Helen Tunnicliff Catterall

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Helen Tunnicliff Catterall
Born
Helen Honor Tunnicliff

(1870-03-03)March 3, 1870
Macomb, Illinois, U.S.
DiedNovember 10, 1933(1933-11-10) (aged 63)
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Alma materVassar College
University of Chicago
Occupation(s)Lawyer, writer, historian
ChildrenRalph T. Catterall
ParentDamon G. Tunnicliff
RelativesSarah Bacon Tunnicliff (sister)

Helen Tunnicliff Catterall (March 3, 1870 – November 10, 1933) was an American lawyer, writer, and historian, based in Chicago. She is best known for her five-volume Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, published between 1926 and 1937.

Early life[edit]

Helen Honor Tunnicliff was born in Macomb, Illinois, the daughter of judge Damon G. Tunnicliff and his second wife, Sarah Alice Bacon Tunnicliff.[1][2] She graduated from Vassar College in 1889,[3][4] and gave an address at commencement on "The New Astronomy."[5] After Vassar, Tunnicliff earned a law degree and pursued further studies in political science at the University of Chicago.[1]

Her younger sisters also graduated from Vassar.[6] Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff (1872–1957) was a director of the Woman's City Club of Chicago and a social reformer, and Ruth May Tunnicliff (1876–1946) became a medical researcher and president of the Chicago Society of Pathologists.[7][8]

Career[edit]

Tunnicliff practiced law in Massachusetts and Illinois, and taught at Cornell University. She was also director of a children's home in Ithaca.[7] She is best known as main author of the five-volume Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro (1926–1937),[9] written with support from the Carnegie Foundation.[10] Her work remains a useful source on the legal history of slavery in the United States,[11][12] and is still referenced in controversies on the subject, almost a century after its publication.[13]

Personal life[edit]

In 1896, Helen Tunnicliff married English-born historian Ralph Charles Henry Catterall (1866–1914).[4] They had a son, Ralph Tunnicliff Catterall (1897–1978), who followed his mother into a law career. Helen Tunnicliff Catterall died in 1933, aged 63 years, in Richmond, Virginia, where her son lived. Her papers are archived at the University of Chicago Library.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Tunnicliff (1896-06-25). "Marriage of Catteral". Chicago Tribune. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-01-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Mrs. Sarah Tunnicliff, Widow of Justice, Dies". Chicago Tribune. 1936-06-24. p. 25. Retrieved 2021-01-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Guide to the Helen Tunnicliff Catterall and Ralph C. H. Catterall Family Papers circa 1840s-1956". University of Chicago Library. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  4. ^ a b "Personals, Vassar Miscellany". Vassar Newspaper & Magazine Archive. June 1, 1896. p. 458. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  5. ^ "Commencement at Vassar". The Baltimore Sun. 1889-06-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-01-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Hallwas, John (August 20, 2011). "The Remarkable Tunnicliff sisters: Part 2 - Sarah and Ruth". The McDonough County Voice. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  7. ^ 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. pp. 167–168, 827.
  8. ^ "Dr. Ruth Tunnicliff". Chicago Tribune. 1946-09-23. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-01-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Boyd, William K. (1930). "Review of Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro". The American Historical Review. 35 (3): 636–638. doi:10.2307/1838458. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 1838458.
  10. ^ Catterall, Helen Tunnicliff; Hayden, James J.; Matteson, David Maydole (1926–1937). Judicial Cases concerning American Slavery and the Negro. Carnegie institution of Washington publication no. 374. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie institution of Washington.
  11. ^ Gabbidon, Shaun L.; Greene, Helen Taylor (2012-03-22). Race and Crime. SAGE. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-4522-0260-0.
  12. ^ Sweet, John Wood (2006). Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North, 1730-1830. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-8122-1978-4.
  13. ^ Russ, Valerie (2019-02-12). "Slaves, or indentured servants?". The Philadelphia Inquirer. pp. A2. Retrieved 2021-01-23 – via Newspapers.com.
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