From collection Candidates
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge filed in the primaries as a candidate for Alderman representing Chicago's Seventh Ward in 1914. She did not win and did not remain in the race in the general election. Breckinridge was amongst several women reformers who ran in 1914, the first year women were eligible for election to municipal offices in Illinois. Breckinridge was educated at Wellsley College and was the first woman to graduate from the law school of the University of Chicago. She was also the first woman to be admitted to the bar in her home state of Kentucky. Breckinridge worked with reformers in Chicago at Hull House and other settlements, and was instrumental in creating the graduate program in "Social Service" or social work at the University of Chicago.
