Lowell, Josephine

Lowell, Josephine (b. Shaw) (1843–1905) charitable worker; born in West Roxbury, Mass. (sister of Robert Gould Shaw). Influenced by her family's progressive leanings, she raised funds for freedmen's welfare after the Civil War, in which she was widowed, and reported on social conditions for the New York Charities Aid Association; her treatise, Public Relief and Charity (1884), reflected a belief that low wages were a root cause of social problems. She cofounded the Charity Organization Society (1902) and the Consumers League of New York (1890).