Mrs. Russell Sage
American Philanthropist
1828 – 1918 A.D.

Mrs. Russell Sage, an American philanthropist, born in Syracuse, NY. Margaret Olivia Slocum was the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Slocum, and upon the paternal side was descended from Captain Miles Standish.

She graduated from the Troy Female Seminary in 1846, and then became a teacher at the Chestnut Street Seminary in Philadelphia, where she continued this work for a number of years.

After her marriage in 1859 to the banker, Russell Sage, she lived in New York, and did not become interested in philanthropy until about 1890. From that time on she devoted herself to the establishment and maintenance of many beneficent institutions, and in recognition of her work and interest in education for women, New York University conferred the degree of Master of Letters upon her in 1904.

When Russell Sage died in 1906 she became one of the world’s wealthiest women, and the following year she gave $10,000,000 for the Sage Foundation, for the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.

One of her most thoughtful and characteristic charities was a refuge for birds in Southern Louisiana, known as Marsh Island, consisting of about 70,000 acres.

The benefactions of Mrs. Sage during her life and after her death amount to about seventy-five million dollars.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.