Mary Phillips Riis (April 29, 1877 – August 4, 1967) was an American philanthropist, widow of Danish-American reformer and journalist

Jacob Riis Jacob August Riis ( ; May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twen ...

Early life

Mary A. Phillips was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, the daughter of Richard Fabian Phillips and Elise Caroline (Lina) Rensch Phillips. Her father was born in England, a cotton broker, and eventually president of the Cotton Exchange in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. She attended schools in England and France. Later in life, she took courses at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Career

Mary Phillips moved to New York for a career on the stage. She became secretary, and later wife, to journalist Jacob A. Riis. In widowhood, she took a job on Wall Street, selling bonds. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she helped promote Liberty Loans. In 1919, she became head of an investment securities office, the first in New York City to be staffed entirely by women. She built a fortune enough to own a mansion near Bedford Village, New York. In 1958 she was dubbed "The First Lady of Wall Street" in a newspaper headline. Riis taught investment courses at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, meant for women students who, like herself, were faced with managing their own personal finances. She also wrote about finance for women's magazines, and counseled women in business. She was longtime president of Riis House, a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

in New York. She supported Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs during the Great Depression, and encouraged Roosevelt to do more for Jewish refugees from Germany. Late in life, she worked especially for children's programs, including playgrounds.

Personal life

Mary Phillips married widower Jacob Riis in 1907, as his second wife. They lived on a farm in New England, which she inherited, while the rest of the Riis estate was divided among his children. She was widowed after seven years, in 1914. She died in a nursing home in New York City in 1967, aged 90 years. Some of her papers are in the Jacob A. Riis Papers at the New York Public Library. She donated another collection of Riis papers and photographs to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

References

External links

*Francesca Pitaro (1985)
Guide to the Jacob A. Riis Papers
New York Public Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Riis, Mary Phillips 1877 births 1967 deaths American philanthropists People from Memphis, Tennessee American finance and investment writers