Clara Cahill Park

Clara Cahill Park (July 2, 1868 – October 28, 1951) was an American social worker, artist, feminist, and writer.

This article is about the American artist and social reformer born in 1868; for the American author of similar name, see Clara Claiborne Park.
Clara Cahill Park
Born
Clara Belle Cahill

July 2, 1868
Michigan
DiedOctober 28, 1951 (age 83)
Chicago, Illinois
Occupation(s)Social worker, reformer, artist, writer
SpouseRobert E. Park
Children4, including Margaret Park Redfield
Parent
RelativesRobert Redfield (son-in-law)
Lisa Peattie (granddaughter)

Early life and education

Clara Belle Cahill was born in Michigan, the daughter of Edward Cahill and Lucy Crawford Cahill. Her father was an abolitionist lawyer, a Union Army veteran, and a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court.[1] She trained as an artist at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Art Institute of Chicago.[2][3]

Career

Park was vice-president of the Massachusetts Congress of Mothers, and worked with the Massachusetts Federation of Women's Clubs to promote a public pension for widowed mothers,[4][5][6] asking "why shouldn't the state pay the money to the mother herself to help her live in decency and bring up her own family?"[7][8] The campaign was successful and a provision for widows' pensions became state law in 1913.[9][10] In 1912 and 1913, she contributed several short essays to Boston Globe panel discussions on marriage and family questions such as "What is the Essential Purpose of Marriage?" and "How Do Loveless Marriages Affect Offspring?"[11][12][13][14]

In 1926 and 1927 she went to Mexico to live with her daughter Margaret Park Redfield and son-in-law Robert Redfield, and her young grandchildren, while the Redfields were doing anthropological fieldwork in Tepoztlán.[15] In 1930s she gave lectures,[16] and exhibited pastel portraits she made in her world travels, at exhibits in Hawaii, Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil, and across the United States.[17][18][19] In 1949 she joined her daughter Theodosia Park Breed[20] and granddaughter Sylvia Breed in a "three generations" art show in Chicago.[21]

Publications
  • "Coming to New York to Study Art" (1894, essay)[22]
  • "The Manners Tart" (1895, essay)[23]
  • "The True Story of Blackbird" (1896, article)[24]
  • "The Gnome and the Fauns" (1896, short story)[25]
  • "Native Women in Africa: Their Hard Lot in the March of Progress" (1904, pamphlet)[26]
  • "Widows’ Pension in Massachusetts" (1912, article)[27]
  • "Union for Mother Protection in Germany (1912, article)[28]
  • "To Carry on the Race" (1912, short essay)[11]
  • "Women Learn to Save" (1912, short essay)[12]
  • "The Loveless Home" (1913, short essay)[13]
  • "An Almost Unlimited Field" (1913, short essay)[14]
  • "Helping the Widowed Mother Keep a Home" (1913, article)[29]
  • "Motherhood and Pensions" (1913, article)[30]
  • "Pensions for Mothers" (1913, article)[31]
  • "Women are More Frugal than Men" (1914, short essay)[32]

Personal life

Clara Cahill married sociologist Robert E. Park in 1894.[33][34] They had four children.[7] She was effectively a single parent for long stretches, as her husband lived in another state to teach or traveled abroad for study; she found the arrangement difficult, writing to her husband that "I have been imposed on, not intentionally, but carelessly and veritably".[2] Her husband died in 1944,[35] and she died in 1951, at the age of 83, in Chicago.

