Mary Garrett

Mary Garrett
portrait by John Singer Sargent
Born	5 March 1854 Baltimore, Maryland
Died	3 April 1915 (aged 61) Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Known for	Starting the Bryn Mawr School for Women in Baltimore Funding the Johns Hopkins Medical School

Starting the Bryn Mawr School for Women in Baltimore

Mary Elizabeth Garrett (5 March 1854 - 3 April 1915) was an American suffragist and philanthropist. She was the youngest child and only daughter of John W. Garrett, a philanthropist and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.). Well-known for her "coercive philanthropy," Mary Garrett donated money to start the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in 1893 on the condition that the school would accept female students "on the same terms as men." She founded the Bryn Mawr School, a private college-preparatory school for girls in Baltimore and generously donated to Bryn Mawr College of Pennsylvania with the requirement that her intimate friend, Martha Carey Thomas be the president. Like many other suffragists of the nineteenth century, Garrett chose not to marry; instead, she kept a lifelong working and emotional relationship with Martha Carey Thomas. In her later years, she collaborated with her longtime friends, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw, to try and secure the right for women to vote in the United States.

Mary Elizabeth Garrett was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 5, 1854. Both of Mary's parents, John W. Garret and Rachel Ann Harrison came from prominent and wealthy Baltimore families. Mary was the only daughter and youngest child of John W. Garrett. She was the favored child of the family, and her father often said, “I wish Mary had been born a boy!” purportedly because he felt that Mary's potential was being suppressed by social barriers against women at the time.

Mary Garrett was raised in a wealthy household. After her father was elected president of B&O Railroad, the Garrets moved into a mansion in Mount Vernon Place. Although living in a luxurious house in the most prosperous part of Baltimore, Garrett had a lonely and unhappy childhood. Her youngest brother was 5 years older than her, and the age difference made it difficult for her to connect with her brothers. Moreover, according to her memoir, she had serious trouble with the bone of her right ankle until she received effective treatment at the spas of Cape May.