Community Leader

Mary Gage Peterson was a very active and engaged community leader. This page will highlight a few of her civic accomplishments.

Chicago’s School of Domestic Arts and Sciences

Mary Gage Peterson helped organize a new school called the Chicago’s School of Domestic Arts and Sciences and helped run that school.

In 1901, a small group of prominent Chicago women organized the School for Domestic Arts and Sciences with the goal "to cultivate domestic arts, teach scientific housekeeping, uplift domestic science, teach cookery, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, home nursing, hygiene, household economics, promote discussion of household problems among women, and arrange meetings for such discussions."

Students - and this school recruited primarily and perhaps exclusively women - could take a variety of courses under the general heading of 'Domestic Arts and Sciences.' This language may sound old-fashioned now, but, as the brochure below demostrates, they met real needs in the early 1900s. 

The work in meeting basic human needs - especially in the early 1900s - feel on the shoulders of women. So courses on cooking and sewing would have helped some women support their families and helped other women find jobs outside the home. Beyond this, the school did not merely train women to do household chores; this school was part of an effort to elevate this work through education. What at the time was called 'Domestic Arts and Sciences' would now be understood as simply 'Arts and Sciences' and would be treated as courses on nutrition, economics, biology, psychology, art, and more. 

In 1943, that school became part of Northwestern University, called the Home Economics Department.

Forestry and Nature

Mary Gage Peterson used the knowledge about forestry she gained helping run the Peterson Nursery to try and make the world a better place. She was active in the conservation movement - a political and social movement aimed at protecting the environment - and became chair of the forestry department of the Conservation Committee of the National Federation of Women's Clubs.

In this role, Mary Gage Peterson spoke before national audiences about the role of women in the conservation movement [source]. Mary Gage Peterson had this to say in 1909:

"[Women] wanted to make their town orderly and clean. It was only a step from that to uniting with the village improvement society or forming civic associations and doing something to beautify their towns."

Following her own advance about local civic action, Mary Gage Peterson supported the establishment of Chicago's first city forester in 1909.