Julia Beveridge Award program collection, 1991-2010

Julia A. Beveridge (d.1919), came to Chicago from Geneseo, Ill. and began a 32-year involvement with Armour Institute of Technology, first through Plymouth Church and Armour Mission where she taught practical skills to neighborhood children and served as a librarian. Recruited by Philip Armour and Frank Gunsaulus to help staff Armour Institute from its inception, she served for six years as registrar and assistant librarian and then for twenty years until her death as Librarian. Her career as an educator included the following positions: Plymouth Church, 1883 - 1886; Armour Mission corresponding secretary and librarian, 1887 - 1893; Armour Institute of Technology registrar and assistant librarian, 1893 - 1899; Armour Institute of Technology librarian, 1899 - 1919 In a memorial statement, Frank W. Gunsaulus, founding president of Armour Institute of Technology wrote of Beveridge: "In the work of the Armour Mission, which was small yet critically valuable for the wandering boys of this polyglot neighborhood, this woman...made the Babel which assembled at night in the little wood-working class on the corner, into a Pentecost....We never know who the real founders of our best institutions are, until we get back into the quiet region of the supreme forces, and it is oftentimes a woman's hand which guides not only the cradles of the world, but guides the destinies of those who are come out of the cradle."

Julia Beveridge's life typifies that of many late 19th Century women who were part of the settlement house and social service agency movements which provided a generation of immigrants with their first experience of American culture and education. Armour Mission, formed much in the pattern of Jane Addams' Hull House, was one such institution serving the needs of European nationals and black Americans who moved to Chicago's Douglas, Grand Boulevard, Canaryville, and Bridgeport neighborhoods. At the Mission, Beveridge combined reading and practical education by establishing classes for boys and girls who numbered over 700 students by the end of the first year according to one source.

Six years later, she graduated to the other end of the educational spectrum when she became registrar of Armour Institute and the person responsible for enrolling young men and women in their college programs. Hundreds, probably thousands, of documents were marked with the notary public seal which carries her name and certifies her capacity as a public service appointee.

Her longest tenure and greatest renown, however, came in her twenty years as Librarian of Armour Institute of Technology. There she had daily interaction with hundreds of students, mostly young men, preparing themselves to be engineers, architects, businessmen, scientists and teachers. Her reputation is one of being universally respected and revered by these surrogate sons. Julia Beveridge was married but did not have children. Nothing is known of her husband, and she apparently moved to Chicago alone, as did Jane Addams. From the perspective of the 21st Century, it is difficult to comprehend the courage and determination of a single woman to strike out on her own without the support of family close at hand. Coming to a cosmopolitan city like Chicago was, no doubt, thrilling and threatening at the same time. Beveridge would have been able to empathize greatly with today's international students who, in coming to IIT, are getting their first experience at being away from family and friends. Julia Beveridge died June 20, 1919, one day after being struck by a truck while crossing the intersection at 33rd and State Streets. She was buried in her home town of Geneseo, Illinois in a family lot. Her name and memory have been memorialized by the women's groups of Armour Institute of Technology and Illinois Institute of Technology with the establishment of a student scholarship award (1939 - ca. 1977) and a women's honorary recognition award program (1991 - continuing) respectively.

Source: Gunsaulus, Dr. Frank W., "In Memoriam: Mrs. Julia A. Beveridge," The Armour Engineer, Vol. XI, No. 1, Nov. 1919, pp. 46-49.

The Julia Beveridge Awards program began in 1991 to recognize women, including faculty, staff, and alumni, at Illinois Institute of Technology. The award is sponsored by IIT Women's Support office which has operated under a series of names through the years, including the IIT Women's Network, and the IIT Women's Association. As of 2010, it is an ongoing annual campus-wide program.

Recipients of the awards 1991-2009 are as follows: 1991 Mollie Sarah Cohen; Lois Graham; Mary Lydston Kilpatrick; Mary M. Mannella; Mary Louise Mojonnier; Joyce Peck; Katherine Sharp 1992 Hyla S. Napadensky; Vivian M. Weil 1993 Martha Evans; Mary Anne Smith 1994 Sherita Ceaser; Normandie Zagorski 1995 Irma Dobbins; Margaret H. Huyck; Linda Kaskel 1996 Sohair Elbaz Wastawy; Joan Steinman; Ruth Sweetser 1997 Ranjana Bhargava; Jean Bingham; Susan Russell 1998 Dale Anne Reiss; Carole L. Snow; Judith A. Todd 1999 Christena Nippert-Eng; Helen Oloroso; Esther R. Rothstein 2000 Anna Dollar; Judith W. Munson; Mickie A. Voges 2001 Cheryl Caplan; Marge Collens; Nasrin Khalili 2002 Ann Breen-Greco; Mary Dawson; Cynthia Hood 2003 M. Ellen Mitchell; Ellen Jordan Reidy 2004 Pat Grow; Linda Manning; Margaret Power 2005 Catherine Bruck; Margaret (Peggy) Murphy 2006 Theresa Allen; Ullica Segerstrale; Rosa Alvarado; Mamie Phillips; Hyun-soon "Joy" Chong 2007 Fay Clayton; Susan Sitton; Marcia Martin; Judith Carr; Lisa Montgomery 2008 Jean K. Holley; Lori B. Andrews; Donna V. Robertson; Holli Pryor-Harris; Felice Batlan 2009 Amy Lee Segami; Nazli Goharian; Lovetta Houston; Leslie Anderson; Judith Lederman 2010 Courtney Leigh Beisel; Tamara Goldman Sher; Janet L. Reif; Janelle Ruswick 2011 Katherine K. Baker; Pamela A. Paziotopolus; Teresa Helena Moreno; Joyce Hopkins.