Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff (August 16, 1872 – March 18, 1957) was an American clubwoman based in Chicago. She was director of the Woman's City Club of Chicago, and active in efforts to reduce air pollution in the city in the 1910s and 1920s.
Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff | |
|---|---|
 Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff, from a 1925 newspaper | |
| Born | August 16, 1872 |
| Died | March 18, 1957 |
| Occupation | Clubwoman |
| Parent | Damon G. Tunnicliff |
| Relatives | Helen Tunnicliff Catterall (sister) Ralph T. Catterall (nephew) |
Early life
editSarah Bacon Tunnicliff was born in Macomb, Illinois, the daughter of judge Damon G. Tunnicliff and his second wife, Sarah Alice Bacon Tunnicliff.[1] She graduated from Vassar College in 1892.[2] Her older sister Helen Tunnicliff Catterall, also a Vassar alumna, was a writer and a lawyer.[3] Her younger sister Ruth May Tunnicliff, also a Vassar alumna, was a physician and bacteriologist.[4]
Career
editTunnicliff was a director of the Woman's City Club of Chicago.[5] She chaired the club's Clean Air Committee,[6] which worked for improved building codes, especially smoke, noise and ventilation standards, in Chicago buildings.[4] She was the Illinois director of education for the United States Fuel Administration,[7] and director of the fuel conservation department of the Illinois women's committee of the Council of National Defense,[8] both during World War I. In this work, she carried a badge,[9] wrote articles about air pollution,[10] prepared posters for public education,[11] and encouraged urban households to manage their coal furnaces without unnecessary smoke.[12]
Tunnicliff was also active in the Chicago Woman's Club,[13] the Chicago Association of College Alumnae,[14] and the Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago.[15]
Personal life
editSarah and Ruth Tunnicliff lived with their widowed mother in Chicago until her death in 1936,[1][14] and stayed together until Ruth's death in 1946. Sarah Tunnicliff died in 1957, aged 84 years, in Bristol, New Hampshire,[16] where she spent summers in her later years.[17]
References
edit- ^ a b "Sarah B. Tunnicliffe, Dead in Chicago". The Daily Times. 1936-06-24. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-01-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ The Vassarion. 1901. p. 230.
- ^ "Guide to the Helen Tunnicliff Catterall and Ralph C. H. Catterall Family Papers circa 1840s-1956". University of Chicago Library. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
- ^ a b Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 827.
- ^ Directory and Register of Women's Clubs: City of Chicago and Vicinity, 1914 ; Indorsed by the Board of Ill. Federation of Women's Clubs. Linden Brothers & Harry H. De Clerque. 1917.
- ^ Whitaker, Hazel (1916-12-24). "Chicago's Welfare Looked After by Woman's City Club". Chicago Tribune. p. 45. Retrieved 2021-01-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Contemporary Notes". Vassar Quarterly. 4: 149. February 1919.
- ^ Pease, Theodore Calvin (1923). The war-time organization of Illinois. Illinois State Historical Library. p. 261.
- ^ "In Clouds of Smoke She Found Her Life's Work". Piqua Daily Call and Piqua Press Dispatch. February 14, 1925. p. 12. Retrieved January 23, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ Tunnicliff, Sarah B. (June 1916). "Smoke Elimination in Chicago". The Educational Bi-Monthly. 10: 391–404.
- ^ "Anti-Smoke Poster". The Poster. 8: 94. November 1917.
- ^ Tunnicliff, Sarah B. (1918) "How to Burn Soft Coal in Domestic Heating Equipment", a pamphlet produced by the U. S. Fuel Administration for Illinois.
- ^ Chicago Woman's Club (1925). Annual Announcement of the Chicago Woman's Club. The Club. p. 147.
- ^ a b The Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names of Chicago and Suburban Towns: Containing the Names and Addresses of Prominent Residents, . . 1909. pp. 197, 324.
- ^ "New Officers of the Renaissance Society". The University of Chicago Magazine. 15: 341. July 1923.
- ^ Hallwas, John (August 20, 2011). "The Remarkable Tunnicliff sisters: Part 2 - Sarah and Ruth". The McDonough County Voice. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
- ^ "1892". Vassar Quarterly. 27: 26. October 15, 1941.
External links
edit- Mike Brubaker, "Pretty as a Picture" Temposenzatempo (September 28, 2019). A blogpost about an 1895 photograph of four young women, one of whom was Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff.
