Mrs. Russell Sage: Women's Activism and Philanthropy in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America (Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies) - Hardcover

Crocker, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253347122 ISBN 13: 9780253347121

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2006

Synopsis

This is the biography of a ruling-class woman who created a new identity for herself in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America. A wife who derived her social standing from her robber-baron husband, Olivia Sage managed to fashion an image of benevolence that made possible her public career. In her husband's shadow for 37 years, she took on the Victorian mantle of active, reforming womanhood. When Russell Sage died in 1906, he left her a vast fortune. An advocate for the rights of women and the responsibilities of wealth, for moral reform and material betterment, she took the money and put it to her own uses. Spending replaced volunteer work; suffrage bazaars and fundraising fAates gave way to large donations to favorite causes. As a widow, Olivia Sage moved in public with authority. She used her wealth to fund a wide spectrum of progressive reforms that had a lasting impact on American life, including her most significant philanthropy, the Russell Sage Foundation.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"This is a model biography. Mixing empathy with historical acumen, Ruth Crocker has uncovered the life of a woman who left few personal papers and hid behind her husband's name, but managed to emerge in her old age as one of the most influential philanthropists of the 20th century." --Eileen Boris, Hull Professor of Women's Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

About the Author:

ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on Sources

Introduction

Part I. A Liminal Place: 182818691. Slocums, Jermains, Piersons -- and a Sage2. "Distinctly a class privilege": Troy Female Seminary, 1846-18473. "I do enjoy my independence": 1847-18584. A Bankruptcy, Three Funerals, and a Wedding: 1858-1869Part II. Becoming Mrs. Russell Sage: 1869-19065. The Work of Benevolence? Mrs. Russell Sage, the Carlisle School, and Indian Reform6. "I live for that work": Negotiating Identities at the New-York Woman's Hospital7. "Some aggressive work": The Emma Willard Association and Educated Womanhood, 1891-18988. Converted! Parlor Suffrage and After9. "Wiping her tears with the flag": Mrs. Russell Sage, Patriot, 1897-1906Part III. "Just beginning to live": 1906-191810. "A kind of old age freedom"11. Inventing the Russell Sage Foundation: 190712. "Women and education -- there is the key"13. "Nothing more for men's colleges": E. Lilian Todd and the Origins of Russell Sage College14. "Splendid donation"15. "Send what Miss Todd thinks best"

Conclusion

AbbreviationsNotesSelect BibliographyIndex

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0253347122
• ISBN 13: 9780253347121
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 526