Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money and American Philanthropy

by Molly McClain

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836–1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer. She used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.

Born in London, Scripps grew up in rural poverty on the Illinois prairie. She went from rags to riches, living out that cherished American story in which people pull themselves up by their bootstraps with audacity, hard work, and luck. She and her brother, E. W. Scripps, built America’s largest chain of newspapers, linking midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the West. Less well known today than the papers started by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, Scripps newspapers transformed their owners into millionaires almost overnight.

By the 1920s Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million, most of which she gave away. She established the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine after founding Scripps College in Claremont, California. She also provided major financial support to organizations worldwide that promised to advance democratic principles and public education.

In Ellen Browning Scripps, McClain brings to life an extraordinary woman who played a vital role in the history of women, California, and the American West.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

366 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2019

Reviews

[Nick D · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't walk 10 feet in San Diego without bumping into something Scripps owned or paid for, so I was very interested to learn more more about the woman who shaped this city. There is comparatively little about her early days, but that's not what I was interested in anyway.

Scripps was born in England but moved to Rushville, IL as a child with her poor family, and was the only one of al her siblings to go to college. She and her brothers started newspapers that used simple language, sensational stories, and appealed to regular people - most notably the Detroit Evening News. Ellen was always undervalued and undercompensated for her work because she was a woman. There were also many ugly and public legal battles between the siblings over ownership and money, and that was part of the reason she moved west - to get a way from it all.

She didn't like the idea of inherited wealth and also wanted to help heal her family's legacy with the public so she became a major philanthropist. Some of her family was living at Miramar Ranch in San Diego and she joined them, eventually building her own home, South Molton Villa, which is now the La Jolla branch of the San Diego modern art museum. At this time La Jolla was very small and had few year-round residents. In La Jolla, she becamed involved in social life and financially supported the Women's Club, the Bishop's School, tons of other projects including Scripps Hospital, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and helped protect Torrey Pines State Park. She even financed the building of the Children's pool.

She would let people visit her grounds and library, wasn't religious but recognized religion's important social role, and was a supporter of women's rights, funding both Pomona College and Scripps College.

Overall, glad to learned more about this important historical person.

[Jannat · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for work. interesting. i didn’t know she was a socialist that actively gave away her money both during and after her life

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a graduate of Scripps College I had very little knowledge of the extraordinary life led and the extraordinary woman Ellen Browning Scripps was. Her story is inspiring and relevant even today. She was independent, moral and contributed immensely to the improvement of society around her particularly the facilities of La Jolla where she lived and of course her final act, the establishment of Scripps College.

[frances]

scripps college history is interesting!

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I don’t mind dying, but life is just beginning to be so interesting.”

Ellen Browning Scripps grew up during the American Civil War and lived through World War I. She and her family were instrumental in popularizing newspapers, and made a lot of money by doing so.

She took part in many of the great movements of the day, from New Thought and spiritualism, from abolition to universal suffrage to prohibition. She supported ocean research and was a great patron of education. She helped found schools in the San Diego area as well as Scripps College for Women at the Claremont Colleges.

If you’re interested in the conflicted politics of the period from abolition to prohibition told from the viewpoint of someone who lived through it, I doubt that there is a better person to follow than Ellen Browning Scripps, or a better book than this about her life. Ellen Browning Scripps was part of it all, a self-described Bolshevik and activist Republican, an abolitionist and a prohibitionist.

This was a time when progressives still held to democratic ideals—though there were hints of their future. Having recently read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, I was fascinated by the description of Looking Backward, a book E.W. Scripps read by early socialist Edward Bellamy. Bellamy describes a utopia in which:

Everyone feels himself or herself to be a member of an “industrial army” working for “one great business corporation,” the state. The result, according to Bellamy, was the end of poverty and great wealth, “the solidarity of the race and the brotherhood of man.”

The Scripps also had their own quirks. Her sister, Virginia Scripps, who with Ellen Browning Scripps was an ardent supporter of prohibition for the masses, always kept hard liquor on hand. Ellen joked—or not—about “lay[ing] in a stock of whiskey in case California goes dry—as we fervently hope it will.”

But Scripps is especially interesting because she usually did not have separate standards for herself as she did for others. When she decided San Diego needed a playground for children of all classes, she did not fund one somewhere far from her own neighborhood. She built it across the street from her own house. When she financed a hospital, she, again, had it built next door to her, not next door to someone else.

This is only a tiny part of the book; it happens to be what interested me most, since I’ve recently read about some of these events and movements. The fact is that Ellen Browning Scripps was involved in a lot of historically important and interesting movements and events; if there is anything disappointing to this book it is that it could have been just as interesting in ten volumes. Ellen Browning Scripps lived through a fascinating period of American and world history, and did not do so passively.

Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine; I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since I first started hearing about it.

