|
This new book describes Frances Perkins, the first woman to be placed in the U.S. Presidential Cabinet by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was appointed as Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945.
Born in 1880 in the South End of Boston, she came from a prosperous Republican family. Her family's home was initially located in Newcastle, Maine, where the house still stands and is now a museum on the National Register of Historic Places.
In her youth, her family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where she saw how factory workers in the small mills worked so hard for long hours but little pay. She became interested in helping others when she attended Mount Holyoke College, graduating in 1909. After college, she worked as a science teacher and volunteered at Hull House, a settlement house where she helped poor people in Chicago.
In 1911, she attended Columbia University, earning a master's degree in economics and sociology. She witnessed a tragedy in New York in 1911, which caused her to take a more active role in protecting labor. The Triangle shirtwaist factory caught on fire. Doors were locked, windows would not open, and fire escapes did not exist. Those trapped in the factory could not escape, and 146 garment workers were killed as a result. New York formed a Citizens Committee of Safety because of the tragedy. Perkins accepted the role of Executive Secretary of the group and became a leader in establishing safety rules and laws for laborers.
In 1919, Governor Al Smith asked her to serve on New York State's Industrial Commission, where she led the way in negotiating for labor. In 1928, Al Smith recommended Perkins to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the new governor of New York. When FDR became president in 1933, he named Frances to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor. This made her first woman appointed to a presidential Cabinet when she was sworn in on March 4, 1933.
Perkins's personal life was not as successful as her professional life. She had an unhappy marriage with Paul Wilson, who suffered from bipolar disorder. She took care of him all her life. Her daughter Susan also inherited the condition. While many people have this illness today, they can manage it with medication, but in the 1930s and 1940s, Paul was in and out of many institutions.
However, Frances Perkins survived because she was a strong woman who grew up following New England traditions of thrift, hard work, and the ability to stand alone.
In 1933 Perkins learned the details of the Nazi rise to power from the wife of the author and playwrite Sinclair Lewis. Dorothy Thompson, a close friend of Perkins, was a well-known writer and journalist who traveled in Europe after World War I. Frances could see what was happening in Europe under Hitler during this early period..
We can thank Frances Perkins for focusing on immigration and opening the doors of America to thousands of refugees from Nazi Germany and Europe. In conversations with FDR she shared her ideas about aiding refugees from Nazi Germany. She suggested that America extend the visas of German Jewish refugees already living in the United States, and she saved many refugees through this move. Roosevelt listened to her, despite objections from the State Department and quotas for incoming refugees.
Dear Miss Perkins is a scholar's feast with graphs and charts about immigration from different countries coming into the United States from 1933 to 1945 and their contributions. It is an important book right now! It gives an incredible amount of information regarding the titles of bills in every state, including dates and facts about immigration.
The fact that Frances Perkins, from Maine, was influential in developing national programs concerning labor laws of safety, responsible immigration, child labor laws, Social Security, and minimum wage laws is impressive. She lived in Newcastle, Maine, in a house built by her grandparents in 1837. The Brick House was a wedding gift to Perkins's parents. And, though Frances lived elsewhere as she got older, she spent her summers visiting her family in the Brick House residence. Frances Perkins died in 1965 and was buried at the Gildden Cemetery in Newcastle, Maine.
Frances Perkins' house is now a museum at 478 River Road, Newcastle, Maine, 04553. Call for hours open in spring and summer at Phone 207 563 3874.
I highly recommend the book to people who love history and reading about Maine's people who have created history.
---
USM FLYER:
USM Women & Gender Studies present:
The Only Woman in the Room: Frances Perkin's Journey from Maine to the White House.
Lecture at the McGoldrick Ctr Salons. USM Portland Campus.
Thursday. March 6. 5:00 pm.
| 
