32 Facts About Sophonisba Breckinridge

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge was an American activist, Progressive Era social reformer, social scientist and innovator in higher education.

Sophonisba Breckinridge was the first woman to earn a Ph.

Sophonisba Breckinridge led the process of creating the academic professional discipline and degree for social work.

Sophonisba Breckinridge was the second child of seven of Issa Desha Breckinridge, the second wife of Col.

Sophonisba Breckinridge's great-grandfather was John Breckinridge, the United States Attorney General.

Sophonisba Breckinridge was not allowed to be degree-seeking, but she studied there for four years.

Sophonisba Breckinridge graduated from Wellesley College in 1888 and worked for two years as a high school teacher in Washington, DC, teaching mathematics.

Sophonisba Breckinridge traveled in Europe for the next two years returning to Lexington in 1892 when her mother suddenly died.

Sophonisba Breckinridge studied the legal system in her father's law office and in 1895 became the first woman to be admitted to the Kentucky bar.

Since Sophonisba Breckinridge had few clients who would hire a woman lawyer, she left Kentucky to become a secretary to Marion Talbot, the Dean of Women at the University of Chicago.

Sophonisba Breckinridge enrolled as a graduate student eventually receiving a Ph.

Sophonisba Breckinridge became the first woman to be admitted to the Order of the Coif, an honorary legal scholastic society.

Sophonisba Breckinridge collaborated with Vassar College graduate and social reformer Julia Lathrop, and social gospel minister Graham Taylor, a founder of the settlement house Chicago Commons, to create the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, becoming its first dean.

Sophonisba Breckinridge earned full professorship in 1925, and in 1929 she served as the dean of pre-professional social service students and Samuel Deutsch professor of public welfare administration until her retirement from the faculty in 1933.

When she came to the University of Chicago in 1895, Sophonisba Breckinridge formed a close relationship with the Dean of Women, Marion Talbot.

Sophonisba Breckinridge alluded to examples of young people adjusting to life in the United States and their understanding of what it meant to live in America while living a different kind of life in the home that tied back to their own roots or their parents' cultures.

In "The Child from the Comfortable Home: The Problem of the Unmanageable", Sophonisba Breckinridge discussed in the final parts of her book about how there could be underlying problems from growing up.

Sophonisba Breckinridge talked about how children from different classes were treated by explaining how children from families of higher social status were put in a boarding school while children from families of lower social classes usually faced court or were put in a state-mandated institution.

Talbot and Sophonisba Breckinridge incorporate the legal angles, economic perspectives, and social roles.

Sophonisba Breckinridge begins with the adjustment which these immigrants must undergo upon arrival and the process of finding a new home in an unfamiliar place.

Sophonisba Breckinridge follows with an explanation of the financial needs and difficulties faced by immigrants, including currency changes, special events, property ownership, the irregularity of income, and buying items such as furniture and clothing.

Sophonisba Breckinridge provided the material in a clear, chronological manner with estimates of attendance to conferences and members, along with mission statements.

Sophonisba Breckinridge was active in many national social and political causes, including:.

In 1907, when Sophonisba Breckinridge obtained an appointment as a part-time professor in the Department of Household Administration which was a part of the Sociology department of the University of Chicago, she became a resident of Hull House.

Sophonisba Breckinridge lived in Hull House during her yearly vacations, as well as while teaching and conducting research at the University of Chicago.

In collaboration with her colleague Edith Abbott, Sophonisba Breckinridge helped establish the Wendell Phillips Settlement House on the West Side where African-American social workers were trained.

Sophonisba Breckinridge served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1911.

In Chicago, on July 30,1948, Sophonisba Breckinridge died from a perforated ulcer and arteriosclerosis, aged 82.

Sophonisba Breckinridge is interred in Lexington Cemetery in the Breckinridge family plot.

Sophonisba Breckinridge was the first woman US representative to a high-level international conference, the 1933 Montevideo Conference.

The one House to occupy Sophonisba Breckinridge Hall, known as Sophonisba Breckinridge House, now resides in the nearby dorm known as International House.

Sophonisba Breckinridge is a character in Sarah Schulman's 2009 novel The Mere Future.