This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. If you have a hard time imagining San Diego without Scripps Aquarium, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps Pier or Scripps institution of oceanography then it's in possible -- she came to San Diego late in her long life but made a mark using the fortune she acquired herself. New biography based on personal diaries and letters previously unused by historians reveal Scripps as a woman while ahead of her time. Joining me is Molly McClain author of "Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money & American Philanthropy". Walked him. Thank you very much. Just about everyone who's lived in San Diego for any length of time has heard of her script. They may not have much accurate information. Were some of the common misperceptions about her? Most people assume that she is married because she has these three names. Most women were married but she remained single her entire life and made her fortune herself. She was born in 1836. How did she manage to get so wealthy in a time where woman were barely alive -- allowed in the workforce. The newspapers were booming after news of battles and then by the 1870s people continue to be fascinated by the news. She invested her -- she invested in that paper and then in a series of papers in the west started by her brother that went on to be at the company. She worked at those papers. Absolutely. She started as a copy editor and manage a copy desk and she lived with her brothers and invested her salary and shares. So even by the time that she is 40 years old she's already had a substantial private income. Part of the reason she moved to San Diego was because of her siblings that pushed her out of the family business. She was a woman and about 50 and they had these nice young men that they thought could do the job just as well and they claim they could not find a place for her either on the evening news or Cleveland press and so she thought well, I'll just try it again. Something I find most interesting and inspirational about her story is that she's a woman who comes into her own at the age of 60. She creates a new life for herself. I find that fascinating and inspirational. What does it mean for her Scripps to come into her own? She stepped away from the closed network of family and meets new people and other men in -- women. She joins clubs and finds a place where she can investor money and projects that will serve. What brought her to San Diego? She came to San Diego as a result of her sister. She was financing this came to check up on her and she came down south to San Diego to visit with a cousin who worked there and found the climate here lovely and recommended that her brothers come out here both for their health and they did so she and her brother bought this you just a, which is now Scripps Ranch and developed it into a large ranch. I mentioned some of the obvious places that the script name shows up. What are some of the other people or places that the scripts donated to? All things the Chinese mission here in Senegal. The neighborhood house, which helped American class Native Americans. She helped restore the mission in the 1930s. All kinds of odd places where she spent her money. She always encourage people to understand that it was a grassroot effort. Show is trying to get other people involved with the raising of money for these projects so it was not just a shower of gold from above. The subtitle -- how did her Scripps desire to donate her money. She was very much against the idea of private family fortunes. She produced massive fortunes that were then handed down to younger generations. In doing so created something -- with think of the names that carried the tradition. She saw the potential in her brothers. She wanted nothing to do with it so she made sure that her money and every dime of it got spent on projects that served humanity rather than help to make her family members rich. And spending years pouring through documents previously and study documents and diaries did you get a sense of who she was? What kind of a person she would be like to spend time with questioning Yes, I did. She was a small woman very frail and quiet. People said she was a real force. I suspect that if you walked into a room and saw her, you would since the power and sends the shyness, the frailty and I think she would've been a lovely person to know. I think her family members knew her more closely than anyone else and they are lucky that they left account of her personality. They once said she was born at of her time. When might she have been more comfortable I do think she would've been more comfortable in the 21st century? I think she would've loved the 21st century. There so many opportunities for women. She grow up in a Victorian age in a time where women had very limited opportunities and she took advantage of the few opportunities that she had. But to live in the 20th century and become a doctor and a scientist and have these avenues of research available I think she would've been thrilled. I've been speaking with Molly McClain author of "Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money & American Philanthropy" . She will be speaking about her book this Saturday at 4:00. Thank you. Thank you very much.
If you have a hard time imagining San Diego without Scripps Aquarium, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps Pier or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, then it's impossible to imagine San Diego without Ellen Browning Scripps.
Scripps came to San Diego late in her long life, but made an indelible mark, using the fortune she remarkably acquired herself by helping launch her family's national newspaper chain.
"This is a story of a woman who came into her own after the age of 60," said University of San Diego history professor Molly McClain, who's written a new biography of Scripps based on personal diaries and letters previously unused by historians. "She had been a dutiful Victorian woman, though unusual in that she never married and worked as a journalist and editor. Then she comes out to California and makes a new life for herself. She decided to use her wealth to distribute it to mankind, instead of creating another generation of aristocracy."
Scripps came to San Diego in part because she was eventually pushed out of the family business, and quickly took to the relatively remote community. Despite her wealth, she was known to take public transit, wear out her old clothes, and sleep under the stars on her roofless porch.
"People assume she was genteel and elite, but she came from a plebeian heritage and was proud of it," said McClain, whose book is titled "Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money & American Philanthropy." "She’s living in a dusty little beach community. Much of San Diego was not particularly cosmopolitan. She’s a little more down to earth, though, even than most."
Scripps had a complicated relationship with money, according to McClain, who found a letter Scripps wrote to her brother, imagining life on a desert island "where the air that I breathe will not be tainted, nor my eyes polluted with the foul smell and sound of money." Wealth had divided Scripps' family, which was one of the reasons she gave away most of her money, endowing it to the institutions she'd supported, including the San Diego Zoo.
"The Scripps also ran newspapers that were very pro-labor, anti-elite," McClain said. "That’s their political sympathy as well. She and her brother E.W. Scripps thought it would be hypocritical to attack elites and then become them yourself."
McClain joins KPBS Midday Edition on Wednesday with more about Scripps' impact on San Diego culture.
Author Event
Where: La Jolla Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave., La Jolla
When: Saturday, June 3, 4:00 p.m.
Cost: Free
