Scripps, Ellen Browning, 1836-1932

Ellen Browning Scripps, (born Oct. 18, 1836, London, Eng.—died Aug. 3, 1932, La Jolla, Calif., U.S.), English-born American journalist, publisher, and philanthropist whose personal fortune, accrued from investments in her family’s newspaper enterprises, allowed her to make considerable contributions to educational, public recreational, and medical institutions.

Scripps moved from England to the United States in 1844 with her family. They settled in Rushville, Illinois, where she graduated from the Female Department of Knox College in 1859 and taught in district schools. In 1867 she moved to Detroit, Michigan, to assist her elder brother, James E. Scripps, on his recently acquired and newly merged newspapers, the Daily Advertiser and the Tribune. She later returned home to Rushville to care for her ailing father, but after his death she again joined James, who had just launched the new Detroit Evening News.

In 1878 she helped her younger half brother, Edward W. Scripps, begin his Penny Press in Cleveland, Ohio. She gave financial support and contributed articles and columns to the Penny Press while continuing her work for the Detroit Evening News. She finally abandoned journalistic work in 1883 but continued to invest in Edward’s enterprises as he acquired several more newspapers and laid the foundation of the Scripps-McRae League (later the Scripps-Howard chain). She eventually held large interests in 16 daily newspapers around the country, and the returns on her investments multiplied. In 1891 she settled at Edward’s new villa near San Diego, California, and six years later she built her own villa in La Jolla. She profited further from investments in California real estate.

From roughly 1900 the distribution of her large fortune through carefully planned philanthropy became one of Scripp’s major concerns. The family farm in Rushville, Illinois, was converted into Scripps Memorial Park. In 1903 she and Edward established the Marine Biological Association of San Diego, which in 1912 moved to La Jolla and became a department of the University of California and which is now known as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She made large gifts to Knox College and to the Bishops School in La Jolla. With Edward she founded the Scripps Memorial Hospital (later the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation) in La Jolla. She also established Scripps College for Women, which opened in 1927 in Claremont, California, as one of several associated but autonomous colleges, and contributed funds for the establishment of the San Diego Zoo and the development of Torrey Pines Park. Principal among her few personal involvements in public affairs was her service from 1917 as a director of the National Recreation Association.

She founded the Marine Biological Station of San Diego (later called the Scripps Institution of Oceanography), and in 1926 she established Scripps College (for women) in Claremont, California.

Ellen Browning Scripps was born in Parish, London on October 18, 1836. Ellen
was exposed to books and publishing at an early age. Her grandfather was an
accomplished publisher and her father, James Mogg Scripps was a successful
bookbinder. In 1844, after the death of her mother, her father and her five siblings
moved to the United States. The family settled in Rushville, Illinois. Ellen attended
Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois where she graduated with honors in mathematics.
She was the first female graduate of Knox College. After graduating from College, Ellen
taught in public and private schools throughout Illinois. Ellen Browning Scripps also
taught many of her siblings and took a particular interest in the education of E.W., her
youngest half-sibling. In 1866, Ellen left Illinois to be a proofreader at her brother
James's newspaper office in Detroit. However, she returned to Rushville after two years,
to care for her ill father. She lived sparingly her entire working life and saved as much
money as possible in order to help support family members. After her father’s death, in
1873, she traveled back to Detroit to join her brother James who was founding the
"Detroit News." In addition to proofreading for the paper, Ellen prepared her own
column. The piece was entitled Miscellany for the Detroit "Evening News." The column
was composed of short feature stories which she assembled each evening after a full day
of proofreading. E.W. developed Ellen's idea of a daily feature column into the
Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) Service, Inc. Today the NEA, Inc., a ScrippsHoward company, provides a great number of publishers with commended political
commentary and a collection of graphics and illustrations through their daily service. In
1881, Ellen traveled abroad with E.W. during her absence from the paper, Miscellany
was replaced by letters she wrote from foreign countries. As a result of the publication of
her travel correspondence, Ellen Browning Scripps is sometimes referred to as one of
journalism's first foreign correspondents. In 1878, Ellen joined with E.W. in
establishing the Cleveland Press. She also invested in many of his publishing enterprises
including the Cincinnati Post and other newspapers of the rising Scripps League. Later
in life, she moved to Southern California with E.W. and his family and built a home in La
Jolla. Ellen Browning Scripps spent most of her wealth in order to create opportunities
for many people. Over the years, she contributed to various colleges, museums, zoos,
parks, libraries and other associations. Ellen was also known as an early supporter and
leader of the woman suffrage movement. Ellen Browning Scripps died on August 3,
1932. She will be remembered for her fulfilling life as a successful educator, publisher
and philanthropist.

Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836 – August 3, 1932) was an American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her half-brother E.W. Scripps created America's largest chain of newspapers, linking Midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the West. By the 1920s, Ellen Browning Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million (or $3.5 billion in 2016 dollars), most of which she gave away.

In 1924, she founded the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, CA. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine after founding Scripps College in Claremont, California.[1] She also donated millions of dollars to organizations worldwide that promised to advance democratic principles and women's education. She never married.[2]


Contents
1 Family history
2 Biography
2.1 Early life
2.2 Newspaper journalist
2.3 Travels
2.4 California
2.5 Wealth
2.6 Philanthropy
2.7 Death
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Family history
Ellen Browning Scripps was born on October 18, 1836, on South Molton St. in St. George Parish, London. Her father, James Mogg Scripps (1803–1873), was the youngest of six children born to London publisher William Armiger Scripps (1772–1851) and Mary Dixie (1771–1838). He was apprenticed to Charles Lewis, the leading bookbinder of London where he learned the trade. James married his cousin Elizabeth Sabey in 1829 and had two children, only one of whom lived to maturity, Elizabeth Mary (1831–1914). Elizabeth Sabey Scripps died the day after the latter's birth. Two years later, James Mogg married Ellen Mary Saunders. They had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood: James E. Scripps (1835–1906), Ellen Browning (1836–1932), William Arminger (1838–1914), George Henry (1839–1900) and John Mogg (1840–1863). Ellen Mary Scripps died of breast cancer in 1841.[3]

After the failure of his bookbinding shop and the death of his second wife, James Mogg emigrated to the United States with his six children in April 1844. They headed to Rushville, Illinois, where other members of the Scripps family owned property. James Mogg married his third wife Julia Osborn in November 1844. They had five children: Julia Anne (1847–1898), Thomas Osborn (1848–53), Frederick Tudor (1850–1936), Eliza Virginia (1852–1921), and Edward Wyllis or E.W. Scripps (1854–1926), the well-known newspaper tycoon and founder of The E.W. Scripps Company.[4]

Biography
Early life

Old Main Knox College
Born in London and raised on the Illinois prairie, Ellen Browning Scripps was the only one of her ten siblings to attend college. She studied science and mathematics at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, one of the few educational institutions to admit women, even if it did not yet grant college degrees. She graduated in 1859 with a certificate from the Female Collegiate Department. Afterwards, she returned to Rushville, Illinois, to teach in a one-room schoolhouse.[5]

Newspaper journalist
After the American Civil War, Scripps gave up her job as a schoolteacher and headed to Detroit, at that time a burgeoning industrial center in the West. She joined her brother James E. Scripps in publishing The Detroit Evening News, a short, inexpensive, and politically independent newspaper pitched to the city's working class. This was to be the start of the Scripps family fortune. She wrote a daily column, nicknamed "Miss Ellen's Miscellany," that reduced local and national news to short sound bites. According to Gerald Baldasty, "Her columns of "Miscellany" and other topics became the inspiration for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a news features service that Edward Scripps established in 1902."[6] In the 1870s and 1880s, the Scripps papers expanded to include The Cleveland Press, The Cincinnati Post, and the St. Louis Chronicle.[3]

A shareholder, Ellen Scripps played an important role in Scripps councils. She gave business advice to her younger half-brother E.W. and sided with him in family financial disputes. He credited her with saving him from financial ruin in more than one instance.[6] In the 1880s, E.W.'s attempt to seize control of the Scripps Publishing Company failed, resulting in a divisive lawsuit and a break with his half-brother James.[7]

Travels
In 1881, Ellen and E.W. travelled to Europe so that the latter could take a break from work and recover his health. They took the railroad through France to the Mediterranean Sea, crossed by ship to Algeria, then headed north into Italy, Austria, and Germany. Ellen wrote letters back to The Detroit Evening News about their travels, describing her impressions of people and places.[8] When Ellen returned to her job at the News, she found that she was no longer needed at the copy desk. She began a decade of travel, heading to the American South, New England, Cuba, and Mexico. In 1888–1889 she made a second trip to Europe that included a visit to L'Exposition Universelle in Paris and three months in Spain. A decade later, she toured France, Belgium, and England.[3]:76-86

California
In 1887, Ellen's sister Julia Anne moved to Alameda, California, to seek a remedy for crippling rheumatoid arthritis. She found a home at the Remedial Institute and School of Philosophy, one of the many utopian communities founded in the late nineteenth century.[7]:4 Concerned about her sister's welfare, Ellen made her first trip to California in the winter of 1890. Soon afterwards, Ellen and E.W. bought land in San Diego and established Miramar Ranch with their brother Fred. Miramar Ranch encompassed what is now Scripps Ranch, a suburban community, and the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The ranch house was torn down in 1973.[9][10]

Ellen lived, on and off, at Miramar until 1897 when she moved into a seaside cottage that she had built in La Jolla. She named it South Molton Villa (sometimes spelled South Moulton Villa) after the street on which she had been born.

