Shirley Farr was born in 1851. A member of a prominent Chicago family, she received a Ph.B in 1904 from the University of Chicago. While a student Farr lived in Beecher Hall and was a member of the Women Students Christian League. After graduation, Farr served as an associate professor of history and French at Ripon College, where she later accepted a position on the board of trustees and became a major donor. Farr served as an assistant in history (1914-1917), a half-time Instructor in History (1929-1934), and a departmental counselor (1929-1934) at the University of Chicago.
Farr contributed a great deal of money to the University of Chicago, including a gift of $1,000 annually for five years for the purchase of manuscripts for the Library beginning in 1924. In 1929, Farr contributed gifts amounting to $14,500 to establish an endowment for the Cleo Hearon Fellowship in History. In the same year, Farr provided the first of many gifts that would total $25,000 in support of the University's general development fund. She made other donations in support of causes as diverse as the William Rainey Harper Memorial Library Fund, the Medical School, the Quadrangle Club, the Institute of Sacred Literature, the School of Social Service Administration, and the Law School, where she contributed to the James Parker Hall Professorship endowment. By 1939, when the Board of Trustees took special note of her cumulative contributions, she had donated more than $62,000 to the University of Chicago.
Farr lobbied for the greater recognition of the female donors of the University and she also served as a member of the Board of Alumni Relations.
Shirley Farr died in 1957.
From the guide to the Farr, Shirley. Papers, 1918-1924, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)
