Carola Woerishoffer (August 1885 — September 11, 1911) was an American labor activist and

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

worker.

Early life and education

Emma Carola Woerishoffer was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the daughter of German-born banker Charles Frederick Woerishoffer and Anna Uhl Woerishoffer. Her grandmother was journalist and philanthropist

Anna Ottendorfer Anna Ottendorfer (13 February 1815 Würzburg, Bavaria - 1 April 1884 New York City) was a German-American journalist and philanthropist. She was associated with the development of the German-language ''New Yorker Staats-Zeitung'' into a major n ...

. In 1886, her father died, leaving her a large inheritance. She attended the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9– ...

and

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

, studying economics and philosophy.''Carola Woerishoffer, Her Life and Work''
(Bryn Mawr 1912).

Activism

After finishing college in 1907, Woerishoffer became a resident and a member of the board of managers at the Greenwich House settlement. She funded Committee on Congestion of Population, and the New York Congestion Exhibit (1908). She joined

Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...

and donated thousands to their work; active in New York Consumers League, ran the League's Label Shop; 1909 undercover as a laundry worker for four months, to gather information on hazardous working conditions. She testified about her experiences before a New York state commission on labor later that year. She participated in the

New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 The New York shirtwaist strike of 1909, also known as the Uprising of the 20,000, was a labour strike primarily involving Jewish women working in New York shirtwaist factories. It was the largest strike by female American workers up to that date. ...

, accompanying arrested strikers to court; it was estimated that she paid bail for over 200 women strikers, and donated more to the union's strike fund.Robin Kadison Berson
''Marching to a Different Drummer: Unrecognized Heroes of American History''
(ABC-CLIO 1994): 313-322.

Career and death

In 1910, Woerishoffer's money helped establish the New York State Bureau of Industries and Immigration. She passed the Civil Service examination to work as a special investigator for the bureau. She was part of the investigation following the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The ...

. While traveling to a labor camp for her work in 1911, died in an automobile accident near Cannonsville, New York. She was 26 years old. Among the speakers at Woerishoffer's memorial service were

Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman (1861–1939), was an American economist who spent his entire academic career at Columbia University in New York City. Seligman is best remembered for his pioneering work involving taxation and public finance. His p ...

Florence Kelley Florence Moltrop Kelley (September 12, 1859 – February 17, 1932) was a social and political reformer and the pioneer of the term wage abolitionism. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rig ...

Helen Marot Helen Marot (June 9, 1865 – June 3, 1940) was an American writer, librarian, and labor organizer. She is best remembered for her efforts to address child labor and improve the working conditions of women. She was from Philadelphia and became act ...

, Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch,

George McAneny George McAneny (December 24, 1869 – July 29, 1953), was an American a newspaperman, municipal reformer and advocate of preservation and city planning from New York City. He served as Manhattan Borough President from 1910 to 1913, President of th ...

, and

M. Carey Thomas Martha Carey Thomas (January 2, 1857 – December 2, 1935) was an American educator, suffragist, and linguist. She was the second president of Bryn Mawr College, a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Biography Early life ...

. The following year, her Bryn Mawr classmates and

Ida M. Tarbell Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857January 6, 1944) was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer and lecturer. She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and pione ...

assembled and published a biographical tribute to Woerishoffer. Her estate donated $750,000 to her alma mater; it was used to establish Bryn Mawr's graduate department of Social Economy and Social Research.Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
''The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas''
(University of Illinois Press 1999): 380. Her nephew was art collector

Antoine Seilern Count Antoine Seilern (17 September 1901 – 6 July 1978) was an Anglo-Austrian art collector and art historian. He was considered, along with Sir Denis Mahon, to be one of a handful of important collectors who was also a respected scholar. The ...

References

External links

Gravesite of Carola Woerishoffer
at Find a Grave. {{DEFAULTSORT:Woerish, Carola 1885 births 1911 deaths Brearley School alumni Bryn Mawr College alumni American trade unionists of German descent Activists from New York City Women's Trade Union League people Trade unionists from New York (state)