Anita Eugenie McCormick Blaine (1866-1954) was an American

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

and political activist. An heir to the McCormick Reaping Machine Works fortune built by her father,

Cyrus McCormick Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the ...

(1809–1884), Blaine funded the launch of Chicago's Francis W. Parker Elementary School, the

New World Foundation The New World Foundation is a liberal foundation, based in New York. It supports organizations that work on behalf of civil rights and that seek to encourage participation of citizens in American democracy. It was founded in 1954 by Anita McCormic ...

, the Progressive Party (1948), and the radical New York newspaper, the ''

National Guardian ''The National Guardian'', later known as ''The Guardian'', was a left-wing independent weekly newspaper established in 1948 in New York City. The paper was founded by James Aronson, Cedric Belfrage and John T. McManus in connection with the 194 ...

.''

Biography

Early years

Anita Eugenie McCormick was born July 4, 1866, the fourth of seven children born to

reaping machine A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in R ...

inventor and industrialist Cyrus McCormick and Nancy Maria "Nettie" Fowler. Working upon lessons learned from failed efforts by his father, the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

-born Cyrus McCormick had worked to construct a mechanical grain-harvesting device from an early age, fabricating his first crude machine in 1831, when he was just 22 years old.Gilbert A. Harrison, ''A Timeless Affair: The Life of Anita McCormick Blaine.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979; pg. 10. After putting down the project for a time, McCormick returned to refine his mechanical reaper in 1842, beginning to sell the first few commercial machines in that year. McCormick moved his operation to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1848 and within five years was well on his way to becoming a prosperous industrialist. By the time of Anita's birth, the family fortune exceeded $4 million. Anita was born in the East but the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...

of 1871 pulled the McCormicks back to Chicago to help rebuild the family franchise.Harrison, ''A Timeless Affair,'' pg. 18. Her early education was by means of private tutors. From her early teenage years, McCormick was educated at Misses Grant's Seminary, a conservative

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

religious institution financially supported by McCormick and his fortune, and at Miss Kirkland's Academy, a pedagogically progressive, though economically elite private school, from which she graduated high school. Her enlightened ideas about education in later life seem to have begun there.

Educational activity

Spending much of her time in New York and Europe, Anita McCormick returned to Chicago in October 1887, in the wake of the

Haymarket Affair The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square (C ...

and the growth of

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

and the municipal reform movement.Harrison, ''A Timeless Affair,'' pg. 48. She became involved in the work of the

Howe Street Mission Howe may refer to: People and fictional characters * Howe (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo (1788–1845), Irish peer and colonial governor Titles * Earl Howe, two titles, an exti ...

, a philanthropic institution in which young and poorly educated

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

women could gather in the evenings to learn sewing, cooking, and other skills and attend informational lectures. McCormick felt that the instruction of the Howe Street Mission was largely ineffective and in 1888 she branched out to form a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

of her own, renting a nearby apartment building to serve as a meeting place for women and hiring a destitute widow to manage the facility. McCormick's new facility taught cooking and garment-making, an provided a library for reading as well as musical opportunities. In 1880 Anita McCormick had met Emmons Blaine (1857-1892), a railroad executive and son of former

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politician and presidential candidate James G. Blaine. The pair were married in September 1889, with the union between the politically prominent Blaine and wealthy McCormick clans making national society news. The couple had one child, a boy, Emmons Blaine, Jr. (1890-1918), prior to the senior Blaine's sudden death of an intestinal ailment at the age of 35. In the 1890s, Anita McCormick Blaine's attention turned to public education, spurred by the forthcoming need of her own child to gain a competent, practical education. Blaine turned a room of her own house into a 10-student

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

in 1893, beginning the educational process of her 3-year-old son at home. She immediately began to look outward for further education, becoming acquainted with

Francis Wayland Parker Francis Wayland Parker (October 9, 1837March 2, 1902) was a pioneer of the progressive education, progressive school movement in the United States. He believed that education should include the complete development of an individual — mental, p ...

, an educational innovator whose

Chicago Normal School Chicago State University (CSU) is a Minority-serving institution, predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public ...

trained young teachers in child-centered educational methods which emphasized "illustrative teaching" using pictures, models, and field trips as well as physical education and crafts over rote memorization methods. Blaine was instrumental in establishing a school on Chicago's North Side based upon Parker's educational ideas and she would remain a patron of the educator, sponsoring a series of lectures by him in her living room and publishing the talks as an 1890 book, ''The School and Society.'' She would also come to sponsor a teachers' college in Chicago, making a nearly $30,000 commitment over a 5-year period.Harrison, ''A Timeless Affair,'' pg. 89. The effort would eventually be realized as the School of Education of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

.Jacqueline Castledine, ''Cold War Progressives: Women's Interracial Organizing for Peace and Freedom.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012; pg. 32.

Peace activity

In the years after the conclusion of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Blaine became a leading public advocate of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

as an international mechanism for the maintenance of world peace. Following the collapse of the League, Blaine was supportive of the foreign policy efforts of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, based upon collective security against the spread of

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Blaine was supportive of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

as a world peace institution. She also became a leading financial benefactor of former Vice President Henry A. Wallace and his effort to launch the anti-

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

Later years

In 1954 Anita McCormick Blaine launched a civil rights organization known as the

with a $7 million behest."Milestones: Founding Story,"
New World Foundation, www.newwf.org/ The organization was deeply involved in subsequent years in the effort to end

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

in the American South.

Death and legacy

Anita McCormick Blaine's papers are housed Wisconsin Historical Society Archives at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

."Anita McCormick Blaine Correspondence and Papers, 1828-1958,"
Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, WI. The voluminous material, which includes Blaine's correspondence and writings, is incorporated in 939 archival boxes, 16 cartons, 9 bound volumes, and 1 oversized folio and is open to researchers for in-library use.