A Woman’s Place Is in Chambers
Mary Bartelme
Mary Bartelme (1866-1954) was the first woman in Illinois elected as a judge to a high jurisdiction court, the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Born and raised in Chicago, Bartelme began her career teaching at Chicago Public Schools for five years. Encouraged by her friend Myra Bradwell, a prominent female lawyer who also began her career as a teacher, Bartelme entered Northwestern University School of Law in 1892. The only female law student in her class, Bartelme graduated and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1894.
Working in probate law for three years after graduating, Bartelme’s career accelerated when she became Public Guardian of Cook County. In 1913, she was appointed as the assistant to the Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court. She later campaigned to become a judge herself, and in 1923, Bartelme was elected Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, making her the first female judge in the state of Illinois. She was assigned to the Juvenile Court, a role that would define her legacy.
Throughout her career, Bartelme gained a reputation for her charitable work for juvenile girls in the court system. In the 1890s, while early in her career, she adopted a pair of abandoned sisters. Her experience raising these two girls may have influenced her professional and, later, philanthropic work with juveniles.
In the early 20th century, few options existed for delinquent youths, and many were institutionalized. Bartelme believed in providing more resources for such youths, including more humane housing and clothing. Beginning in 1914, she established three group foster homes for such young, delinquent girls in Evanston and Rogers Park, in which she organized volunteers and raised funds to support these girls. These homes were soon known as Mary Bartelme Clubs. These Mary Clubs housed over 2,000 children during their operation, and Bartelme believed they played a role in rehabilitating many of their young tenants.
Bartelme’s belief in offering care and resources to delinquent, abandoned, and other troubled youths extended to her practice as Judge of the Juvenile Court in Cook County. Emphasizing positive development over pure punishment, she involved social workers in many of her juvenile cases. Beyond offering handkerchiefs to the young defendants in her courtroom, Bartelme became widely known for offering suitcases full of clothes and kits of useful daily items to those who passed from the courts to foster homes. This signature gesture earned her the nickname “Suitcase Mary,” a name that followed Bartelme the rest of her career and life. Beyond the courts, Bartelme also worked with the Juvenile Protective Association and organized the Service Council for Girls in 1925 to offer further resources for underprivileged and delinquent girls.
In the immediate aftermath of Judge Bartelme’s retirement in 1933, the economic downturn in the Great Depression undid much of her progress on the Juvenile Court. However, Bartelme set a precedent for humane judicial practice in this court that remains a model for best practice to this day.
Recommended Resources
Dodge, Mara. “A Mood of Defeat and Dejection Prevails: One Hundred Years of Reform at the Cook County Juvenile Court.” Children’s Legal Rights Journal 19, no. 4 (Winter 1999-2000): 34-48.
“Eight Women Legal Pioneers.” CBA Record 12, no. 1 (January 1998): 26-27.
“Judge Bartelme Retires.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1931-1951) 24, no. 4 (Nov.-Dec. 1933), 806.
Mary Bartelme Papers, 1904-1958 [finding aid]. Chicago, IL: Richard J. Daley Library Special Collections and University Archives (University of Illinois at Chicago). Retrieved: https://explore.chicagocollections.org/ead/uic/25/dw4c/.
Perry, Marilyn Elizabeth. “Bartelme, Mary Margaret.” American National Biography (online resource), published online February 2000, DOI: https://doi-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1100034.
