Early Life and Young Adulthood
In Baltimore on 5 March 1854, Mary Elizabeth Garrett was born into
a family that was both wealthy and committed to philanthropy.
She was the youngest child and only daughter of John Work Garrett,
president
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the country’s first
major railroad. She was brought up in an opulent mansion on Mount
Vernon Place
in Baltimore. In the mid-to-late nineteenth century,
Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s father was one of the most influential
men in the country. He became a close advisor to President Abraham
Lincoln during the Civil War and was known as the “Railroad
King.” Mary
Elizabeth Garrett learned early how to use her great wealth to
advance women’s causes in much the same way that her grandfather
and her father had built their financial and railroad empires:
through
clarity of vision, effective strategy, perseverance and, not
least, seizing opportunities at the right time.
John
W. Garrett
Circa 1880
Photographer Unknown
The Alan Mason Chesney
Medical Archives of
The Johns Hopkins Medical
Institution
By many accounts, Mary Elizabeth Garrett was the favored child.
Her father often said, “I wish Mary had been born a boy!” He
greatly admired her business sense and keen intellect. In her
teens, Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s father began including her
in his travels and business meetings in the United States and abroad.
In her role
as “Papa’s secretary”, she met the titans of
corporate America—Carnegie, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Fiske,
Gould.
Through her father’s involvement with both Mr. George Peabody
and Mr. Johns Hopkins, Mary Elizabeth Garrett was also exposed
from an early age
to the
example of personal philanthropy. She grew up with the conviction
that her wealth carried an obligation to help those who were
less fortunate. She also learned firsthand through her father
and his
associates how carefully targeted philanthropy was able to
effect social change.
Her father became active in philanthropic causes largely through the
influence of George Peabody. Dedicated to using his fortune to improve
society, Peabody was a driving force in nineteenth-century philanthropy.
He and Garrett were especially drawn to charities that provided opportunities
for the underprivileged to help themselves. One of Garrett’s
major contributions was toward the construction of a YMCA building
in Baltimore. His most significant role in philanthropy, though, was
that of a steward. He urged Peabody to intercede with Johns Hopkins
to advise that he make a philanthropic gift of his large fortune. In
1867, when Hopkins endowed and incorporated the university and hospital
that bear his name, he selected Garrett to serve as a trustee of both
institutions.
As her father’s confidante, Mary Elizabeth Garrett listened
to his thoughts about these matters, as well as about business and
political affairs.1 By taking notes and drafting correspondence
for him, she also learned how to emulate her father’s shrewd
and uncompromising business tactics—skills that would serve her
well. Her father—with his position, fame, and wealth— was,
undoubtedly, the greatest influence on her life.
But when John W. Garrett died in 1884, the doors of the wider world
and the arena of business in which she had played an active
role at his side, closed. Because she had neither a husband nor a
degree, few
paths seemed open to Mary Elizabeth Garrett. Her brothers easily
ascended in the family’s
financial empires. Her oldest brother, Robert assumed the presidency
of the powerful B&O Railroad. He lived in the beautiful
mansion at 9-11 Mount Vernon Place with his wife Mary
Frick Garrett. Her
other brother, T. Harrison, directed the family business, Robert
Garrett & Sons,
and lived with his wife Alice Whitridge and their three sons
at the elegant Evergreen House on North Charles Street.
Mary Elizabeth Garrett inherited a fortune—nearly $2 million
and three lavish estates. She was not only one of the wealthiest women
in the United States, but also one of the largest female landowners
in the country. When she inherited her massive fortune, she vowed to
use her money, as she wrote, “to help women” by removing
some of the obstacles that had stood in her way. 2
Forging Friendships in the “Friday Evening” group
The "Friday Evening"
Date unknown
Photographer unknown
Special Collections Department, Bryn Mawr College Library. Thomas
photo collection.
Garrett had the good fortune to count among her friends a group of
intellectually curious young women with progressive leanings. Most
of the women came from Quaker backgrounds. They became known as the “Friday
Evening”, so named for their bi-weekly meetings at each other’s
homes. As a group and on their own, they would effect great change
over the next half-century. The group included M. Carey Thomas, Mamie
Gwinn, Elizabeth “Bessie” King, and Julia Rogers. The fathers
of all but Julia Rogers served as trustees of the Johns Hopkins University,
the Johns Hopkins Hospital, or both. This period of Garrett’s
life, from 1885-1895, provided incubation for ideas on how to help
women achieve independence and autonomy.
"Friday Evening" Group Biographical Sketches
Establishing and Building the Bryn Mawr School
With Garrett's financial backing, the group of friends started the
Bryn Mawr School for Girls in 1885. The name, Bryn Mawr, was chosen
to connote the excellence represented by the Bryn Mawr College of Pennsylvania
which had already established itself as one of the finest women’s
colleges in the country.4 A schoolhouse near the new Johns Hopkins University
campus in downtown Baltimore was selected as the first site of the
school. The founders set ambitious goals for their new school: to become
the first college preparatory school for girls in the United States
emphasizing traditional “male” subjects such as mathematics,
sciences, modern and classical languages, and physical education.
