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Mary Phillips Riis

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Mary Phillips Riis
A white woman with dark hair.
Mary Phillips Riis, from a 1920 magazine profile.
BornApril 29, 1877
Memphis, Tennessee, US
DiedAugust 4, 1967
New York City, US
Occupation(s)Philanthropist, financier
SpouseJacob Riis (married 1907)

Mary Phillips Riis (April 29, 1877 – August 4, 1967) was an American philanthropist, widow of Danish-American reformer and journalist Jacob Riis.

Early life

Mary A. Phillips was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Richard Fabian Phillips and Elise Caroline (Lina) Rensch Phillips.[1] Her father was born in England,[2] a cotton broker, and eventually president of the Cotton Exchange in St. Louis. She attended schools in England and France.[3] Later in life, she took courses at New York University.[4]

Career

Mary Phillips moved to New York for a career on the stage. She became secretary, and later wife, to journalist Jacob A. Riis. In widowhood, she took a job on Wall Street, selling bonds.[5] During World War I she helped promote Liberty Loans.[6] In 1919, she became head of an investment securities office, the first in New York City to be staffed entirely by women.[6] She built a fortune enough to own a mansion near Bedford Village, New York.[3] In 1958 she was dubbed "The First Lady of Wall Street" in a newspaper headline.[7]

Riis taught investment courses at Columbia University, meant for women students who, like herself, were faced with managing their own personal finances. She also wrote about finance for women's magazines,[4] and counseled women in business.[8]

She was longtime president of Riis House, a settlement house in New York.[3][9] She supported Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs during the Great Depression, and encouraged Roosevelt to do more for Jewish refugees from Germany.[4] Late in life, she worked especially for children's programs, including playgrounds.[10]

Personal life

Mary Phillips married widower Jacob Riis in 1907, as his second wife.[11][12] They lived on a farm in New England, which she inherited, while the rest of the Riis estate was divided among his children.[8][5] She was widowed after seven years, in 1914.[13] She died in a nursing home in New York City in 1967, aged 90 years.[3] Some of her papers are in the Jacob A. Riis Papers at the New York Public Library.[14] She donated another collection of Riis papers and photographs to the Library of Congress.[15]

References

  1. ^ Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America. American Commonwealth Company. p. 689.
  2. ^ "Untitled social item". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1914-07-02. p. 16. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  3. ^ a b c d "Mrs. Jacob A. Riis, Financier And Social Worker, Dies at 90; Widow of Reformer Aided Immigrants--Teacher of Investing at Columbia". The New York Times. 1967-08-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  4. ^ a b c Grosch, Mary Frances (2000). "Riis, Mary Phillips (1877-1967), financier and social welfare reformer". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1001400. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  5. ^ a b "Successful as a Broker; The widow of Jacob Riis Shows What an Ambitious Woman Can Do". The Washington Times. 1919-04-08. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b Morgan, Mary (April 1920). "The Rise of Mary Riis". The Green Book. 23: 69.
  7. ^ Preuss, Lucile (1958-07-13). "The 'First Lady of Wall Street' Thrives in Ticker Tape World". The Birmingham News. p. 64. Retrieved 2020-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b Patterson, Ada (April 10, 1919). "She Practices Altruism in Business". The Continent. 50: 421–422.
  9. ^ "Jacob Riis". Theodore Roosevelt Center. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  10. ^ "Valiant Lady". Journal and Courier. 1957-11-04. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Pascal, Janet B. (2005-12-02). Jacob Riis: Reporter and Reformer. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-0-19-514527-4.
  12. ^ Buk-Swienty, Tom (2008). The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 283–284. ISBN 978-0-393-06023-2.
  13. ^ "St. Louis Woman, Widow of Jacob Riis, Noted Publicist". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1914-05-28. p. 15. Retrieved 2020-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Riis, Jacob A; Powell, Lyman P; Riis, Mary Phillips; Roosevelt, Theodore (1871). Jacob Riis papers 1871-1916 [bulk 1900-1914]. New York Public Library. OCLC 122378768.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ^ "Exhibition on Jacob Riis, Pioneering Photographer and Journalist, Opens April 14 at LOC". Fine Books & Collections. March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
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