User:BubbleTeaNoBubble/sandbox/Adaline Emerson Thompson

Adaline Emerson Thompson (13 August 1859 - 1951) was an American educational worker and reformer. She was born on August 13, 1859, in Rockford, Illinois. Her father, Ralph Emerson, was a son of Professor Ralph Emerson, of Andover, Massachusetts, who was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson[1]. Adaline graduated from Wellesley College in 1880, which is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, “an unofficial grouping of elite current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States”.[2]

As one of the creators and the first president of the College Settlements’ Association, she “carried the association successfully through all the trials and difficulties” and “threw her energy and enthusiasm   into this home extension movement.”[3] The College Settlements Association was formed by a group of college women who were interested in social settlement work in 1890. During her presidency, the number of members reached 765 in the third year, and 11 colleges have joined the association. After she stepped down as president in her fourth year, she continued to serve as an executive member and continued to work for the association. She was also the president of the Women’s Club of Orange from 1890 to 1892. This club had around 300 members and it was the earliest women’s club of New Jersey.[4] Adaline was also the president of the New York Branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which is a non-profit organization that unites women graduates of four-year colleges and advance opportunities for women to pursue higher education and careers. As president, she “won recognition as a leader and presiding officer.”[5]

Family Background
Adaline Emerson Thompson was born on August 13, 1859, in Rockford, Illinois. Her father, Ralph Emerson, was a son of Professor Ralph Emerson, of Andover, Massachusetts, who was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson who remained friendship with many feminist leaders, such as Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller etc. He called openly for women to receive their rights of education, employment, and equal laws of property.

Her father was a successful businessman in the manufacturing field, owned his company called Emerson, Talcott & Co. He is very supportive for Adaline to go to college before the time that “was a usual thing for girls to go to college, when most men were still questioning their fitness for training, either mentally or physically.”[6]

Her mother is Adaline Elizabeth (Talcott) Emerson, who was a graduate of Rutgers College, New York City, in 1856. Adaline Elizabeth Emerson had a great interest in literature. She had issued her own poem volume called “Love Bound and Other Poems”. Mrs. Emerson was also active in club life. She was a member of the American Author's League and has also for many years been a member of "The Fortnightly  of Chicago, a purely literary club, and the "Monday Club  of Rockford, and is Second Vice - President of the Rutgers’s College Alumnae Association, of New York.[7] In addition to her higher education, Adaline Elizabeth Emerson had an interest in philanthropic and social organizations. During the Spanish-American war, Adaline Elizabeth was appointed as the president for the Sixth Supreme Judicial District, to organize an Army and Navy League, for the relief of the sick or wounded at the front. Adaline Thompson Emerson was her first child.

Her aunt is Charlotte Emerson Brown, who is the creator and the first president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, which is a federation founded in 1890 of over 3000 women’s clubs. Thompson moved to Orange located in New York in 1888. It was also the place where her aunt lived at that time. They both had been the president of the women's club of orange. During Adaline’s reign, she prompted the joining of the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, which was founded by her aunt Charlotte Emerson Brown.

Education in Wellesley College
In 1877, Thompson entered Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley College was founded by Henry Fowle Durant and Pauline Fowle Durant in 1870. Henry Fowle Durant was an impassioned believer in educational rights for women. He established a policy of only hiring female instructors because he felt these active and determined female models could become the best examples for students. By 1890, some of the female teachers became a major force and founder of the College Settlement Movement.

Wellesley were very different from women’s colleges and seminaries founded before 1875, whose educational philosophy was to qualify female students to fulfil their duties as women, daughters, wives and mothers. Its founder, Henry Fowle Durant firmly believed that the God was calling women “to come up higher, to prepare herself for great conflicts, for vast reforms in social life, for noble usefulness.” He believed that women who received higher education should feel an extra-familial calling and devote themselves to social activities. By the mid-eighties, influenced by the reform in female higher education, Wellesley stated providing multi-course programs in political science and economy. These courses include discussion of competitive system, of the use of public charity, of anarchism etc. Social arrangements also came to be considered as vital to women’s higher education. Organization and student clubs were encouraged by the school.

Gilded Age and Industrial Revolution
Adaline was born in 1859, the decade before the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age usually refers to the last three decades of the 19th century, when the development and expansion of capitalism in the United States allowed entrepreneurs to accumulate a great deal of wealth. Industrialization changed the way women worked within the home. The invention of many time-saving domestic appliances gave them more leisure time. More middle- and upper-class women had opportunities to participate in work or social activities. At the same time, the industrial revolution required a large labor force. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, immigrants from Europe poured into the United States in search of work opportunities. They lived in overcrowded apartments in unsanitary conditions and had no guarantee of a working environment. Child labor laws, compulsory school attendance laws, and laws establishing maximum working hours and minimum wages, as well as labor rights laws, had not been established at this time.

