Dr. Kate Waller Barrett

Humanitarian, Philanthropist, Social Activist

The Kate Waller Barrett Chapter was organized unofficially as the Arlington Chapter on February 21st, 1925. The organizing meeting was held at 408 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia, the home of Dr. Kate Waller Barrett, then the State Regent of the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution (1919-1925). As a result of her sudden death two days later, the new chapter changed its name from Arlington to Kate Waller Barrett, in her honor.

Kate Waller Barrett was a truly remarkable woman. A humanitarian, philanthropist, sociologist and social reformer, she crusaded tirelessly - and successfully - for assistance for the "outcast woman, the mistreated prisoner, those lacking in educational and social opportunity, the voteless woman, and the disabled war veteran". Kate Waller Barrett made a difference.

She was born in 1855 to a well-to-do family in Stafford County, Virginia and married Robert South Barrett, an Episcopal minister, in 1876. Assisting him with his work in Richmond, Virginia, Kentucky, and Atlanta, Georgia, she first became aware of the social problems that became her life's work. With the support of her husband, she earned a medical degree in 1892 from the Women's Medical College of Georgia, followed in 1894 by an honorary Doctor of Science degree. She also studied nursing at the Florence Nightingale Training School in London, England.

Widowed at 41 in 1896, she assumed sole responsibility for raising her six children and began her professional career.

Dr. Barrett's central professional interest was the plight of unmarried mothers in the late 19th and early 20th century. She was interested in rescuing helpless girls and women and "fallen women" - almost always an uphill battle against the prejudices of her time. After limited initial success in Atlanta founding "rescue homes" in the face of official opposition, in 1893 she joined forces with Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New yorker also interested in rescue work, to found the first Florence Crittenton Home for unmarried mothers. After she was widowed, she became the General Superintendent of the newly-formed National Florence Crittenton Mission and became its President in 1909, keeping both positions until her death in 1925. The Mission eventually ran more than 50 homes around the country.

Dr. Barrett guided the rescue home movement away from its initial focus on prostitution reformation and toward a concern with the social welfare of unwed mothers, an important shift that helped make the unwed mother an acceptable subject of philanthropy. She became an acknowledged expert on rescuing young unmarried mothers, published a number of well-regarded articles on the subject, and gave many speeches successfully advocating her social views.

But Kate Waller Barrett had other social and political interests. She held offices in a large number of organizations and served on numerous boards and commissions. She was President of the American Legion Auxiliary (1922-1923) after having served as the first Virginia State President; President of the National Council of Women (1911-1916); a delegate to the International Council of Women; and Vice President of the Conference of Charities and Corrections of Virginia, a major force for social reform. Among other organizations, she was active in the National Congress of Mothers; Parent-Teacher Associations; the Women's Christian Temperance Union; the King's Daughters; The National League of Social Services; and the Commission on Training Camp Activities. She was a delegate to the Conference for the Care of Delinquent Children.

She was particularly interested in equal political rights for women. As well as being President of the National Council of Women which "helped to persuade women that votes for women were essential for social reform," she served as Vice President of the Virginia Equal Suffrage (1909-1920), and was a charter member of the League of Women Voters. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924, and her speech there received a standing ovation. Her political profile became so high that she was asked to consider running for Governor of Virginia.

Traveling to Europe on a U.S. battleship, she was one of the ten women attending the Versailles Conference in 1919 at the end of World War I and was a delegate to the Zurich Peace Conference, also in 1919. Between 1914 and 1919, she was a Special Representative of the U.S. Government in Europe studying and advising on women's issues for the Bureau of Immigration.

She was also member of the Board of Trustees of the College of William and Mary and the first woman made an honorary member of their Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

In addition, she was instrumental in the rehabilitation of the Arlington Mansion in Arlington National Cemetery, in the improvement of Arlington National Cemetery, and in the establishment of a National Park in the Shenandoah Valley.

Kate Waller Barrett joined the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1904. She was originally a member of the Mount Vernon Chapter. In 1919, she was elected State Regent of the Virginia Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an office she held until her death in 1925. "As was the case with every office in an organization which she filled, she did not look upon it merely as an honor, but rather as an opportunity to promote vigorously the objects for which the organization had been created. She stimulated the work of organizing in Virginia until in 1924 she was able to report a 100% increase in the strength of the DAR in the preceding year. She was altogether sympathetic with the society's interest in saving and restoring historic landmarks, of which Virginia has so many."

After her death in 1925, the flag over the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond was flown at half-staff, the first time this honor was given to a woman. The Governor of Virginia hailed her as "Virginia's most distinguished woman."

At her Memorial Service in 1925, the then-President General of NSDAR gave this tribute to Kate Waller Barrett:
"Possessed of a rarely gifted mind, improved by lifelong study, she never lost her truly feminine grace and charm, nor her love of and joy in service for her fellow-beings…Both by the written and spoken word, she was a tremendous force among all ages and classes in instilling love of country and the acceptance of the duties of citizenship along with its privileges…Dr. Barrett was a great Virginian and a loyal daughter of the Old Dominion, but Virginia must share her as one of the outstanding American women of her time."

(Information and quotes taken primarily from an article in the June/July 1991 issue of the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine:
"Women Worthy of Honor: Dr. Kate Waller Barrett" by Mrs. Rice M. Youell, Jr.)