Anna F. Davies, Lake Forest University Class of 1889,.....lfspfmn00076.tif

Anna F. Davies, Class of 1889 (d. 1942). Anna Freeman Davies, Pioneer Social Worker In 1898, when the founder of Hull House, Jane Addams, suggested to Anna Davies, Class of 1889, M.A. 1894, that she join the staff of the fledgling College Settlement in Philadelphia, the call was unsettling for the able young Lake Forest alumna. Although at the time Davies held a post in a southern ladies' seminary and, about to complete her Ph.D. at Chicago, would have had a promising scholarly career, a year later found her the "head worker" at the Settlement and soon to embark on a reform career that would change not only her life but that of the College Settlement and inner-city Philadelphia as well. Davies was recalled by a young college volunteer at the Philadelphia Settlement as "always cheerful, energetic, resourceful and oh, so greatly loved by all the people of the neighborhood" - those to whose welfare she devoted herself for over forty years. With a missionary philosophy "the people were fundamentally good and would respond to the finer things in life if subtly shown the way," she worked hard to provide those "finer things," crusading for kindergartens, playgrounds, better housing, visiting nurses, libraries, and honest government. Eventually form the modest start of a simple, poorly located row house, she achieved on a better site seven buildings to serve her purpose, as she became a widely recognized pioneer in community services and a consultant for other social workers. Anna's courage, self-confidence, and dedication came no doubt from the religious and missionary background of her family. But Lake Forest University, in that period a potent training ground and networking base for church workers, must have played a role too. Early on she could well have met the Reverend John Manning Linn of the University staff, the brother-in-law of Jane Addams and father of John A. Linn, Class of 1893. Davies graduated as valedictorian in 1889, choosing for her address "Agnosticism." After college she studied not only at the University of Chicago but in Berlin, Freiburg, and Gottingen. All in all, her alma mater could well be proud of this impressive and admirable daughter.

From 30 Miles North: A History of Lake Forest College, its Town, and its City of Chicago, Lake Forest, Illinois: Lake Forest College, 2000, ISBN 0963818961

http://library.lakeforest.edu/libinfo/copyright.html

http://library.lakeforest.edu/archives/PermissiontoPublishForm.html

30 Miles North Images (Lake Forest College)

Image/tiff

228 pixels per inch

3999 × 5799 pixels