[OASIS]Harvard University Library
OASIS: Online Archival Search Information System
Frames Version
Questions or Comments   Copyright Statement
A-127

Dummer, Ethel Sturges, 1866-1954. Papers, 1766-1962 (A-127): A Finding Aid

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America

[link]


Radcliffe College
May 1979

© 1979 Radcliffe College

Descriptive Summary

Call No.: A-127
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: ETHEL STURGES DUMMER, 1866-1954
Title: Papers, 1766-1954
Quantity: 57 file boxes, 2 1/2 file boxes, 1 oversize volume, 1 microfilm reel (M-55)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, photographs, etc., of Ethel Sturges Dummer, Chicago social welfare leader, philanthropist, and author.

Processing Information:

Partly reprocessed: May 1979
By: Kathleen Marquis

Acquisition Information:

Accession numbers: 164, 238, 451, 473, 548, 602, 627, 630, 640, 72-41, 75-126, 75-160, 75-239, 75-402, 76-83
The papers of Ethel Sturges Dummer were given to the Schlesinger Library in 1960, 1972, 1975, and 1976 by Katharine Dummer Fisher, (Mrs. Walter T.Fisher),Marion Dummer Abbott (Mrs Donald P. Abbott), and Frances Dummer Logan Merriam (Mrs. FrankMerriam), and the three daughters of Ethel Dummer Mintzer (Mrs. MurneyMintzer) (who predeceased ESD): Katharine Mintzer Gerlach, (Mrs. Lee Gerlach),Ethel Mintzer Lichtman, (Mrs. Morton Lichtman), Mary Delafield Mintzer Vaughn, "Polly" (Mrs. Richard Vaughn). These papers were partly reprocessed under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, #RC 24669-76-987.
The papers of Katharine Dummer Fisher were deposited with the Schlesinger Library from 1960-1963 by Mrs. Fisher, Mr. Walter T. Fisher, and the Winnetka League of Women Voters.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Anyone wishing to make extensive use of the collection must notify certain members of the Dummer family. Those wishing to study Ethel Dummer or her family must obtain the written permission of Katharine Mintzer Gerlach or her heirs.

BIOGRAPHY

Ethel (Sturges) Dummer, a social welfare leader, philanthropist and author, was born in Chicago in 1866, the oldest of six daughters and third of nine children born to Mary (Delafield) Sturges and George Sturges. She graduated in 1885 from the Kirkland School in Chicago but continued to be involved with the social welfare concerns of the school through the Kirkland Alumnae Association.
In 1888, Ethel Sturges married William Francis Dummer (1851-1928). A prominent Chicago banker, WFD was also active in local social welfare and conservation organizations. The Dummers had four daughters, and one son who died in infancy.
ESD's early interest in local reform was prompted largely by her acquaintance with such reform leaders as Ellen Gates Starr, Mary E. MacDowell and Allen B. Pond. A growing interest in child labor reform led her in 1905 to join the National Child Labor Committee and the Chicago Juvenile Protective Association. In 1908 she became a founder and trustee of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, later the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
Beginning with financial support for a lecture series for this school, ESD continued for the rest of her life to underwrite the efforts of local and national reformers. Her philanthropy extended to projects such as the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute (1909); work with prostitutes and unwed mothers during World War I; support (c. 1919-1920) for El Retiro, a girls' detention home in Los Angeles directed by penologist Miriam Van Waters, and the latter's published studies of delinquent girls (1922 and 1925). During the Depression, she helped finance several other private studies of adolescents. She and her daughter, Ethel Dummer Mintzer, director of the Francis W. Parker School in San Diego, worked together closely in the promotion of "Boole Blocks," a mathematical teaching aid developed by EDM and named after Mary Everest Boole, whose ideas about unconscious behavior are discussed in ESD's Mary E. Boole: A Pioneer Student of the Unconscious (1945). In 1940 ESD received an honorary degree from Northwestern University and subsequently sponsored child development courses there.
Other writings by ESD include her autobiography, Why I Think So--The Autobiography of an Hypothesis (1937); prefaces to The Unadjusted Girl by William I. Thomas (1923), The Unconscious: A Symposium (1928), and The Collected Works of Mary Everest Boole (1931); The Evolution of a Biological Faith (1943); and What is Thought? (1945).
For the last seven years of her life ESD lived with her daughter Katharine Dummer Fisher in Winnetka, Illinois. She died there in 1954.
Katharine Dummer Fisher (1892-1961) was a civic leader in Chicago, Illinois. Her interests included the educational and psychological development of young children. In 1940 and 1950 she attended White House conferences on children. She was a member of the advisory board on youth and community services of the Illinois department of public works from 1949-1953. Her home in Winnetka was also a back-yard nursery school. The league of Women Voters, both nationally and locally, were life-long interests. She held offices in both. She was on the board of the National League of Women Voters from 1939-1944, and President of the Illinois League of Women Voters from 1945-1949. Mrs. Fisher was also active politically. She took part in the movement for a new state constitution for Illinois and in Adlai Stevenson's campaigns for President of the United States.
Mrs. Fisher was the daughter of Ethel Sturges Dummer and William F. Dummer.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, photographs, speeches, and articles by and about ESD. It documents her efforts in behalf of juvenile delinquents, prostitutes and illegitimate children; her interest in progressive education and public schools in Chicago; and her work with leaders in the mental hygiene movement. In addition to ESD's correspondence with prominent sociologists, psychiatrists, social workers and educators, the collection contains family papers including eighteenth century papers of the Sturges and Dummer families, both prominent in early Illinois history.
ESD's professional papers were divided into two categories: those arranged by subject and those arranged by correspondent. The papers on education, mental hygiene, the family, and delinquency include correspondence as well as minutes of meetings, reports, and ESD's notes. Researchers interested in particular correspondents should check the subject as well as the correspondence series.
The papers of ESD’s daughter, Katharine Dummer Fisher, form an Addendum to this collection that is included in this inventory (folder #881-1002). The Addenda covers the period from 1897 to 1961.
Among the correspondents in the addenda are: Edna Fischel Gellhorn, Adlai Stevenson, Kathryn H. Stone, Anna Lord Strauss, and Marguerite M. Wells.
Anyone wishing to make extensive use of the collection must notify certain members of the Dummer family. Those wishing to study Ethel Dummer or her family must obtain the written permission of Katharine Mintzer Gerlach or her heirs.
There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Ethel Sturges Dummer papers, 1857-1945 (80-M151).

