Anna T. Jeanes (7 April 1822 – 24 September 1907) was an American

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

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 ...

. She was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the city where she gave

Spring Garden Institute Spring Garden College—founded in 1851 as the Spring Garden Institute—was a private technical college in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia. Its building at 523-25 North Broad Street (demolished) was designed by architect Stephe ...

, a

technical school In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Associa ...

, $5,000,000; $100,000 to the Hicksite Friends; $200,000 to the

schools of Philadelphia; and $200,000 to the Home for Aged Friends, now known as Stapeley In Germantown, a

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple i ...

where she spent the closing years of her life. In 1907 she transferred to the

trusteeship Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

and

Hollis B. Frissell Hollis Burke Frissell (July 14, 1852 – August 5, 1917) was an American chaplain and college president. He served as the second president of Hampton Institute. Career He served as the school's chaplain, vice-principal, and then principal until ...

the sum of $1,000,000 to be known as "The Fund for Rudimentary Schools for Southern

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

es" and to be used exclusively for the benefit of elementary negro schools in the South. The

Jeanes Foundation The Jeanes Foundation, also known as the Negro Rural School Fund or Jeanes Fund, helped support education and vocational programs for African American in rural communities from 1908 to the 1960s. It was founded by Anna T. Jeanes with help from Book ...

worked in close cooperation with the

General Education Board The General Education Board was a private organization which was used primarily to support higher education and medical schools in the United States, and to help rural white and black schools in the South, as well as modernize farming practices i ...

established by

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

Personal life

Anna Jeanes was the youngest of ten children born to Isaiah and Anna Thomas Jeanes, a Quaker family. "Annie" was four when her mother died of pneumonia. Anna's father and two brothers Samuel and Joshua were merchants. Her brother Joseph owned coal and mineral fields. Her brother Jacob Jeanes was a medical doctor and homeopathic physician who co-founded Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, later Hahnemann Medical College, the first successful school in the United States to train students in

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...

and one of the predecessors of the Drexel College of Medicine, where he taught during its first year after opening. Her sister Mary was a philanthropist and abolitionist. All of her siblings died childless. Anna never married and at 72 inherited the family's fortune which she was determined to give away to better humanity. She did that over the next 13 years of her life.

Philanthropy

Retirement Communities

Unwilling to live alone at the family home Anna built a boarding home “for aged

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...

and those in sympathy with us.” The first was built at 1708 Race Street. Not satisfied with one, she personally supervised and carefully monitored the finances and building of a second named Stapeley in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia into which she moved in.

Education

A few months prior to her death, Anna prepaid an endowment fund, later renamed the Jeanes Fund, to assist community, county, and rural schools for “colored people” in the southern states. Her requirement was that there would be a racially integrated foundation board, the men to be chosen by

( Tuskegee) and Hollis Frissell (

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...

). Washington and Frissell traveled to Philadelphia to receive the $1,000,000 check. Besides

directors of The Jeanes Fund included President

William H. Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, and

George Peabody George Peabody ( ; February 18, 1795 – November 4, 1869) was an American financier and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as the father of modern philanthropy. Born into a poor family in Massachusetts, Peabody went into business in dry go ...

. The fund educated and hired black teachers and traveling supervisors for rural schools, and improved African American school facilities. The "Jeanes teachers" traveled the South, providing vital support for the education of black students. In 1937 the group merged with several charities sharing similar missions, and became the

Southern Education Foundation The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) is a not-for-profit foundation created in 1937 from four different funds — the Peabody Education Fund, the John F. Slater Fund, the Negro Rural School Fund, and the Virginia Randolph Fund. Their main go ...

Care for the Sick

Driven by personal experiences and living with a painful diagnosis of carcinoma scrofulous of the breast, Anna left a generous bequest to build a hospital. Her desire was to establish a hospital specializing in cancer, nervous, and disabling ailments. Jeanes Hospital was established on land that had been the Jeanes family farm in Fox Chase. Following WWII, Jeanes Hospital became an acute care general hospital. Later, consistent with Anna's will, the Institute for Cancer Research and American Oncologic Hospital relocated to the Jeanes campus. These two institutions merged to become Fox Chase Cancer Center. Today, Jeanes Hospital and Fox Chase Cancer Center are members of the Temple University Health System.

Disenfranchised

Concerned by the burdens of life experienced by immigrants, the marginalized, and those forgotten by society, Anna provided funds to the following: the Houses of Industry; the Penn Asylum for Widows and Single Women; Homes for Destitute Colored Children; Homes for the Aged and Infirm Colored Persons; Firemen's Pension Fund; Pennsylvania Working and Industrial Homes for Blind Men; Pennsylvania Society to Prevent Cruelty to Children; Sanitarium Association of Philadelphia (for sick children); Spring Garden Institute; soup kitchens; and children's nurseries.

Jeanes Hospital

Jeanes Hospital is an acute care community hospital located in the Fox Chase section of Northeast Philadelphia. In 1996, Jeanes Hospital became part of the

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

Health System. The hospital was founded in 1928, through a provision in the will of Anna T. Jeanes, who created an endowment for the establishment of a hospital for "Cancerous, Nervous, and Disabling Ailments." She maintained a home on the grounds that are now the Jeanes Hospital campus.I In 2019 Pennsylvania Historical Commission awarded a historical marker on the grounds of Jeanes Hospital.

Notes

* *
"The Women Who Ran the Schools"
a history exhibit from Durham County Library * * World Book Encyclopedia 1955 Anna Jeanes