Barrows, Isabel Hayes Chapin (1845-1913)

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Mentioned in (4)
Received by (4)
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Jane Addams to Mabel Hay Barrows, June 25, 1903

Jane Addams's Own Story of Her Work: How the Work at Hull-House Has Grown (Third of Three Installments), May 1906

Hull-House, 1908

Jane Addams to Mabel Hay Barrows Mussey, October 31, 1913

Jane Addams to Isabel Chapin Barrows, July 6, 1903

Jane Addams to Isabel Chapin Barrows, January 23, 1904

Jane Addams to Isabel Chapin Barrows, July 12, 1904

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Birth Date

1845-04-17

Death Date

1913-10-24

Birthplace

Irasburg, VT

Biographical Text

Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows was the first woman employed by the U.S. State Department and the first woman to work for Congress as a stenographer. Barrows was also one of the first women to attend the University of Vienna to study ophthalmology, to have a private practice in medicine in Washington, D.C., and become an ophthalmologist. She and her second husband moved across the states and to Germany to study various topics. Barrows aided her husband in contributing to the Christian Register, becoming heavily involved in prison reform and many religious charity orgnizations. She wrote books with her husband on prison reform, and when she became a member of the Women’s Committee to Inspect Women’s Institutions, was able to advocate for her beliefs more broadly. After her husband died, she continued to write novels, speeches, and newspaper articles.

Barrows married William Chapin in 1863. He later died after performing missionary work in India. In 1867 she married her second husband, Samuel June Barrows. She died in 1913.

Occupation

Author

Physician

Social reform activist

Stenographer

Collection

People

Map

Edited By

Hajo, Cathy Moran

Lichon, Sara Catherine

Rights

Public domain

Gender

Female

First appears

1903

Bibliography and Links

SNAC

Wikipedia

Citation

“Barrows, Isabel Hayes Chapin (1845-1913),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed July 26, 2024, http://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/232.