Ellen Browning Scripps

Ellen Browning Scripps

Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836–August 3, 1932) was an American philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California.

Biography

Scripps was born in 1836 in London to James Mogg Scripps and Ellen Mary (Saunders) Scripps. Her father was a prominent bookbinder and came to America in 1844 with six motherless children. Scripps grew up on a Rushville, Illinois farm, where her father remarried and she helped raise her five half-siblings. She graduated from Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois in 1859 and taught school for eight years.

In 1873, Scripps helped her brother James start The Detroit News. She pioneered the concept of the feature article. Her half-brother E. W. founded the powerful chain of Scripps newspapers.

Scripps moved to La Jolla, California in 1896. She continued to write a widely-distributed daily newspaper column until the year of her death in 1932.

The 1915 residence of philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, now the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California

Scripps lived modestly, and was shy and unassuming. She was affectionally known as Miss Ellen. She was already wealthy in her own right, and when her brother George H. died in 1900 he left her a large amount of money. She regretted receiving such a large amount and felt her wealth was to be held in trust for humanity. She gave to many causes, often anonymously. She was a key early supporter of the San Diego Zoo. Her main contributions are listed below.

In 1924, while recovering from a broken hip, she became interested in medicine and founded Scripps Hospital and Scripps Metabolic Clinic. These organizations eventually became The Scripps Research Institute, and two of the core providers now comprising Scripps Health—Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and Scripps Clinic.

She founded Scripps College in Claremont, CA in 1926.

Scripps died in La Jolla in 1932 at the age of 95, and her ashes were scattered from the R/V Scripps.

Her residence, designed in 1916 by Irving Gill, was purchased by a community group of artists in 1939 for $10,000, remodeled in 1941, and opened as the "Art Center in La Jolla," which later became the La Jolla Museum of Art, then the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, and now the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

The San Diego City Schools named Ellen Browning Scripps Elementary School, which opened in 2001, in her honor.

Quote

If one could live one's life over again with the advantages of the experiences one has gone through it might be interesting as an experiment—not as a pleasure.

Major contributions

• 1903 George H. Scripps Memorial Marine Biological Laboratory (now Scripps Institution of Oceanography), La Jolla
• 1909 The Bishop's School
• 1911 Acquired and willed land plots to people of San Diego (now North Grove and estuary of Torrey Pines State Reserve)
• 1912 La Jolla Precinct, including The La Jolla Woman's Club
• 1913 La Jolla Playground (now La Jolla Recreation Center)
• 1915 Scripps Aquarium, La Jolla (now Birch Aquarium at Scripps)
• 1915 Scripps Park, La Jolla
• 1918 A. R. Valentien watercolor paintings of California wildflowers, now at San Diego Natural History Museum
• 1923 Scripps Aviary, San Diego Zoo
• 1924 Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla
• 1924 Scripps Metabolic Clinic (now Scripps Clinic and The Scripps Research Institute), La Jolla
• 1926 Scripps College for Women (now Scripps College), Claremont, California
• 1931 Scripps Cottage, part of the campus of San Diego State University, San Diego
• 1931 Children's Pool, a seawall-protected beach in La Jolla

See also

• List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s - 22 Feb. 1926

Further reading

• "In California", Time, February 22, 1926. Scripps appeared on the cover, the first from San Diego
• Heilbron, Carl (1936). History of San Diego County. San Diego Press Club.  Biography, pp. 92–94; includes portrait
• Molly McClain, "The Scripps Family's San Diego Experiment," The Journal of San Diego History 56, nos. 1-2 (2010).
• Molly McClain, "The La Jolla of Ellen Browning Scripps," The Journal of San Diego History 57, no. 4 (2011)

External links

• Ellen Browning Scripps
• Biography from History of San Diego County by Carl Heilbron, 1936
• E.W. Scripps Papers, Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries, Athens, Ohio. Manuscript collection, primarily correspondence.
• "How Scripps Institution Came To San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 27:3 (Summer 1981) by Elizabeth N. Shor
• "How Ellen Scripps Brought Ancient Egypt to San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 38:2 (1992) by Bruce Kamerling
• "Anna and Albert Valentien: The Arts and Crafts Movement in San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 24:3 (1978) by Bruce Kamerling
• "Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
• Biography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• "The Bishop's School, 1909-2009", The Journal of San Diego History 54:4 (2009) by Molly McClain