Louise deKoven Bowen papers

Biography/Profile

Louis deKoven Bowen was born into an elite Chicago family to Helen Hadduck and John deKoven in 1859. Bowen attended Dearborn Seminary and graduated in 1875. In 1886, Bowen married manufacturer and banker Joseph Tilton Bowen. The Bowen's children John, Joseph, Helen and Louise were born between 1886 and 1892. Their Astor St. mansion was a popular setting for social gatherings and political meetings. Bowen's long time friendship with Jane Addams began when Addams invited Bowen to join the Hull-House Woman's Club. Bowen became president of the Woman's Club and by 1896 Bowen was a trustee and the treasurer of Hull-House.

Bowen was a major financial supporter of Hull-House. Her contributions included donating funds for Bowen Hall and the Boy's Club, as well as financial donations totaling more than $500,000 over her lifetime. After her husband's death in 1911, Bowen donated 72 acres of land in Waukegan, Illinois, which became the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club, a summer retreat for children of the Hull-House neighborhood.

Louise deKoven Bowen and Jane Addams shared many core values: the creation of the Progressive Party, suffrage, urban industrialization and children's health and morality. In 1898, Bowen was part of a coalition of county judges, the Chicago Bar Association, and women reformers, which lobbied for the first court in the United States to separate delinquent children from adults. Bowen's work to protect children also can be seen in the Juvenile Protective Association, a group that conducted studies on urban problems which were disseminated in pamphlets on public health and social welfare issues concerning urbanization and children. Bowen's relations with Hull-House resident directors in the 1940s reveal her commitment to preserving Jane Addams' vision within Hull-House.

Bowen was a strong advocate for women's political participation through her work with the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association and the Chicago Equal Suffrage Association. In 1914, Bowen became a Progressive Party candidate for Cook County Board along with Mary McDowell and Sophonisba Breckinridge, although she did not serve.

Bibliography:

Alter, Sharon Z., "Louise deKoven Bowen," in Women Building Chicago: 1790-1990, Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast, eds., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.