Isabella Graham
Isabella Graham (née Marshall; July 29, 1742 - July 27, 1814) was a Scottish-American philanthropist and educator.
Early life
Graham was born on July 29, 1742, in
Personal life
In 1765, she married Dr. John Graham, an army surgeon in the
While visiting Scotland from America in 1785, Dr. John Witherspoon spoke with Isabella regarding returning to the United States. After her children had completed their schooling, she departed for New York in July 1789 to help prepare the United States for its role as "the country where the Church of Christ would eventually flourish" and later that year established a school for young women.[3]
While living in America, Graham was a member of the New York Society Library along with many of the nation's founding fathers and other influential individuals of the time. She is the only woman who is listed under members with a political occupation within the site's database. Although her borrowing history at the library spans only four months, Graham checked out thirteen books during that period. The records of her borrowing history demonstrate her interests in historical and biographical works, as well as novels and travel diaries.[4]
Philanthropy and Establishments
Earlier in her life in Scotland, Graham founded the Penny Society, later known as the Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, a friendly society for poor members, who contributed a penny a week to create a fund for providing for them when sick.[2] This organization was the beginning of a life dedicated to philanthropy. Graham established the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows in 1797. The Society for Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children was one of the first women's societies to engage in active public benevolence and successfully petitioned for shares of public welfare funds.[5] She retired from teaching in 1798 to devote herself completely to philanthropic work.[2]
Throughout her life, Graham also founded, or helped organize, the Orphan Asylum Society (organized 1806[2]), the Society for Promoting Industry among the Poor, and the first Sunday School for Ignorant Adults in New York. She also aided in organizing the first missionary society and the first monthly missionary prayer meeting in the city; was the first president of the Magdalen Society of New-York (founded 1812[6]); systematically visited the inmates of the hospital, and the sick female convicts in the state prison; and distributed Bibles to hundreds of families, as well as tracts prepared under her own direction. She believed that cultivating piety and Christian morality was the key to lifting widows out of poverty.[3]
Legacy
Graham's memoir, The Power of Faith: Exemplified in the Life and Writings of Mrs. Isabella Graham published in 1822 is available in interactive digital copy.
Notes
- ^ Marquis Who Was Who in America 1607-1984. New Providence: Marquis Who's Who LLC. 2009. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Harris Elwood Starr (1931). "Graham, Isabella Marshall". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- ^ a b c The Poor Among Us: A History of Family Poverty and Homelessness in New York City. New York: White Tiger Press. 2013. Archived from the original on August 14, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
- ^ City Readers: Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library
- JSTOR 1887469.
- ^ "Search: Magdalen Society (New York, N.Y.)". Brown University Library. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the The American Cyclopædia.
•Severance, Diana Lynn. Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History. Pages 236–239. Scotland. Christian Focus Publishing. 2011.
External links
- Works by Isabella Graham at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Isabella Graham at Internet Archive
- Joanna Bethune (1839). The life of Mrs. Isabella Graham. New York: J.S. Taylor.
- Joanna Bethune, ed. (1838). The unpublished letters and correspondence of Mrs. Isabella Graham. New York: J.S. Taylor.
- 30011889
- "PovertyHistory.org".