[Nicole Teh · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this for my internship lol it was dense but definitely changed my narrative of miss Ellen Browning Scripps #selflessqueen

[Dexter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical book on Ellen Browning Scripps and philanthropic work

This book is a factual account of Ellen Browning Scripps in relationship to her philanthropic contributions to the development of La Jolla and the greater San Diego area. Her achievements were vast and unusual for a single self-made woman of shaped by the Victorian era and moulded by events of the early 20th Century.

This book is mainly historical, and fails as a biography. It does not get into the inner life and psyche of Ellen Browning Scripps. What shaped her philanthropy? Why didn't she ever marry? Did she have an emotional or deeply spiritual life? What shaped those? How did she deal with failure and setbacks? What was the source of her strength?

There is another book in the making here. My belief is that Ellen Browning Scripps' life is exemplary and there is a lot we can learn, both women and me, from its inner workings beyond her materialistic philanthropic contributions.

[Jennifer Halter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a very readable and enlightening book about an important woman in San Diego history who many do not know enough about. Ellen Browning Scripps helped to shape San Diego and La Jolla with her generous donations and skills as an organizer. She was ahead of her time in so many ways as a highly educated women who hoped to improve the lives of other women through education, political involvement and healthcare. The book itself is well written and readable. Sometimes biographies can be dry with too much detail but I found this book helped me understand Ellen as a person and what motivated her as well as all of the wonderful things she did for our community. I highly recommend this book, especially for those who live in San Diego!

[Cynthia Bemis Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative read about one woman's personal quest to make a difference. Read this book for Women's History Month, philanthropy and development studies, if you an entrepreneur or if you're curious how so much around La Jolla, CA came to bear her name.

Author Molly McClain pays close attention to detail of the buildings, design, function and cost. Her research documents and provides key insights into Ellen Browning Scripps' intentions and standards. Given a lot of this activity occurred more than 100 years ago, it's a fascinating comparison to philanthropy today.

[Pegeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Scripps name is everywhere in San Diego, and this book gives an historical accounting of the many philanthropic projects she supported and started. Perhaps the sources are not available , but this book seemed to be missing much liveliness. Interesting is how “ late” in life she started and accomplished so many projects. Her independent mind, her anti religiosity. Brings home the contrast between her firm belief that wealth should be used to uplift the community and our modern billionaires. I’d have liked more about the person.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, inspiring, thorough journey into the life, head, & heart of a really amazing woman. I loved her strength and how much she invested in her community, striving to make it a better place through the education of girls and investment in community-supporting infrastructure, amongst other things. Also, I got a clear sense of her curiosity, humility, & love of her family. I'm so glad her letters were saved and so glad that this author decided to investigate them.

[Van Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent academic history. A little dry for the casual reader. Surprisingly good insights about progressivism, philanthropy, and class politics in La Jolla, California. The author paints a portrait of a hard-working, uber-rich woman who used her philanthropy to advance civic and progressive causes--to remedy the disparity in wealth that made her feel shame for being a have among so many have-nots.

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although Ellen Browning Scripps led a fascinating life and is very important to the development of San Diego and particularly La Jolla, this book is not the way to learn about her. A friend said to me, it would have been better to read Wikipedia. I agree, the book was dry and jumped around so much, it was hard to keep track of what year is being discussed.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a life! I went to the college that she founded but never saw, amazing that she created such a thing of beauty and rarity and yet never set eyes on it.

It is good to be reminded that old age doesn't have to mean idleness--that's when Miz Scripps really got going.

[Lee Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written, meticulously researched book on a great newspaper woman, advocate for women and equality, and generous philanthropist. Amazing to go back in time with this superb book. Bravo, Professor Molly McClain!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best part was the last chapter when she founded my alma mater Scripps College!

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched book about a phenomenal person!

[Kalita Blessing · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an Inspiring life Ellen Scripps led. A wonderful historical look at how La Jolla began and San Diego was put on the map through the efforts of this remarkable suffragist and philanthropist.

[Meg Heckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly written and deeply researched biography.

[mena]

i am going to know soooo much about ebs by the end of the summer…

[Jodi Vicario · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Scripps alum I loved learning of Ellen’s history, but I thought the book was poorly written. It’s just a historical timeline of events with lack of creativity in telling her story.

[Amy Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love biographies and this was amazing! What a beautiful lady who lived her life fully and selflessly.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if you're familiar with San Diego. Reads like a college textbook- lots of historical anecdotes from letters and first person resources.

[Kathy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned so much about La Jolla and the development of San Diego. There are good people in this world.

[Tabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read about the life of Ellen Browning Scripps and what she accomplished to give back to the community in the way that she did. She did so much at a time when women weren’t focused on making a difference. An amazing woman written in a new beautiful light!