1873-1952
Lawyer and Sociologist

Childhood.

Alice Kellor was born in Columbus, Ohio. When her father abandoned the family, she moved with her mother to Coldwater, Michigan. Her mother worked as a laundress, and Alice helped her in this. Though she was a good student, she could not afford to stay in high school, so she dropped out to help support the family. The Eddy sisters, two spinsters in town, took an interest in Alice and sent her to adult education classes and finally to Cornell University, where, now calling herself Frances after one of the sisters, she received a law degree in 1897.

Studies of the City.

After Cornell, Kellor went to Chicago, combining her scholarly zeal with a keen interest in social problems. With a scholarship from the Chicago Women's Club she studied southern penal systems, especially the treatment of women prisoners and the racial...