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Creator
Kelley, Florence, 1859-1932
Call number
MssCol 6303
Physical description
6.5 linear feet (16 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Florence Kelley Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
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Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The Florence Kelley papers document the professional career and family life of the Progressive-era social reformer. The papers include correspondence with her grandparents Isaac and Elizabeth Pugh, her parents William Bartram Kelley and Caroline Bonsall and her children Nicholas, William Darrah, Jr., John Bartram and Margaret Kelley. Kelley's professional correspondence documents her commitment to social reform, from her time at Hull House in Chicago to her tenure as general secretary of the National Consumers' League. The collection also includes manuscripts and typescripts of Kelley's writings, address books, scrapbooks, photographs, and a few items of ephemera.

Biographical/historical information

Florence Kelley was a prominent Progressive-Era social reformer known for her advocacy of protective legislation on behalf of working women and children. She was born in 1859, the daughter of William Darrah Kelley, U.S. Congressman from Philadelphia, and his second wife Caroline Bonsall. Kelley graduated from Cornell University in 1882 and pursued graduate study in law and government at the University of Zurich in 1883. While in Europe she began translating the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and began a long-standing correspondence with Engels. In 1884 she married Polish socialist Lazare Wischnewetzky. The couple moved to New York City, but divorced in 1891. Kelley took their three young children, Nicholas (1885-1965), Margaret (1886-1905) and John (1888-1968) with her to Chicago where she began living and working at Jane Addams' Hull House.

During her years of work in the settlement house movement in Chicago, Kelley participated in the documentation of urban poverty, was appointed Chief Factory Inspector by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, and obtained a law degree from Northwestern University. In 1899 she returned to New York to assume the leadership of the National Consumers League, an organization created to harness the purchasing power of the public to support firms with good labor practices and boycott others. She remained with the organization for over thirty years.

Kelley's strong Quaker background influenced her pacifist opposition to the U.S. entry into World War I, a stance for which she faced persistent public attack. Her continued efforts on behalf of public health and welfare helped create the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, authorizing federal aid to states in order to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal and child health care.

Kelley lived near Gramercy Park in New York City and also kept a home in Naskeag, Brooklin, Maine. She died in 1932.

Scope and arrangement

The Florence Kelley papers document her professional career in social reform and family life as a single mother. The collection is an important resource for the history of governmental responsibility for social welfare, 1890 to 1930. The collection provides insight into the background of the Progressive-era reform movement in European socialism and in the abolitionist, suffragist tradition of Quakerism. Kelley's papers contain important documents on women's education, child labor, and evidence of Kelley's activities at Hull House in Chicago, as chief factory inspector under Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, and as general secretary of the National Consumers League after 1899. Materials include personal and professional correspondence of Kelley and her parents William Bartram Kelley and Caroline Bonsall, manuscripts and typescripts, address books, news clippings; scrapbooks; photographs; and a few items of ephemera.

The Florence Kelley papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series I. Correspondence

    Florence Kelley's correspondence is arranged in two subseries; A. General correspondence, 1881-1932, B. Family correspondence, 1836-1903

  • Series II. Writings
  • Series III. Personal miscellany, 1882-1931

    The Personal Miscellany is divided into six subseries: IIIA. Address Books, 1926-1930; IIIB. Clippings, 1906-1934; IIIC. Diary of Margaret Hicks, 1868; IIID. Financial and legal documents, 1895-1931; IIIE. Printed ephemera, 1882-1927; IIIF. Scrapbooks, 1894-1924.

  • Series IV. Family papers
    1836-1903

    The Family Papers are divided into two subseries, IVA. William Darrah Kelley, 1836-1878, n.d.; IVB. Caroline Bonsall Kelley, 1845-1903, n.d.

  • Series V. Photographs, 1870-1925

    The photographs, arranged alphabetically, include black and white albumen prints, cartes-de-visite and modern silver prints. There are photographs of the Kelley family including childhood portraits of both of Kelley and her sister Anna in Philadelphia. The images of Jane Addams date from a 1923 tour of Japan. The series also includes etchings of William Darrah Kelley. The unidentified photographs appear to have been taken in Brooklin, Maine or at Nicholas Kelley's home in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The Florence Kelley Papers were removed from the Nicholas Kelley Papers and processed as a separate collection.

Source of acquisition

Received from Augusta M. Kelley, 1973 and 1975

Processing information

Processed by Thomas G. Lannon; machine readable finding aid created by FAKER.

Related Material

  • Nicholas Kelley Papers. Manuscripts & Archives Division, The New York Public Library.
  • Kelley Family Papers, 1681-1936. Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New York, NY.
  • Florence Kelley Papers, 1889-1934 . Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328