Elizabeth Watkins (philanthropist)

Last updated

Elizabeth Josephine Watkins (1861-1939) was a philanthropist, best known for funding hospitals and scholarship halls in Lawrence, Kansas.

She was born Elizabeth Josephine Miller in New Paris, Ohio in 1861. [1] Her family moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1872, [1] where she attended preparatory school at the University of Kansas. [2] In 1875, her father's death forced her to leave school and find work to financially support her family. [3] She worked at J.B. Watkins Land and Mortgage Company, where she eventually became the secretary to the company's wealthy founder and president, Jabez Bunting Watkins. [3] In 1909, Elizabeth Miller's mother died, and she married J.B. Watkins. [1] J.B. died in 1921 and left his entire fortune of $2.4 million to Elizabeth Watkins. [1]

Watkins' major donations include building the Watkins Scholarship Hall at KU (1926), Lawrence Memorial Hospital (1928), Watkins Memorial Hospital (1931), Watkins Nurses Home (1937), and Miller Scholarship Hall at KU (1937). [3] She also donated the Watkins Bank Building to the City of Lawrence in 1929 (a property initially belonging to her husband through his role as president of Watkins National Bank). [3] This building was used as Lawrence City Hall until 1970, when it was transferred to the Douglas County Historical Society, which now runs the Elizabeth Miller Watkins Community Museum there. [3]

Elizabeth Watkins died in 1939. [3] She bequeathed substantial property to the University of Kansas, including her home, which is now the Chancellor's residence. [3] Her papers are held with those of her husband in the KU Kenneth Spencer Research Library. [4]

Further reading

Burchill, Mary Dresser; Hoagland, Norma Decker (2023). The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Miller Watkins: A Pioneering Philanthropist. University Press of Kansas. ISBN   9780700634248.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Naismith</span> Inventor of basketball (1861–1939)

James Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence, Kansas</span> City and County seat in Kansas, United States

Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 94,934. Lawrence is a college town and the home to both the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Kansas</span> Public university in Lawrence, Kansas, US

The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, the Edwards Campus in Overland Park. There are also educational and research sites in Garden City, Hays, Leavenworth, Parsons, and Topeka, an agricultural education center in rural north Douglas County, and branches of the medical school in Salina and Wichita. The university is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Fry</span> English social reformer (1780–1845)

Elizabeth Fry, sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the treatment of prisoners, especially female inmates, and as such has been called the "Angel of Prisons". She was instrumental in the 1823 Gaols Act which mandated sex-segregation of prisons and female warders for female inmates to protect them from sexual exploitation. Fry kept extensive diaries, in which the need to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual exploitation is explicit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Jayhawks</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Kansas

The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a member of the Big 12 Conference. KU athletic teams have won fifteen national championships all-time, with twelve of those being NCAA Division I championships: four in men's basketball, one in men's cross country, three in men's indoor track and field, three in men's outdoor track and field, and one in women's outdoor track and field. Kansas basketball also won two Helms Foundation National Titles in 1922 and 1923, and KU Bowling won the USBC National Title in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minna Citron</span> American painter

Minna Wright Citron was an American painter and printmaker. Her early prints focus on the role of women, sometimes in a satirical manner, in a style known as urban realism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics</span> Institution located on the campus of the University of Kansas

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, often shortened to the Dole Institute, is a nonpartisan political institution located at the University of Kansas and founded by the former U.S. Senator from Kansas and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole. Opened on July 22, 2003, Dole's 80th birthday, the institute's $11.3 million, 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) facility houses Dole's papers and hosts frequent political events. The institute is officially bi-partisan and has sponsored on-campus programs featuring prominent politicians of both major parties. The institute sponsors the Dole Lecture, which is given in April and features a prominent national figure addressing some aspect of contemporary politics or policy. The institute awards the annual Dole Leadership Prize each September, which includes a $25,000 cash award. The Presidential Lecture Series features the nation's leading presidential scholars, historians, journalists, and others including former Presidents, cabinet officers, and White House staff members who discuss the nation's highest office in ways that combine scholarly rigor with popular access. The archives hosted an exhibit in 2017 entitled "The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Allies & Advocates." In 2017, Elizabeth Dole gifted her career papers to the Dole Institute Archive and Special Collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Lawrence, Kansas