Ellen gradually stepped out of her intimate family circle and began to acquire a large set of female acquaintances. La Jolla had a growing number of summer and year-round residents, many of whom were unmarried women or widows. She remarked that in the early days, "It was a woman's town."[3]:142 She was a founding member of the La Jolla Woman's Club and became involved in a wide variety of progressive causes. In 1909, she and her sister Virginia helped Joseph H. Johnson, the bishop of the Los Angeles Diocese of the Episcopal Church, to establish The Bishop's School as a preparatory school for girls.[11]


Ellen Browning Scripps's house South Molton Villa II designed by architect Irving J. Gill.
South Molton Villa, located on Prospect St. in La Jolla, was located next to Wisteria Cottage, a bungalow owned by Virginia Scripps. Wisteria Cottage was renovated in 1910 by architect Irving J. Gill a pioneer in the modernist movement. It now serves as the gallery and exhibition space of the La Jolla Historical Society.[12]

After South Molton Villa was destroyed by fire in 1915, Ellen Scripps commissioned Gill to build a new, fireproof concrete structure in the same modern architectural language as The Bishop's School, the La Jolla Woman's Club, and the La Jolla Recreational Center. It has been described as one of Gill's "masterworks."[13] In 1941, Ellen's trustees donated her house to The Art Center, later the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. The structure was altered beyond recognition. In 1996, a renovation by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown exposed the original facade.[14]


The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, in La Jolla
Wealth
Ellen Browning Scripps made a fortune by investing in E.W. Scripps's growing chain of newspapers in the West. In 1894, E.W. formed a partnership with Milton A. McRae, who had risen through the ranks to become one of Scripps's top lieutenants. George H. Scripps joined the partnership in 1895. The group managed The Cincinnati Post, The Cleveland Press, The St. Louis Chronicle, The Toledo News-Bee, and the Kansas City Star. They also acquired newspapers in Memphis, Oklahoma City, Evansville, Terre Haute, Columbus, Denver, Dallas, and Houston. In the late 1890s, E.W. began to acquire papers in California, including The Los Angeles Record, The San Diego Sun, and The San Francisco News. In the Pacific Northwest, the growing profitability of working-class newspapers led to the development of The Seattle Star, The Spokane Press, The Tacoma Times, and The Portland News, all pitched to dock workers, miners, lumbermen, and cannery workers.[15] By 1905, E.W. estimated that profits on "my little Western papers" were many times greater than those of his Eastern ones.[16]

George H. Scripps died in 1900, leaving behind a will described as "a legacy of hate." He gave his shares of Evening News stock to E.W., whom James E. Scripps considered his nemesis. Ellen, meanwhile, received George's shares of the Scripps Publishing Co. This led to an eleven-year legal battle that E.W. and Ellen ultimately won.[3]:145

Philanthropy
Interested in science and education, Ellen Browning Scripps donated the bulk of her fortune to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, and the Scripps College in Claremont, California.[17] She also financed the construction of the La Jolla Women's Club, the La Jolla Recreational Center, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, and the La Jolla Children's Pool, and she was an important early supporter of the San Diego Zoo.[5] After a stay in the hospital due to a broken hip, Ellen helped to found the Scripps Memorial Hospital and funded the Scripps Research Clinic. These organizations eventually became The Scripps Research Institute, and two of the core providers now comprising Scripps Health—Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and Scripps Clinic.[5]:p.86 The New York Times estimated that, during her lifetime, she gave gifts and donations to charitable causes that totaled more than $2 million, a conservative estimate equivalent to $37,478,000 in 2019 dollars.[18]

Death
Ellen Browning Scripps died in her La Jolla home on August 3, 1932, a few weeks before her ninety-sixth birthday. Shortly thereafter, the leading newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher praised her contributions to American journalism: "Many women have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the development of the American press, but none more influentially and beneficently than Ellen Browning Scripps."[6] The New York Times, meanwhile, recognized her as "one of the pioneers in modern American journalism." Her obituary described her as a woman who had perfected "the art of living" as well as the art of giving.[19]