Kate Everest Levi
American educator, writer, and social worker (1859–1938)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kate Asaphine Everest Levi (January 4, 1859 – October 19, 1938) was an American educator, writer, and social worker. Over the course of her career, she became the first director of Kingsley House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a settlement house, and the first woman Ph.D. recipient from the University of Wisconsin.[1] Although both Syracuse University (1880, 1884) and the College of Wooster (1889) had granted doctorates in history to women in the 1880s,[2] Everest Levi is considered the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in history from an organized graduate school in the United States.[3] She wrote on topics such as education and German immigration to the Midwest.[4][5]
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History
Kate Everest was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin,[1] to parents Asaph and Mary (Abercrombie) Everest. After attending Fond du Lac High School, she entered the University of Wisconsin in 1879, earning a BA in 1882. After graduation, she taught at Markham's Academy, Milwaukee, from 1882 to 1883; at La Crosse High School from 1883 to 1884; and was a teacher of history and languages at Lawrence University from 1884 to 1890. She then earned an MA in 1892 and a PhD in 1893 from the University of Wisconsin.[6]
She worked with Jane Addams at Hull House in Chicago[7] before moving to Pittsburgh, where she was appointed head of Kingsley House social settlement from 1896.[1] She published several articles and books on history and education. Her papers are held at the Wisconsin Historical Society.[8]
She married Ernest Reese Levi on April 21, 1896, and had two children.[4]
She died October 19, 1938, in Madison, Wisconsin, at the age of 79.[1][5]
Selected works
- "Early Lutheran Immigration to Wisconsin" in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. 8. Madison, Democrat Printing Company, 1892, pp. 289–298.
- "How Wisconsin Came by Its Large German Element" in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. 12. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1892, pp. 299–334.
- "Geographical Origin of German Immigration to Wisconsin" in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. 14. Madison, Democrat Printing Company, 1898, pp. 341–393.
- "The Wisconsin Press and Slavery". Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 9, no. 4 (July 1926): 423-434.
- "The Press and the Constitution". Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 16, no. 4 (June 1933): 383-403.