The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas City Repertory Theatre</span>

Kansas City Repertory Theatre is a professional resident theater company serving the Kansas City metropolitan area, and is the professional theater in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallie Ford</span>

Hallie Brown Ford was an American business person and philanthropist. A native of Oklahoma, she acquired her wealth in Oregon through the timber industry. As a philanthropist she made donations to many institutions in Oklahoma and Oregon to support education and the arts. Shortly before her death in 2007, she made a donation of $15 million to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the largest single donation to any cultural group in Oregon history.

Kenneth Aldred Spencer was a Kansas coal mine owner who transformed a government surplus factory into the world's biggest ammonium nitrate producer. Money from his and his wife's estate was donated to philanthropies throughout Kansas.

William Ward Watkin was an architect primarily practicing in Houston, Texas. He was the founder of the Architecture Department of Rice University in 1912, and remained on the Rice faculty until his death. Concurrently, he also designed a number of important projects, mostly in the Houston area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bailey Hall (University of Kansas)</span> United States historic place

Bailey Hall, at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, was built in 1905. The architect was John G. Haskell who was among the architects of the Kansas State Capitol. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the University of Kansas</span>

The history of the University of Kansas can be traced back to 1855, when efforts were begun to establish a "University of the Territory of Kansas." Nine years later in 1864, together with the help of Amos Adams Lawrence, former Kansas Governor Charles L. Robinson, and several other prominent figures, the Kansas Legislature chartered the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The university was initially funded by a $15,000 endowment on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) allotment of land from Charles Robinson and his wife Sara. The university commenced preparatory-level classes in 1866 and college-level classes in 1869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wealthy Babcock</span> American mathematician

Wealthy Consuelo Babcock was an American mathematician. She was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and had a long teaching career at that institution.

The Danforth Chapel Program was funded by the Danforth Foundation, an organization created in 1927 by William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife. The Danforth Foundation focused on national education philanthropy: providing scholarships to college students, supporting projects to revitalize the city of St. Louis, and funding the Danforth Chapels. The Danforth Foundation closed in 2011 with a gift of $70M to the Donald Danforth Plant Center, a research center that focuses on solving world hunger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Spencer Research Library</span> Public Library at the University of Kansas

The Kenneth Spencer Research Library is a library at the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence. Completed and dedicated in 1968, the library houses special collections materials including rare books, maps, archives, and photographs. The library is open to members of the public and is not limited to students and faculty members at KU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NedRa Bonds</span>

NedRa Bonds is an American quilter, activist, and retired teacher, born and raised in the historic Quindaro neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. Bonds creates quilts and mixed media fiber dolls using fabric, beads, and symbolism to explore issues dealing with human rights, race, women, politics, and the environment. She is best known for her Quindaro Quilt, a quilt measuring 4 by 6 feet, detailing the important history of the Quindaro neighborhood and its role as part of the National Underground Railroad System of Historic Trails. As a community activist and educator, Bonds advocates for legislation, taught workshops locally and internationally, and attended the Earth Summit Conference on Environment and Development of the United Nations as a delegate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Bonds is a practicing artist and retired teacher in Kansas City, Kansas. Her recent projects include her Common Threads quilt, commissioned by the Kansas City Chiefs for their Arrowhead Arts Collection, the Wak’ó Mujeres Phụ nữ Women Mural collaboration, sponsored by the Charlotte Street Foundation's Rocket Grant Program, in Lawrence, Kansas, and her recent cancer project. Bonds was appointed to the Kansas Arts Commission by Kansas Governor Joan Finney in 1992.

Eugene Raymond Hall was an American mammalogist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Belk</span> American judge, lawyer, and philanthropist (1937–2017)

Claudia Belk was an American judge, lawyer, and philanthropist. She was a prominent woman in North Carolina law and the wife of John M. Belk, a four-term mayor of Charlotte.

References