Additional catologue entries (a card for each of the following appears in the card catalogue):

Addams, Jane, 1860-1935
Adler, Herman Morris, 1876-
Aldrich, Charles Anderson, 1888-1940
Anthony, Katharine Susan, 1877-1965
Bartelme, Mary, 1865-
Binford, Jessie Florence, 1876-1966
Boole, Mary Everest, 18 -1916?
Bowen, Louise deKoven, 1859-1954
Bowman, Le Roy E.
Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston, 1866-1948
Buchanan, Scott, 1895-1968
Burchard, Edward Lawver, 1867-1944
Burgess, Ernest Watson, 1886-1966
Child, Charles Manning, 1869-1954
Chute, Charles Lionel, 1882-1953
Cooke, Flora Juliette, 1864-
Delafield family
Dodd, William Edward, 1869-1940
Dummer family
Eliot, Thomas Dawes, 1889-
Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939
Falconer, Martha Pratt, 1862-1941
Flower, Lucy R.
Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939
Gellhorn, Edna Fischel, 1878-
Groves, Ernest Rutherford, 1877-1946
Hamilton, Alice, 1869-1970
Hayakawa, Samuel Ichiye, 1906-
Healy, William, 1869-
Herrick, Charles Judson, 1868-1960
Hodder, Jessie (Donaldson), 1870-1931
Horney, Karen, 1885-1952
Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 1889-
Kellogg, Paul Underwood, 1879-1958
Kenworthy, Marion E.
Kraines, Samuel Henry, 1906-
Lathrop, Julia Clifford, 1858-1932
League of Women Voters of the United States
League of Women Voters of Illinois
McDowell, Mary Eliza, 1854-1936
Mebane, Daniel, 1894-1956
Menninger, Karl Augustus, 1893-
Meyer, Adolf, 1866-1950
Overholser, Winfred, 1892-1964
Patrick, George T[homas] W[hite], 1857-1949
Pierce, Anne
Pond, Allen Bartlitt, 1858-1929
Pound, Roscoe, 1870-1964
Ratcliffe, S. K.
Reiser, Oliver Leslie, 1895-1974
Reynolds, Azile B.
Ritter, William Emerson, 1846-1944
Robins, Margaret Dreier, 1868-1945
Robinson, Virginia
Sargent, Porter E., 1872-1951
Shontz, Orfa Jean
Singer, Milton
Stevenson, Adlai Ewing, 1900-1965
Stone, Kathryn H., 1906-
Strauss, Anna Lord.
Sturges family
Taft, Jessie
Taylor, Graham, 1851-1938
Taylor, Graham Romeyn, 1880-1942
Thomas, Norman Mattoon, 1884-1968
Thomas, William Isaac, 1863-1947
Van Waters, Miriam, 1887-1974
Wagenhals, Margaret
Washburne, Calrleton Wolsey, 1889-
Watson, John Broadus, 1878-1958
Wells, Dora, 1862-1948
Wells, Marguerite, 1872-1959
White, William Alanson, 1870-1937
Wilmarth, Mary H.
Woods, Elizabeth L.
Chicago--Politics and government
Chicago--Social life and customs
Chicago Woman's Club
College students--University of Wisconsin
Education--Chicago
Education--Experimental methods
Family records
Family social work
Francis W. Parker School--Illinois--Chicago
Francis W. Parker School--California--San Diego
Juvenile delinquency
Illegitimacy
Mental hygeine
Prostitution
Psychiatry
Psychology
Social workers
Sociology

SUMMARY OF INVENTORY

CONTAINER LIST

INVENTORY


sch00095