BRECKINRIDGE, SOPHONISBA PRESTON. Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, lawyer, author, and sociologist, was born April 1, 1866, in Lexington, Kentucky. the second child of Issa (Desha) and William Campbell Preston BRECKINRIDGE. In 1882 Breckinridgc was among the first women to matriculate at the high school preparatory academy at the University of Kentucky. In 1884 she enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1888 with a degree in mathematics. From 1888 to 1890, she taught mathematics at Washington (D.C.) High School, returning to Lexington in 1890 to study law in her father's law office. Breckinridge passed the bar examination in August 1892 and became the first woman admitted to the Kentucky bar. Unable to acquire a clientele in Lexington, she moved to Oak Park, Illinois, in 1895 at the invitation of a college friend. Breckinridge enrolled at the University of Chicago and received a master's degree (1897) and a Ph.D. (1901) in political science. She then attended the university's law school and in 1904 became the first woman to receive the degree of juris doctor there. In 1902 Breckinridge became a part-time instructor in social work at the University of Chicago, advancing to assistant professor during 1909-20. During the years 1907-20, she also held the position of dean at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, which was incorporated into the University of Chicago in 1920 as the Graduate School of Social Service Administration. Breckinridge was professor there until 1925, dean of preprofessional social service students from 1925 to 1929, and Samuel Deutsch Professor of Public Welfare from 1929 to 1933. She retired in 1933 but remained active as professor emeritus until 1942. Breckinridge taught the first course in public welfare administration and introduced the case study method of social work. In 1927 she founded the Social Service Review and remained manag ing editor until her death. She wrote and edited over thirty books on urban social problems. Her Public Welfare Administration in the United States (1927; second edition 1938) was a standard text for many years. Actively involved in social work, Breckinridge investigated tenement housing conditions for the Illinois State Bureau of Labor. From 1907 to 1920 she lived at Hull House every summer. A member of the Women's Trade Union League since 1907, she participated in the Chicago women's garment workers' strikes in 1911 and 1915. In 1908 she helped organize the Chicago Immigrants' Protective League and was secretary until 1942. An early member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League, Breckinridge also served as adviser to the Illinois State Consumer League. As a social reformer, she advocated social work in the courts and the development of a juvenile court. She was a delegate at the White House Conference on Children in 1919, 1930, and 1940, and in 1925 she attended the Child Welfare Congress. Breckinridge was also an active suffragist, concerned with women's rights and political equality. Among her many professional monographs was Women in the Twentieth Century (1933); her Biography of her sister-in-law Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge was published in 1921. In 1911 she was elected vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1915 she was a delegate to the International Congress of Women, where she participated in the organization of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and she was active in the American Association of University Women. Breckinridge represented the United States at the 1933 Pan American Conference on Legal, Economic and Social Affairs in Montevideo, Uruguay. On July 30, 1948, Breckinridge died in Chicago. Her ashes were buried in the family plot in the Lexington Cemetery. See James C. Klotter, The Breckinridges of Kentucky: 1760-1981 (Lexington, Ky. 1986); Anthony R. Travis, "Sophonisba Breckinridge, Militant Feminist," Mid-America: An Historical Review 58 (April 1976): 111-18.
