Philanthropy, Family Planning, and a Ball family story for Women’s History Month
Tucked away in the Minnetrista archives is a Certificate of Appreciation awarded to Miss Elisabeth Ball for significant charitable donations she made before 1972. By then at the helm of her parents George and Frances Ball Foundation, documents like this are certainly not rare in the Heritage Collection.
This item however, is prominently stamped with the face and motto of American birth control movement founder Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), begging closer examination. In digging in, what we find is the unexpected tie between the Ball family’s philanthropy and the struggle around women’s reproductive rights in the second half of the twentieth century, all taking place in the small Kentucky town of Berea.
Fig. 1: Mountain Maternal Health League, Inc. Certificate of Appreciation to Elisabeth Ball, March 1972. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 2005.4.
Fig. 2: Berea College Hospital postcard, published around 1910. From the Ronald Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection, Kentucky Historical Society.
Mountain Maternal Health League (MMHL), the Kentucky-based women’s health organization thanking Elisabeth in this document, dates back to 1936. MMHL began as an independent operation of volunteers and nurses visiting women in their homes and providing basic family planning and childrearing advice, privately funded by Clarence J. Gamble (of Procter and Gamble wealth and fame). By 1944, they had become an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and opened their own clinic inside the hospital operated by Berea College, one of the nation’s first interracial and coeducational colleges in the south (founded in 1855).(1) It is likely following these changes that Berea came to the attention of Frances Woodworth Ball.
Fig. 3: “Berea College President to Speak Twice in City,” Muncie Evening Press, January 2, 1941, 16.
George and Frances Ball created their private foundation in 1937 to promote “charitable, scientific, and educational purposes.” Since the foundation’s inception, the Balls primarily focused on the needs of East Central Indiana in their philanthropic giving. However, the George and Frances Ball Foundation (GFBF) also made regular donations to schools and universities throughout the country. While it is not clear yet when exactly donations to Berea College began, in 1941 the college’s new president, Francis S. Hutchins, came to speak at Ball State. Perhaps an introduction occurred then. Either way, the connection was incredibly fruitful. When Elisabeth Ball died in 1982, she left a $50,000 bequest to Berea College and today, GFBF is recognized as a member of Berea College’s John G. Fee Society, “those who have given $1 million or more to Berea College during their lifetime.”
Ball family funds were distributed as needed throughout the Berea College community, ultimately benefiting progressive educational efforts in both the classroom and clinic. Where Francis Hutchins served as president of Berea College and oversaw a five-hold increase in the College’s endowment (cementing their ability to offer free tuition to all students), his wife, Dr. Louise Hutchins, served as president of MMHL for decades, spearheading the organization’s diversification and growth. From within their Berea College hospital clinic, she provided medical care to local women and children, along with information on family planning, family spacing, and available contraceptive options.
Fig. 4: Letter from Berea College president Willis D. Weatherford to Elisabeth Ball, dated May 3, 1974. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 2005.4.
Surviving correspondence indicates that Elisabeth donated funds specifically to support Berea’s nursing program, one of the oldest programs of its kind in the region, which trained nurses to serve Kentucky’s rural mountain communities. So, while GFBF funds to Kentucky did go to an institution of higher learning, they also supported cutting edge women’s health initiatives.
While perhaps an unexpected find in the archives, in some ways it is no surprise that the Ball family played a small part in this Women’s History Month appropriate story. After all, finding solutions to increase community access to healthcare services and educational opportunities has always been the driving heartbeat of the Ball family philanthropic legacy.
Fig. 5: Berea College Heritage Society membership certificate to Elisabeth Ball, presented April 1, 1975. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 2005.4.
(1) For much more on MMHL’s early history see Jenny M. Holly, “The Mountain Maternal Health League and the Changing Politics of Birth Control in Kentucky, 1936-1949,” (Master’s Thesis, Indiana University, 2017). For a more expansive history of the birth control movement in America, start with Linda Gordon’s The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002).
