⌡PARA φPAR@ ` àTEXT ` wHenrotin, Ellen Martin1847╨1922clubwoman and reformerBorn on July 6, 1847, in Portland, Maine, Ellen Martin grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and from the age of thirteen on the Isle of Wight. After attending schools in London, Paris, and Dresden she moved with her family to Chicago in 1868. In September 1869 she married Charles Henrotin, a financier and later founder and first president (1882╨1884) of the Chicago Stock Exchange. An eminent figure in Chicago society, she joined in 1874 the year-old Fortnightly Club, of which she soon became a leading member. A decade later she also joined the Chicago Woman╒s Club, and in 1887 she was a co-founder of the Friday Club. In 1892 her suggestion that women be represented in the Congress Auxiliary, the organizing body for cultural and scholarly conferences to be held in conjunction with the World╒s Columbian Exposition, was adopted by the exposition directors. She was made vice-president of the Woman╒s Branch under her friend Bertha H. Palmer, but because Palmer was preoccupied as head of the exposition╒s Board of Lady Managers the work of the Woman╒s Branch fell entirely on Ellen Henrotin. Her conspicuous success in introducing women and women╒s interests into the various committees planning more than 200 congresses and her special personal efforts and public appearances during the course of the exposition in 1893 made the Chicago fair a national focal point for feminist activity. In recognition of her ability Henrotin was elected president of the General Federation of Women╒s Clubs convening in Philadelphia in May 1894. During her four years in that post she oversaw the formation of 20 new state federations and the doubling of the number of women╒s clubs in the nation. In 1903╨1904 she was president of the Chicago Woman╒s Club, which in the latter year under her leadership sponsored a conference on ╥Women in Industry.╙ During 1904╨1906 she was president of the Fortnightly Club, and from 1904 to 1907 she was president of the National Women╒s Trade Union League. She led in organizing a ╥Chicago Industrial Exhibit╙ in 1907 to arouse public opinion against child labor and unsafe working conditions for women. In 1910 she headed a citizens╒ committee that was of substantial effect in achieving a settlement of the Chicago garment strike favorable to the workers. In March 1910 Henrotin was appointed by Mayor Fred A. Busse to the Chicago Vice Commission, whose report, The Social Evil in Chicago, 1911, led to the closing of hundreds of brothels in the city. She served also for many years as president of the Park Ridge School and as chairman of the executive committee of the Amanda Smith School, both institutions for dependent girls. In 1912 she was elected a trustee of the University of Illinois. After her husband╒s death in 1914 she gradually withdrew from public life. She died in Cherryplain, New York, on June 29, 1922. &styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ ! 5¬ 9 !I Γ !I ▐ ≥ !I ╢ 5¬ ╖ !I : 5¬ ; !I Ñ !I ┐ !I
