I cordially invite fellow/sister subscribers on this history list to view the Katharine Bement Davis bio just posted on the Web. Several of you helped me with the research directly and all helped indirectly by constituting this community of cyberscholars. NYC LINK, the city's official WWW site, has now posted the study, Correction's Katharine Bement Davis: NYC's Suffragist Commissioner. One of the most remarkable Americans of her era (1861-1935), KBD broke gender and racial barriers, initiated reforms and impacted diverse fields regionally, nationally and internationally. These included, but were not limited to, women's rights, urban sociology, penology, municipal government, social hygiene, sexual practices research, and higher education. Her bio can be accessed through the History cellblock door on the Department of Correction's home page at its NYC LINK address: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/BOLDEST Eight of the 17 "chapters" are posted there but don't be misled by the term "chapter." Even the longest is shorter than what most readers would consider a "chapter" in a formal history book Web format doesn't lend itself to such lengthy text as a real "chapter" yet I couldn't come up with a better term. Ch.17 (Acknowledgments and Appreciations) lists those who helped my research, including subscribers on this listserv. I have a nagging feeling I may have left out a name or two that should be there. If so, I apologize and ask you to let me know so that I can correct any omission in a later update and in the printed booklet version to be published by DOC in a limited edition as part of the current Greater New York Centennial celebration. Ch.17 explains how to get the complete printed text without charge other than postage on a self-addressed envelope. It also provides a link to NYC LINK's own emailbox. DOC and NYC LINK's posting the KBD bio constitutes a unique endeavor supporting historical study. Using NYC LINK's email link on Ch. 17 for your KBD comments and questions is one way to convey to the site's managers that there really is a serious-minded audience for history "out there on the Web." KBD's appointment as Correction Commissioner in 1914 made her the first woman to head a major NYC agency, a distinction placing her center stage in the struggle for suffrage then taking place. That same year she ran as the suffragists' candidate for delegate-at-large to the state constitutional convention on the statewide ticket of the Progressives, then a major party. Thus KBD apparently was the first woman ever to run for New York statewide office on a major party slate. Born and raised in Northwestern NY, she taught school 10 years to earn tuition to Vassar from which she graduated top of the class in 1892. A Brooklyn Heights girls academy science teacher and a Barnard College graduate student, she ran NY State's exhibit at the 1893 Chicago world's fair -- a working man's model home demonstrating scientific principles of nutrition and domestic hygiene. That led to her heading a settlement house in Philadelphia where she was supportive of W.E.B. DuBois' pioneering urban sociological study The Philadelphia Negro. KBD returned to Chicago, where as a student of Veblen and friend of Addams, she become the first female political economy "fellow" to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. This post- graduate of a university founded by John D. Rockefeller Sr. would years later, as superintendent of the State Reformatory for Women in Bedford Hills, Westchester, N.Y., help found the Bureau of Social Hygiene with JDR Jr. Started to launch a center for evaluating inmates to determine suitable sentencing, the bureau developed much later into a major force for various research, including sexual practices, this long before Kinsey. When KBD retired in 1928, more than 1,000 leading Progressive reformers filled a Waldorf ballroom to pay her tribute. She later moved to Pacific Grove, California, where she died. I mention these highlights to stimulate listserv subscribers' interest to find out more about her through the History cellblock door at http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/BOLDEST Thomas C. McCarthy Director of Editorial and Communication Services NYC Dept. of Correction (DOC) [log in to unmask] Reminder: KBD Ch. 17 has a NYC LINK emailbox for comments, questions.