Elizabeth Beardsley Butler

Elizabeth Beardsley Butler
Butler, from a 1911 publication
Born(1884-12-01)December 1, 1884
New York, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 2, 1911(1911-08-02) (aged 26)
Saranac Lake, New York, U.S.
Occupationresearcher

Elizabeth Beardsley Butler (December 1, 1884 – August 2, 1911) was a pioneering social investigator of the Progressive Era. She studied the lives of women and children wage earners in Jersey City, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. She is best known for her contributions to The Pittsburgh Survey, a landmark study of social conditions in an American city.

Early life and education

Butler was born in New York in 1884, the daughter of Frederick Butler and Emmie Beardsley Butler. Her father was a businessman, born in Ireland. She graduated from Packer Collegiate Institute in 1903, and from Barnard College in 1905.

Career

After college, Butler was executive secretary of the Consumers League of New Jersey, and secretary of the New Jersey Child Labor Committee. Beginning in 1907 Butler worked for Paul Kellogg's Pittsburgh Survey, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. Her resulting book, Women and the Trades, was published in 1909. It was the first large survey of wage-earning women in America and the first of the six volumes of The Survey. In her last months, Butler was on the staff of the Bureau of Social Research at the New York School of Philanthropy.

Publications

Death

Butler died of tuberculosis at age 26 in Saranac Lake, New York. "American women of this generation and American workers generally have lost an interpreter of rare gifts in Elizabeth Beardsley Butler," Paul Kellogg wrote in The Survey, remarking on her "marvelous fund of buoyant energy" and "her splendid courage". Her mother established a scholarship in her memory at the New York School of Philanthropy.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Elizabeth Butler Dead; Noted for Social Work". Brooklyn Eagle. 1911-08-05. p. 20. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Elizabeth Beardsley Butler". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  3. ↑ "Frederick Butler (death notice)". The Brooklyn Daily Times. 1910-04-09. p. 14. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Personals", The Survey (August 19, 1911): 743-744.
  5. ↑ "Working Woman's Leisure". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1910-10-05. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "Tells of Saleswomen; Miss Butler Reports on Baltimore Department Stores". The Baltimore Sun. 1912-02-12. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 Butler, Elizabeth Beardsley (1984). Women and the trades : Pittsburgh, 1907-1908. Maurine Weiner Greenwald. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5901-1. OCLC 10605516.
  8. ↑ Butler, Elizabeth Beardsley (1909-03-21). "Child Labor in Pittsburgh". The Pittsburgh Post. p. 34. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Butler, Elizabeth Beardsley (1910-10-01). "Social Life of Working Women". The Jersey Journal. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Butler, Elizabeth Beardsley (1912-06-22). "Training Store Girls in Salesmanship". The Standard-Times. p. 6. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "The Wage- Earning Woman (review)". The Times-Picayune. 1912-07-28. p. 40. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "The Pittsburg Survey: Two Important New Volumes Completing the Monumental Work". The Springfield Daily Republican. 1916-06-01. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Irish Play at Packer; Senior Dramatic Club Selected 'The Spreading of the News'". Brooklyn Eagle. 1914-11-14. p. 18. Retrieved 2026-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.