April 16, 1926

Sophonisba Breckinridge, professor of social economy and dean of the College of Arts, Literature and Science at the University of Chicago, gave the Phi Beta Kappa lecture on “The Public Profession of Social Work.” The first woman to graduate, in 1904, from the University of Chicago law school, Breckinridge and Julia Lathrop ’80 founded, with others, the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, of which she became dean, in 1908. The school merged with the University of Chicago in 1920, forming the university’s Graduate School of Social Service Administration.