Shouse, Catherine Filene

Philanthropist and founder of Wolf Trap Farm Park, Shouse was born in Boston, Mass., the daughter of A. Lincoln Filene and Therese (Weil) Filene. She attended Bradford Academy (1911-1913), spent one year at Vassar College (1913-1914), and graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. (1918). While an undergraduate, she organized a series of conferences to promote jobs for educated women. Shouse was hired as assistant to the chief of the Women's Division of the U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor (1917). She published Careers for Women (1920) and was the first woman to receive a master's degree in education from Harvard University (1923). Shouse married economist Alvin E. Dodd in 1921; they had one daughter, Joan, and divorced in 1929. Two years later Shouse married Jouett Shouse, a former congressman from Kansas.

The first woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee (1925), Shouse served as editor of the Woman's National Democratic Committee's Bulletin (1929-32). Shouse was the first woman to chair the board of the Federal Prison for Women (1926), where she instituted job training and rehabilitation programs. In 1929 she founded the Institute of Women's Professional Relations, which organized national conferences on opportunities for women with more than a high school education. A successful fundraiser, Shouse organized the General Clay Fund in 1949 to help the U.S. Army's Assistance Program for German Youth as well as the Hungarian Relief Fund to aid victims of Soviet repression in 1956. An avid dog breeder, Shouse was the president of the Potomac Boxer Club and publicity chair of the Old Dominion Kennel Club, and a judge in shows around the country.

An ardent supporter of the perfoming ares, Shouse began as a volunteer fundraiser for the National Symphony Orchestra. She also organized and sponsored the Candlelight Concerts in Washington, D.C. to supplement salaries of NSO musicians (1935-1942), and served as chair of the President's Music Committee's Person-to-Person Program (1957-1963), which produced annual calendars of national and international performances and organized the first International Jazz Festival (1962). In 1961, she donated 40 acres of her farm at Wolf Trap to the American Symphony Orchestra. In 1966, Shouse donated 100 acres and funds for an open-air theater to the National Park Service, and Wolf Trap came into being as the only national park for the performing arts.

From the description of Papers, 1878-1998 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122561981