Settlement House Movement
The settlement house movement started at this point. It was introduced from the UK by two wealthy white women, Jane Addams and Ellen gates Starr. The general pattern was that educated reformers, usually single, reform oriented college women, moved to the poor immigrant community, helped the poor people who lived there. The college settlement association founded in 1890 was a voluntary association of college women who were interested in the settlement work. It aimed to unite all college women who were in the trend of this progressive movement and “inspire them with a common ideal”.[8]

Development of Women’s Higher Education
Late 19th century was also a critical period for the development of women in higher education. The Gilded Age witnessed a significant increase in college educated women. Some newly established women's Colleges, like Vassar, Smith and Wellesley, aimed to break the ideal “true womanhood”, that was widely believed by the society before the gilded age and stressed that women were not suitable for the world outside.[9] Students graduating from these relatively new women's colleges were generally more likely to participate in social activities. The teachers and graduates of these women's colleges kept making contributions to the reform, including prompting the laws to restrict the worst aspects of capital, supporting women's suffrage, supporting dress reform, etc.

Development of Women’s Clubs
Women clubs became important places for them to participate in political and economic lives in late 19th century. The first secular women club was formed in 1868 by a female journalist who aimed to create a place for women who were interested in literature and who want to develop their professional career.[10] Then, more and more female clubs began to emerge. The interests of club women included solving problems like intemperance and children’s health and safety, promoting the government to help working class families, improving their communities etc.

Career
Adaline graduated from Wellesley College in 1880. The thesis which she presented showed that she possessed literary ability. In 1883, she married Norman Frederick Thompson. In the first five years of her marriage, her two children and the household occupied most of her attention. In 1888, she moved to New York and began to devote herself to club activities and social reform. Adaline was the president of the Women’s Club of Orange, and also the New York Associated Alumnae. The Woman’s Club of Orange was the earliest women’s club of New Jersey. It had around 300 members and its object were defined as “the discussion of topics of social and general importance, for the purpose of awakening in its members a more vital interest in such topics.”[11] Adaline was the president from 1890 to 1892. During her reign, she prompted the joining of the Federation of Women's Clubs(GFWC). GFWC was founded in 1890 to “unite the vast array of disparate white women’s clubs”. Its establishment “allowed for greater communication and coordination among clubwomen, who were expanding beyond their original focus on self-improvement, to what settlement house leader Jane Addams termed “Civic Housekeeping”.[12]

New York Associated Alumnae was the branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. This organization founded in 1882 was “to unite alumnae of different institutions for practical educational work - mainly, it appears, by encouraging girls to go to college and helping to socialize them into middle-class America when they graduate.”[13] Although in the gilded age, women’s education had been developing fast, the society did not have much opportunities for these young female graduates to “satisfy the demands of their sense of mission and of their need for activity.” When they left the closed group within the women colleges, most of them felt a strong sense of alienation because the culture was “unused to well-educated female.” These female graduates require “a place in the world where they may help or be helped.”[14]

Adaline became the president of the College Settlements' Association in 1890 and her reign came to an end until 1893.Adaline’s organizing force has been mostly largely expanded in the association. Under Adaline's leadership, the College Settlements' Association supported the opening of three settlement houses that were located in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In 1892, It had a membership of 750 people, who were mainly women college students, and more than eleven universities joined the association.[15]

According to the report, Adaline and her Electoral Board were primarily responsible for raising funds, developing general aim and methods of the association,  amending the constitution，and electing Executive Committees for each settlement house. There are two main financial sources of the Electoral Board, one is the generosity of private friends who were particularly interested in this movement, another one is membership fee. Since many private donations were anonymous, it was difficult to know the direct relationship between donors and Adaline. However, based on Adaline's influence in the New York Associated Alumnae and the Woman's Club of Orange, she must have done a lot of work through her network to mobilize her friends to provide financial support for the association. Also, according to the membership list, Wellesley College had the highest number of members. Given that Adaline herself was a Wellesley graduate, it was easy to associate her efforts with it. The report from the board also proved Adaline's strong organizational power and long-term vision for future development, putting forward the objectives to be achieved in the next year and the methods to be used. The methods are very realistic, perspicuous, and well-considered. Adaline and her electoral board had done a clear study and planning on the focus of each year, such as how many members would be needed, the current problems faced by the association, how to prepare for future expansion, etc.