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Louise DeKoven Bowen

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Louise DeKoven Bowen
Born
Louise DeKoven

February 26, 1859
Chicago, Illinois, United States
DiedNovember 9, 1953(1953-11-09) (aged 94)
Chicago, Illinois, US
NationalityAmerican
Occupations

Louise DeKoven Bowen (also Louise deKoven Bowen;[1] February 26, 1859 – November 9, 1953) was an American philanthropist, civic leader, social reformer, and suffragist.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, her parents were Helen Hadduck and John deKoven, a banker. In 1875, she graduated from Dearborn Seminary.[2]

A lifelong member of St. James Episcopal Church,[3] she was frustrated with the limitations for women within the church.[4] Assisting Jane Addams, Bowen became an officer and trustee of the Hull House. She served as president of the Juvenile Court Committee of Chicago, and after its reorganization into the Juvenile Protective Association, she became its first president.[5] Bowen was also president of the Chicago Woman's City Club, and was a notable member of the City Club of Chicago. In 1912, she endowed the summer camp for Hull House's poor children, the Bowen Country Club in Waukegan, Illinois (now known as Bowen Park.[6][7][8] She was honored as a citizen-fellow of the Chicago Institute of Medicine.[9][10] She served as vice president of the United Charities, and was a leader in the women's suffrage movement, serving as auditor of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[2] "During World War I, she was the only woman appointed to the Illinois Council of Defense."[4] By appointment of President Warren G. Harding, she was the official representative of the US at the Pan-American Conference of Women (1922).[9]

She married the banker, Joseph Tilton Bowen, and their children included Helen Hadduck Bowen (1890–1972), wife of William M. Blair, as well as John, Joseph, and Louise. Bowen died of a stroke in 1953 in Chicago. Her papers are part of the Richard J. Daley Library Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[5]

Selected works

  • The Colored People of Chicago (1913)
  • Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at Play (1914)

References

  1. ^ Appier, Janis (January 1998). Policing Women: The Sexual Politics of Law Enforcement and the LAPD. Temple University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-56639-560-1.
  2. ^ a b Sawyers, June Skinner (31 March 2012). Chicago Portraits: New Edition. Northwestern University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8101-2649-7.
  3. ^ Prelinger, Catherine M. Episcopal Women. Oxford University Press. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-0-19-534452-3.
  4. ^ a b Lindley, Susan Hill; Stebner, Eleanor J. (2008). The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-664-22454-7.
  5. ^ a b "Louise deKoven Bowen papers". University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Bowen Country Club". collection description. University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  7. ^ "How the Bowen Country Club Came To Be". Bowen Country Club official web site. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  8. ^ "Louis deKoven Bowen". Bowen Country Club official web site. University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  9. ^ a b Social Progress (Public domain ed.). Howard-Severance Company. 1922. p. 185.
  10. ^ Sicherman, Barbara; Green, Carol Hurd (1980). Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-674-62733-8.