References
  1. Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries. L.R. Hamersly. 1909. p. 1290.
  2. Deegan, Mary Jo (2005-06-01). "A Private Trouble Behind the Gendered Division of Labor in Sociology: The Curious Marriage of Robert E. Park and Clara Cahill Park". In Blasi, Anthony (ed.). Diverse Histories of American Sociology. Brill. pp. 20–23, quote on p. 23. ISBN 978-90-474-0741-6.
  3. Deegan, Mary Jo. "A Twisted Path: Park, Gender, and Praxis" in Peter Kivisto, ed., The Anthem Companion to Robert Park (Anthem Press 2017). ISBN 9781783086566
  4. Skocpol, Theda (2009-06-30). Protecting Soldiers and Mothers. Harvard University Press. p. 548. ISBN 978-0-674-04372-5.
  5. Selected Articles on Mothers' Pensions. H.W. Wilson Company. 1915. pp. 137–139.
  6. Gustafson, Melanie (2001-10-15). Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924. University of Illinois Press. pp. 224, note 111. ISBN 978-0-252-09323-4.
  7. Baker, Ray Stannard (March 1913). "Mrs. Clara Cahill Park". The American Magazine. 75 (5): 33, 35.
  8. "For Relief of Mothers; Question Discussed at Meeting of School of Eugenics". The Boston Globe. 1913-07-30. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Municipal Research: To Promote the Application of Scientific Principles to Government. Bureau of Municipal Research. 1917. pp. 12–15.
  10. Skocpol, Theda (1995-03-15), "An Unusual Victory for Public Benefits: The "Wildfire Spread" of Mothers' Pensions", Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Harvard University Press, pp. 424–479, doi:10.4159/9780674043725-014, ISBN 978-0-674-04372-5, S2CID 246219433, retrieved 2023-02-27
  11. "What is the Essential Purpose of Marriage?". The Boston Globe. 1912-04-28. p. 46. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Are Men or Women the Greater Spendthrifts?". The Boston Globe. 1912-07-21. p. 40. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "How Do Loveless Marriages Affect Offspring?". The Boston Globe. 1913-02-16. p. 46. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "For What Business Enterprises are Women Best Adapted?". The Boston Globe. 1913-09-21. p. 46. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Murray, Stephen O. (2006-02-01). "American Anthropologists Discover Peasants". In Darnell, Regna; Gleach, Frederic W. (eds.). Histories of Anthropology Annual. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-8032-6657-5.
  16. "Noted Artist Tells Club India is Decadent as Africa Emerges". Lansing State Journal. 1934-02-03. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Clara Cahill Park's Pastels Are Shown". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 1932-06-11. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Art Exhibit Opens Today at Woman's Club". Nashville Banner. 1935-12-12. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Buck Portrait is Feature of Art Exhibit". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1932-06-19. p. 26. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Theodosia Breed – Illinois Women Artists". Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  21. "Three Generations in Family Exhibit their Paintings". Chicago Tribune. 1949-05-13. p. 25. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. Park, Clara Cahill. "Coming to New York to Study Art." Harper’s Young People (1894).
  23. Park, Clara Cahill. "The Manners Tart." Philistine: A Periodical of Protest 1 (1895).
  24. Park, Clara Cahill (August 1896). "The True Story of Blackbird". The Clack Book. 1: 133–145.
  25. Park, Clara Cahill (September 1896). "The Gnome and the Fauns". The Clack Book. 1 (6): 165–171.
  26. Park, Clara Cahill. Native Women in Africa: Their Hard Lot in the March of Progress. Congo Committee of the Massachusetts Commission, 1904.
  27. Park, Clara Cahill. "Widows’ Pension in Massachusetts." Child Welfare Magazine 6, no. 10 (1912): 343-46.
  28. Park, Clara Cahill. "Union for Mother Protection in Germany." Child Welfare Magazine 6, no. 10 (1912): 364-365.
  29. Park, Clara Cahill. "Helping the widowed mother keep a home." Home Progress 2, no. April (1913): 43-48.
  30. Park, Clara Cahill. "Motherhood and Pensions." Survey 30, no. 12 April (1913): 74-74.
  31. Park, Clara Cahill. "Pensions for Mothers." Survey 30, no. 30 August (1913): 669-669.
  32. Park, Clara Cahill (1914-01-22). "Women are More Frugal than Men". The Mayetta Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. Deegan, Mary Jo (March 2006). "The Human Drama Behind the Study of People as Potato Bugs: The Curious Marriage of Robert E. Park and Clara Cahill Park". Journal of Classical Sociology. 6 (1): 101–122. doi:10.1177/1468795X06061288. ISSN 1468-795X. S2CID 143664019.
  34. "The Park-Cahill Wedding". Detroit Free Press. 1894-06-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. "Robert E. Park". Freeport Journal-Standard. 1944-02-08. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Clara Cahill Park, undated photograph,University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
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