Description
Book SynopsisA captivating look at the remarkable life of this nineteenth-century suffragist, philanthropist, and reformer. Mary Elizabeth Garrett was one of the most influential philanthropists and women activists of the Gilded Age. With Mary's legacy all but forgotten, Kathleen Waters Sander recounts in impressive detail the life and times of this remarkable woman, through the turbulent years of the Civil War to the early twentieth century. At once a captivating biography of Garrett and an epic account of the rise of commerce, railroading, and women's rights, Sander's work reexamines the great social and political movements of the age. As the youngest child and only daughter of the B&O Railroad mogul John Work Garrett, Mary was bright and capable, well suited to become her father's heir apparent. But social convention prohibited her from following in his footsteps, a source of great frustration for the brilliant and strong-willed woman. Mary turned her attention instead to promoting women's r
Trade ReviewSander's book offers a well-researched and warm portrait of a female maverick who redefined the meaning of the term
daddy's girl.
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Baltimore SunHighly recommended.
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Midwest Book ReviewGarrett's biography is long overdue, and Kathleen Waters Sander does a splendid job.
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American Historical ReviewA well-written, judicious, and engrossing examination of one of the major women philanthropists in the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
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Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive EraAn important, richly detailed biography of a formidable nineteenth-century woman who worked in a man's world to help women attain education, suffrage, and equality.
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Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsPreface
Foreword, by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
Introduction: Quiet Revolutionary
1. Garrett's Road
2. Ascension
3. Expansion and Restriction
4. After Garrett
5. The Practical Head of the Garrett Family
6. The Scheme
7. A Pleasure to Be Bought
8. The Happiness of Getting Our Work Done
9. Wise and Far-sighted
Appendix A: Class of 1879, the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
Appendix B: Analysis of the Women's Medical School Fund Campaign
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