The
Bryn Mawr School's state-of -the-art gymnasium at the
original Cathedral Street building.
Early 1900s
Photographer unknown
Courtesy of
the Bryn Mawr
School archives.
Shortly after its founding, Garrett made plans to erect a new state-of-the-art
building for the Bryn Mawr School, which she personally financed for
$500,000.5 Documents of the negotiations with the contractors reveal
that Mary Elizabeth Garrett was, indeed, her father's daughter.6 She
drove a hard bargain and took personal interest in overseeing the project
to its successful completion, examining the construction site daily
to ensure that just the right paint and plaster were applied and traveling
frequently to Europe to purchase statuary to fill the hallways.
Mary
Elizabeth Garrett
c1889
Fratelli Pianelli, Venice.
Special Collections Department,
Bryn Mawr College Library. Thomas photo collection.
When the school opened in 1890, the New York Times noted, “being
a thoroughly practical business woman as well as a
philanthropist, she undertook the matter personally.” The national
press dubbed the innovative new school, with its modern gymnasium, “Miss
Garrett’s
School.” The attention, however, was not all
positive. At a time when women’s roles were often
conflicted and polarized between marriage, domesticity
and increasingly liberating opportunities, the
new Bryn Mawr School, with its emphasis on scholastic
achievement and preparation for higher education and
careers, provided a lightning
rod for condemnation as well as for praise from all
sides. One Chicago critic wrote: “Why does not
Miss Garrett or some other philanthropist invest a
quarter of a million dollars in a model
school of domestic
economy, in which to prepare girls for housekeeping
and home making?”7 Despite such criticism, the
Bryn Mawr School provided a model for girls’ college
preparation that other schools across the country soon emulated.
The Women’s Medical School Fund Campaign
Garrett and the “Friday Evening” group next turned their
attention on ways to provide opportunities for women at the Johns Hopkins
University. The women of the “Friday Evening” formed the
Women’s Medical School Fund Committee in response to a nation-wide
appeal for philanthropic assistance initiated by University president
D.C. Gilman. Proposing to raise $100,000 for the endowment of the medical
school if the trustees would agree to admit women on the same terms
as men, the committee embarked upon a major public relations effort
to promote medical education for women. When they finished, the Johns
Hopkins University—and medical education in the United States—would
never be the same.
The Women’s Medical School Fund Campaign
Raising Subscriptions
"Dear Girls" Letters
The Mary Elizabeth Garrett Fund
Medical Education
Enriching Bryn Mawr College
In 1893, less than a year after her final contribution to the endowment
of the Johns Hopkins medical school, Garrett offered
the trustees of Bryn Mawr College $10,000 annually to help with the
campus plan of
the new women’s college in return for the appointment of
M. Carey Thomas, lifelong friend and fellow champion of women’s
rights, to the presidency.8 It was an offer the trustees could not
refuse. Garrett became one of Bryn Mawr’s largest benefactors,
contributing more than $350,000 to keep the fledgling college solvent
during its lean years.
She remodeled the Deanery, home of the president, and helped to transform
the campus into a model of “Collegiate Gothic,” the first
of its kind on an American campus. She employed Fredrick Law Olmsted,
whose designs include New York’s Central Park
and the campus of Stanford University, to help with
the campus plan.
Participation in the Suffrage Movement
After placing Bryn Mawr and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on
firm financial footing, Garrett turned her attention to the suffrage
movement, attaining a national office and counting among her friends
Anna Howard Shaw, Julia Ward Howe, and Susan B. Anthony.9 Under her
influence, the national convention of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association was held in Baltimore in 1906. Susan B. Anthony, a longtime
friend, stayed at Garrett’s Mount Vernon Place home during the
convention. This was Anthony’s last public appearance before
her death. Garrett’s gifts to the suffrage movement ranged from
$10,000-$20,000 annually throughout the last decade of her life.
Later Years
Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s last years were spent at Bryn Mawr
College with M. Carey Thomas. She was estranged from her family
after
bitter court battles and personal disagreements over the family’s
vast holdings. Her years at Bryn Mawr were probably her happiest, as
the college became a national gathering spot for feminist activism
and intellectual thought at the turn of the twentieth century.
Garrett died at Bryn Mawr College in 1915, five years before the passage
of the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote. She was
buried in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery, just a few feet away
from her father’s great friend, Johns Hopkins, whose medical
school she helped to shape. Garrett bequeathed most of her funds and
properties to M. Carey Thomas, including her 30-room Mount Vernon
Place mansion in Baltimore. This property was eventually sold and the
buildings were razed. Today, a hotel, The Peabody Court, occupies the
site.