Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, known as Olivia Sage (September 8, 1828 – November 4, 1918), was an American philanthropist known for her contributions to education and progressive causes. In 1869 she became the second wife of robber baron
Russell Sage
Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig politician from New York. As a frequent partner of Jay Gould in various transactions, he amassed a fortune. Olivia Slocum Sage, his se ...
. At his death in 1906, she inherited a fortune estimated at more than $63,000,000, to be used at her discretion.
A former teacher, Sage strongly supported education, both with program and building grants to Syracuse and other universities. She established the Russell Sage Foundation in 1907 and founded
Russell Sage College
Russell Sage College (often Russell Sage or RSC) is a co-educational college with two campuses located in Albany and Troy, New York, approximately north of New York City in the Capital District. Russell Sage College offers both undergraduate ...
in 1916, as well as endowing programs for women.
Early life and education
Margaret Olivia Slocum, called Olivia, was born in Syracuse, New York, to Margaret Pierson ( née Jermain) and Joseph Slocum. After the Panic of 1837 and the decline of canal traffic following construction of railroads across the state, her father's businesses and warehouses began to fail. Despite her father's financial struggles, Olivia was educated in private schools and graduated in 1847 from the Troy Female Seminary (later called the
Emma Willard School
The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...
, a preparatory school).
Career
Olivia Slocum supported herself by teaching for 20 years in Syracuse, New York, where she lived with her parents, and in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. Her father continued to struggle and in 1857, fatally ill with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
, sold their family home in Syracuse. Olivia and her mother had to move in with relatives.
During the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, Olivia Slocum moved to Philadelphia, where she worked as a governess for a wealthy family. She also volunteered in a
military hospital
A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...
."Mrs. Russell Sage: About" Auburn University Digital Libraries, accessed 3 May 2012
Marriage and family
In 1869 at age 41, Olivia Slocum married
Russell Sage
Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig politician from New York. As a frequent partner of Jay Gould in various transactions, he amassed a fortune. Olivia Slocum Sage, his se ...
, a widower, financier and robber baron who was 12 years older than she. They had no children. She became involved in activities defined by her role as his wife.
In 1906, Sage died and left his entire fortune of about $70 million to Olivia, without controlling how she would use it.
Philanthropy
Her philosophy was encapsulated in her article, "Opportunities and Responsibilities of Leisured Women", including "helping the unfortunate by providing them with a good environment, opportunity for self-support and individual responsibility, and protection from the unscrupulous." Mrs. Sage donated
Constitution Island
Constitution Island is in the northeastern United States, located in New York on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. It is directly opposite the U.S. Military Academy Reservation at West Point and is connected t ...
to the federal government as an addition to
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
.Dunwell, F.F., 1991, The Hudson River highlands, New York: Columbia University Press,
In 1905, Olivia Sage told Syracuse University that she would purchase Yates Castle and its surrounding property to house a teachers' college. This independent project demonstrated her attachment to Syracuse, her identification as a teacher, and her commitment to women's education. In 1909, she donated $50,000 to Syracuse on her birthday.
Sage became a patron of E. Lilian Todd (the first woman in the world to design airplanes) after seeing Todd's first airplane design at an exhibition at Madison Square Gardens in 1906.
Russell Sage Foundation
Her greatest single gift was $10,000,000 in 1907 to establish and endow the Russell Sage Foundation. It commissions studies of social issues and recommends solutions.
In 1908 Slocum Sage donated $650,000 to
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, enabling the purchase of the
Hillhouse
Hillhouse may refer to:
People
* Alex Hillhouse (1907–1983), Australian athlete who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics
*Art Hillhouse (1916–1980), American professional basketball player
* Christa Hillhouse of "4 Non Blondes", an American ro ...
property for what was developed as the university's Science Hill. In 1909, Sage donated Holder Hall to
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, named after her Quaker ancestor Christopher Holder. He had been persecuted in colonial Massachusetts for his religion.
Cornell University
Two years later, Sage gave $300,000 to
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
for the construction of a women's dormitory, Risley Hall, named after her mother-in-law. Her promotion of women's education also included funding the construction of the Olivia Josselyn House in 1912, named for her grandmother, at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
and dedicated it as a refuge for birds and other wildlife.
