Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer

Elizabeth Pitts Merrill Palmer (Oct. 8, 1838 – July 28, 1916) was an American philanthropist whose bequest founded the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit. She was also a founder of the Michigan Humane Society, active in the women's suffrage movement, and a benefactor of the Detroit Institute of Arts.[1]

Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer
Portrait of Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer c. 1884
Born
Elizabeth Pitts Merrill

(1838-10-08)October 8, 1838
Portland, Maine
DiedJuly 28, 1916(1916-07-28) (aged 77)
Great Neck, Long Island, New York
NationalityAmerican
Occupationphilanthropist
Known forfounded the Merrill-Palmer Institute
Spouse
Thomas W. Palmer
​
​
(m. 1855; died in 1913)​

Life

Palmer née Merrill was born October 8, 1838, in Portland, Maine.[2] She was the only child of Charles Merrill a lumber owner and Frances (Pitts) Merrill.[3] In 1855 she married Thomas W. Palmer with whom she adopted two children.[4] and the couple settled outside what were then the boundaries of Detroit (but within its current boundaries).[5] Thomas W. Palmer was a U.S. Senator from 1883 to 1889 and U.S. Minister to Spain in 1889–1890.[6]

Palmer and her husband used their wealth the benefit Michigan. They supported the Detroit Institute of Art (which now stands on the former site of their home), the Michigan branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the University of Michigan, and the YMCA.[2]

In 1893 the Palmers donated land to Detroit that became Palmer Park. After her husband's death in 1913 Palmer devoted herself to founding, endowing and maintaining a school to be known as the Merrill-Palmer Motherhood and Home Training School.[7] The School was established in 1920 as the Freer House to serve Detroit's children through formal academic programs in infant, toddler, child and adolescent development, and in family functioning.[8]

Palmer died July 28, 1916, in Great Neck, Long Island.[3]

Lake at Palmer Park
Merrill-Palmer Skillman Institute

Legacy

In 1980 the Freer House School was incorporated into Wayne State University. It is now known as the Merrill-Palmer Skillman Institute.[8]

References
  1. Mason, Philip P. Tracy W. McGregor: Humanitarian, Philanthropist, and Detroit Civic Leader. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008, pp.145--146.
  2. "Palmer, Lizzie Merrill (1838–1916)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  3. "Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer is dead. Detroit Free Press, 29 Jul 1916". Detroit Free Press. 29 July 1916. p. 5. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  4. "Merrill, Elizabeth Pitts". Detroit Historical Society: Online Collections. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  5. Wolcott, Victoria W. (2000). "Palmer, Lizzie Pitts Merrill (1838-1916), philanthropist and founder of the Merrill-Palmer Institute". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900866. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  6. Burton, M. Agnes. "Thomas W. Palmer." Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections 39 (1915): 208-17.
  7. James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607–1950; A Biographical Dictionary, Vol. III, pp. 11-12. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
  8. "Brief History of theMerrill Palmer Skillman Institute". Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
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