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Mildred Scott Olmsted, Another Pioneering Member of Providence Friends Meeting

We got a lot of positive feedback about the profile by Sam Lemon of Graceanna Lewis in honor of Women’s History Month. Sam was led to continue celebrating the month with a profile of another notable woman member.


Mildred Scott Olmsted
Mildred Scott Olmsted

Mildred Scott Olmsted (December 5, 1890 – July 2, 1990) was born in Glenolden, PA, the daughter of Henry J. Scott and Adele Hamrick Scott. She was a graduate of Friends' Central School in Philadelphia, and majored in history at Smith College, completing her degree in 1912. She was later awarded honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College and Smith College. Mildred was a protege of noted American social worker, social reformer, sociologist, philosopher and author, Jane Addams (1860 – 1935).


She pursued further studies in social work at the Pennsylvania School of Social and Health Work, and marched for suffrage against her father's orders. Olmsted was an ardent pacifist and suffragette, and was among the early advocates of birth control.


She organized the first social service department at Bryn Mawr Hospital, and she worked for the YMCA and the American Friends Service Committee for famine relief in France and Germany during World War I, coming away from the experience a committed pacifist.


Mildred was an avid antiwar campaigner and women’s and civil rights activist. She rose through the ranks to become Executive Director of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) serving for 40 years. Working across national and racial lines, she organized conferences of American and Mexican women (1928) and American and Soviet women (1961). In 1986, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her efforts.

Thunderbird Lodge
Thunderbird Lodge

Her husband Judge Allen Seymour Olmsted, II, was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Mildred attended Providence Friends Meeting, where she also served as Clerk. She and her husband, Judge Allen Seymour Olmsted, II, hosted prominent leaders such as Jane Addams, Bayard Rustin, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at their home, Thunderbird Lodge, in Rose Valley, PA.


Mildred Scott Olmsted with singer/activist Joan Baez, circa 1975.
Mildred Scott Olmsted with singer/activist Joan Baez, circa 1975.

Mildred was also involved in other peace and women's organizations, especially those based in the Philadelphia area. She helped to found SANE (now Peace Action), served as vice-chair of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and served on the United Nations Council of Non-Governmental Organizations, and was active with the Main Line Birth Control League.


Historical marker dedicated to Mildred Scott Olmsted, facilitated by local historian Robyn Young.
Historical marker dedicated to Mildred Scott Olmsted, facilitated by local historian Robyn Young.

After she passed away, her ashes were buried at her home, Thunderbird Lodge, in nearby Rose Valley, PA.


Her papers are archived in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. A book-length biography of Mildred was published in 1992 by Margaret Hope Bacon, entitled, "One Woman's Passion for Peace and Freedom: The Life of Mildred Scott Olmsted."


In 2015 a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker was placed outside Olmsted's residence in Rose Valley in her honor. Her home, Thunderbird Lodge, is now owned by the Rose Valley Centennial Association.


 

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