Russell Sage College
In 1916, Sage founded
Russell Sage College
Russell Sage College (often Russell Sage or RSC) is a co-educational college with two campuses located in Albany and Troy, New York, approximately north of New York City in the Capital District. Russell Sage College offers both undergraduate ...
in
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
, New York as a comprehensive college for women. The college is located within what has since been designated as the historic district of Troy, an area that is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
. RSC offers liberal arts and professional degree programs to empower students to become women of influence in their careers and their communities.
Pierson Middle-High School
Financing to build
Pierson Middle-High School
Pierson Middle-High School is a middle and high school located in Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York. Serving students in grades 6 through 12, it is the sole secondary school in the Sag Harbor Union Free School District.
Pierson Middle-High S ...
was gifted by Sage. It was named for her maternal ancestor
Abraham Pierson
Abraham Pierson (1646 – March 5, 1707) was an American Congregational minister who served as the first rector, from 1701 to 1707, and one of the founders of the Collegiate School — which later became Yale University.
Biography
He wa ...
, one of the early European settlers of Long Island. The school was completed in 1908 at the cost of $102,000.
Sag Harbor
Olivia Slocum Sage regularly spent her summers at a house in
Sag Harbor, New York
Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...
, a former whaling and fishing village on eastern Long Island. She organized the effort to build a library in the village, and donated most of the funds. She named the library in honor of her grandfather Major John Jermain, who fought in the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. The library was designed by Augustus N. Allen; she presented it in 1910 as a gift to the people of the village. The land cost $10,000, and was directly across from Sage's summer home on Main Street.
Olivia Sage's summer residence for many years in the village was later adapted for use as the town's
Sag Harbor Whaling Museum Sag Harbor Whaling Museum is dedicated to the port town's past within the American whaling industry. It houses the largest collection of whaling equipment in the state of New York. She made larger bequests to the following of $1.6 million each: the Emma Willard School, the Woman's Hospital, the Children's Aid Society, the Charity Organization Society, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the American Museum of Natural History, and Syracuse University. She also provided large donations in her will to a variety of churches, missions, and other religious causes.
By her bequest, Sage donated $2,750,000 posthumously for the development of the Russell Sage Foundation Homes in 1919, a suburban community at
Forest Hills Gardens
Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast ...
,
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
Emma Willard School
The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...
, both in Troy. These contributions included funds donated by Sage that supported major improvements on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's campus: construction of the Russell Sage Dining Hall in 1916, named after Sage's nephew who graduated in 1859; and $1,000,000 for the development of Russell Sage Laboratory. This was the base of Rensselaer's Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Sage also contributed to the National Training School in Durham, North Carolina (now North Carolina Central University), founded by James E. Shepard for black teachers and affiliated with the
Chautauqua
Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua br ...
movement. Up to 1915, the sum total of Sage's gifts surpassed $23,000,000.
References
*Crocker, Ruth, ''Mrs. Russell Sage: Women's Activism and Philanthropy in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2006,
Further reading
*Crocker, Ruth. "From Widow's Mite to Widow's Might: The Philanthropy of Margaret Olivia Sage." ''Journal of Presbyterian History'' (American Presbyterians) 74, no. 4, Winter 1996, 253–264.
*--------------. "The History of Philanthropy as Life-History: A Biographer's View of Mrs. Russell Sage." In ''Philanthropic Foundations: New Scholarship, New Possibilities,'' ed. Ellen Lagemann. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, 318–328.
*--------------. " 'I Only Ask You Kindly to Divide Some of Your Fortune with Me': Begging Letters and the Transformation of Charity in Late 19th Century America." ''Social Politics'' 6, Summer 1999, 131–160.
*--------------. "Mrs. Russell Sage: 'Private Griefs and Public Duties'", ''In Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History,'' ed. Kriste Lindenmeyer. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000, 147–159.
*--------------. ''Splendid Donation: A Life of Philanthropist Mrs. Russell Sage'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
de Forest, Robert W. "Margaret Olivia Sage, Philanthropist." ''The Survey 41,'' 1918, 151.
*Gleason, Arthur Huntington. "Mrs. Russell Sage and Her Interests." ''The World's Work'' 13, November 1906, 8182–8186.
*Hammack, David C. "The Russell Sage Foundation, 1907-1947: An Historical Introduction." In ''The Russell Sage Foundation: Social Research and Social Action in America, 1907-1947'', Frederick, MD: UPA Academic Editions, 1988, 1–14.