Mrs. Russell Sage: Women's Activism And Philanthropy In Gilded Age And Progressive Era America (philanthropic And Nonprofit Studies)
by Ruth Crocker /
2006 / English / PDF
3.9 MB Download
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.
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.