Kate Waller Barrett

This portrait of Kate Waller Barrett hangs in the Kate Waller Barrett Library in Alexandria, Virginia.

"Kate Waller Barrett was a prominent physician, social reformer, humanitarian, and leader of the National Florence Crittenton Mission, a progressive organization established in 1883 to assist unmarried women and teenage girls who either had children or were trying to leave prostitution. Barrett died at her home in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1925; this portrait hangs in the Kate Waller Barrett Branch of the Alexandria Library, built in 1937 as a memorial to her. It may be the same as one painted by Eugenie Deland Sangstad in 1928, but the portrait itself is unsigned." -- Encyclopedia of Virginia.

 

 Kate Waller Barrett,M.D.

c. 1847 - 1925

Humanitarian, Social Activist

"A woman without fear, with a great heart equal to her brilliant mind, a leader in every movement for the advancement of humankind, a champion of unpopular causes. The cause of the outcast woman, the cause of the ill-treated prisoner, the cause of those disbarred by circumstance from educational or social opportunity, the cause of the disfranchised woman, the cause of the disabled World War veteran -- these difficult and at times disheartening movements absorbed her attention, but never caused her to lose her abundant faith, her youthful enthusiasm and her love of all sorts and conditions of people." --  Adele Clark.

President, National Florence Crittenton Mission 1909-1925
National President, American Legion Auxiliary 1922-1923
President, National Council of Women 1911-1916
Member, Board of Visitors, College of William & Mary 1921-1925
Virginia State Regent, Daughters of the American Revolution 1919-1925
"Virginia's most distinguished woman" -- Governor E. Lee Trinkle

The Kate Waller Barrett Library building was donated in 1937 by Robert South Barrett and Viola Tupper Barrett Dedicated May 2010 Kate Waller Barrett Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution."

 

This  Pen and Ink Study signed  "Valentine" appeared in  The Tacoma Times, April 6, 1911 in an  article in which Mrs. Barrett describes her life and work. (Which see here.)

And this photo of her by Bain News Service was taken sometime in the 1910s.