Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett

E-135

Born nearby at Clifton, Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett earned medical and nursing degrees. She devoted her professional life to the care and education of unmarried pregnant women, a group previously treated as outcasts. With philanthropist Charles Nelson Crittenton, Barrett founded a rescue home for unmarried pregnant girls in Atlanta in 1893. After her move to Northern Virginia, they co-founded the National Florence Crittenton Mission, the first philanthropic institution chartered by Congress. Supported by presidents, Barrett pursued her pioneering work nationally and internationally. For the first time for a woman, the flag at the Virginia State Capitol was lowered at her death in 1925.

Department of Historic Resources, 2008

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

References/Bibliographic Citation:

Barrett, Kate Harwood Waller. By Bridgette Zerfas, Graduate Student, Grand Valley State University. Accessed at: http://www.learningtogive.org/papers/index.asp?bpid=216 Barrett, Katherine Harwood Waller. In Kneebone, John T.; Looney, J. Jefferson; Tarter, Brent; and Treadway, Sandra Gioia, eds. Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Volume 1: Aaroe-Blanchfield. Richmond, Library of Virginia: 1998, p. 360-62.