Childcare & Education

As the manager of her husband’s tenement and a volunteer at Hull House and with the Chicago Woman’s Club, Grace became deeply involved in children’s issues. As the mother of three young children she could see the importance of healthy environs and an orderly home life. She spoke at the first national conference sponsored by the Chicago Kindergarten College in 1894 and worked with Jane Addams and a handful of prominent Chicagoans to create the Northwestern University Settlement House playground, dedicated in 1897.

Grace was a skilled organizer and saw the value of getting women’s clubs to work together on charitable projects. She started this effort in Chicago and took it with her when the Bagley family moved to Pittsburgh (1906) and then Boston (1908), where she immediately joined the Norwood Women’s Club. In Massachusetts, along with her suffrage work, Grace took up the cause of Americanization of immigrants. She felt strongly that immigrants would be stronger supporters of World War I if they could become American citizens. She was soon deeply involved with the Republican Party.

In 1924 Grace testified before the House of Representatives and participated in a conference urging President Coolidge to create a Department of Education with a cabinet secretary. Her work on children’s issues at the national level would continue for the next two decades.