Gertrude Barnum (September 29, 1866–June 17, 1948) was an American social worker and labor organizer.

Early life

Barnum was born in

Chester, Illinois Chester is a city in and the county seat of Randolph County, Illinois, United States, on a bluff above the Mississippi River. The population was 6,814 at the 2020 census. It lies south of St. Louis, Missouri. History Founding Samuel Smith is ...

, but she grew up in the

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

area. Her father was an attorney and a

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

judge, and her family was part of the city's upper class. Barnum attended

Evanston Township High School Evanston Township High School (ETHS) District 202, is a four-year public high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS was established in 1883 and serves the city of Evanston ...

and 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 ...

, but dropped out after her first year at the university. After returning to Chicago, she took part in the city's social reform movement and became a social worker in the city's

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 ...

s. She worked as an apprentice at

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 ...

during the 1890s before becoming the head worker at the Henry Booth House in 1902.

Trade unionism

Barnum's experience as a social worker led her to join the labor movement, as she felt that it was the best path to improve the lives of those who depended on the settlement houses. She joined the

National Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, 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 play ...

(WTUL) shortly after it was founded in 1903, and soon became a national organizer for the union. She supervised strikes in various industries in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

, and

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

in 1905; over the next several years, she continued to supervise strikes nationwide, mainly in the garment industry. As a member of the upper class, Barnum was able to use her status to secure the support of other upper-class citizens to the cause of labor; during a 1913 strike 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 ...

, she even convinced

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

to publicly support striking garment workers. Barnum's background occasionally caused tension with the working-class women of the labor movement, however. In particular, she feuded with

Leonora O'Reilly Leonora O’Reilly (February 16, 1870 – April 3, 1927) was an American feminist, suffragist, and trade union organizer. O'Reilly was born in New York state, raised in the Lower East Side of New York City. She was born into a working-class famil ...

, an early member of the WTUL who resigned in 1905 due to her dissatisfaction with upper-class allies within the organization. After O'Reilly's resignation, Barnum rebuked her for leaving an organization which she felt was continuing to do good work despite her criticisms. O'Reilly also criticized a book on the working class which Barnum had praised, claiming that it was an inaccurate depiction of the actual lives of working-class women. Barnum replied in a letter written on WTUL stationery, from which she had crossed out O'Reilly's name; while she admitted that O'Reilly may have been right about the book, she continued to criticize her for leaving the league.

Advisory roles

In 1914, Barnum took up a position with the newly-created United States

Commission on Industrial Relations The Commission on Industrial Relations (also known as the Walsh Commission) p. 12. was a commission created by the U.S. Congress on August 23, 1912, to scrutinize US labor law. The commission studied work conditions throughout the industrial Uni ...

. By the end of the decade, she had become the assistant director of the

Department of Labor The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

's investigation service. She also joined the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women, an organization founded by

Harriot Stanton Blatch Harriot Eaton Blatch ( Stanton; January 20, 1856–November 20, 1940) was an American writer and suffragist. She was the daughter of pioneering women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Biography Harriot Eaton Stanton was born, the sixth ...

to advance the

women's suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

. In 1919, she retired and moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where she lived until her death in 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnum, Gertrude 1866 births 1948 deaths People from Chester, Illinois American social workers Women's Trade Union League people Suffragists from Illinois Trade unionists from Illinois