145 posts
A mother turns tragedy into a legacy of leadership
There are so many ways that people live with grief, especially when that grief is borne of unspeakable tragedy. When she lost her son Welles Crowther in the collapse of…
Who Was Mary Harriman? Part 3: Life on the national stage
Although Mary’s parents were lifelong Republicans, in 1928 she and her brother Averell declared their support for Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith. Mary’s active work for the campaign brought her…
Who Was Mary Harriman? Part 2: The public service years begin
When Mary Harriman graduated from Barnard College in 1905 her work with the New York Junior League continued, and in 1909 she founded a sanitarium for Brooklyn’s “consumptives,” an early…
Who was Mary Harriman? Part 1
Mary Harriman was determined to be more than a debutante. Although born into a family of great privilege, the path she took was quite different from that which was expected…
Centered Leadership
It’s that time of year in the Junior League calendar. When current leadership teams are winding down and new teams are gearing up. It’s that time when at AJLI we…
Katharine Hepburn, Movie Star!
In an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Katharine Hepburn set the bar for smart, sophisticated roles that seemed to echo the woman that she was— and, in doing so,…
How many First Ladies were in The Junior League first?
Five. Which is quite a few, when you consider that there have only been 20 First Ladies since Mary Harriman founded The Junior League in 1901. Eleanor Roosevelt had her…
Who was the first woman elected to Congress from New York?
For the record, it was Ruth Sears Baker Pratt. And she was a Junior Leaguer. We realize that the shock and awe of having a woman as a member of…
Who was Helen Wills Moody?
She was an international superstar, one of the first women to be able to make that claim in American sports. How big a superstar? At the age of 15, she…
An Unusual, But Appropriate, Way to Honor Nelson Mandela
On Thursday evening, I found myself honoring Nelson Mandela’s memory in a way that was unexpected yet so poignant. AJLI’s COO, Maureen Mackey, and I attended a brief holiday performance…