Grace (Hodges) Bagley, 1860-1944

Grace (Hodges) Bagley was born in Champaign, Ill. She married Frederick Phillips Bagley; they had three children. GHB devoted much of her life to social welfare. While she lived in Chicago, she was an early worker at Hull-House, helped to organize the first juvenile court and the first day nursery for children of working mothers and widowed fathers in Chicago, and took an active role in educating immigrants for citizenship.

The Bagleys moved to Massachusetts in about 1909; here GHB continued her social welfare work and actively supported woman suffrage. Her numerous positions included the presidency of the Equal Suffrage Association of the 10th Norfolk District of Massachusetts; she was also director of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association, congressional chairman for Massachusetts for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and vice president of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters. For more information on GHB's charitable and political interests, see the memorial tribute in the collection.