Bartelme, Mary Margaret
1866 - 1954

Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News

Details
Born: 7/24/1866 in Chicago, Illinois
Died: 7/25/1954
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Professional Facts

Profession:
General practice
Probate law
Women's rights
Juvenile law
Regions and States of Practice:
IL, Midwest
Legal Education:
Northwestern University School of Law, 1894
Positions During Her Career:
President of Chicago Woman's Business Club
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in The Women's Medical School of Northwestern University
Member and officeholder in the Chicago Suffrage Club
Public Guardian of Cook County
Assistant judge of Cook County Juvenile Court
Instituted a program that provided a suitcase of clothes and necessities to girls in the juvenile court who resided in a girls' home
Judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County
Presiding judge in the Cook County Juvenile Court
Helped establish the Department of Child Placing during a placement crisis for African-American children
Fundraising chairwoman for the Women's and Children's Hospital
Firsts:
Woman judge in Illinios
Woman appointed Public Guardian of Cook County
Woman assistant judge and then judge of the Cook County Juvenile Court
Woman to speak before the Illinois State Bar Association
Accomplishments:
Co-founder of the Chicago Woman's Business Club (1894), and then president (1902)
Founded the Mary Bartelme Club for Girls
Established the juvenile court in Chicago and a detention home


Further Research Materials

References:
Mary Bartelme Papers
Mary Bartelme Papers; An inventory of the collection at the University of Illinois at Chicago University of Illinios at Chicago 2003, available at: http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/MBartelmeb.html
Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green (Editors), Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1980)
America's Only Woman Judge
America's Only Woman Judge, 21 (7) The Law Student's Helper 7 (July 1913)
Miss Bartelme and the Juvenile Court
Miss Bartelme and the Juvenile Court, The Women Lawyers' Journal 57 (February 1, 1913)
Women Lawyers' Club: News Items
"News Items", 2 (4) Women Lawyers' Journal (February, 1913)
Women Jurors to Try Feminine Murderers
Women Jurors to Try Feminine Murderers, 20 (11) The Law Student's Helper 328 (November 1912)
Miss Mary Margaret Bartelme
Miss Mary Margaret Bartelme, Chicago Legal News 285

Student Papers:
Potential Paper Topics:
Research into Northwestern's Mary Margaret Bartelme Award
An analysis of Bartelme's probate law work
An analysis of Bartelme's role in the establishment of the first juvenile court in the United States (note that this topic has been covered by a previous paper).
An analysis of Bartleme's work with the Chicago Juvenile Psychopathic Institute.
An analysis of Bartelme's effect on the role of the office of the Public Guardian of Cook County
An examination of her opinions.
A reading of her note on Synge v. Synge, for which she won a cash prize.
A reading of her student thesis on spendthrift trusts.
An examination of her speech on work-life balance, addressed to the Illinois State Bar Association.

Important Works: Papers housed in the Special Collections Department at the University of Illinois-Chicago