" in The Atlantic Monthly (September 1907)
Links
Sources
- Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 4 (Radcliffe College, 1980), 393-5, available online