Ridge Historical Society
National Teacher Appreciation Week – Catherine A. Burke
By Carol Flynn; research collaboration by Tim Blackburn
May 7 to 13 is National Teacher Appreciation Week. An official event since 1984, the week reminds us that educators deserve our support, respect, and gratitude for all they contribute to society.
Many educators have called the Ridge home, and the city and the local community have recognized some of the trailblazers who lived here. Alice Barnard, Bessie Sutherland, and Kate Starr Kellogg have schools named for them. John H. Vanderpoel has a street and a school named for him, plus a memorial association, founded in his name, to collect art.
Many other remembrances have been lost to time. Recently, one was rediscovered and brought to RHS’s attention. This is the stained-glass window at the John H. Vanderpoel Humanities Academy at 9510 S. Prospect Avenue that is dedicated to Catherine A. Burke.
The window was rediscovered by Katharine Konopasek, a Beverly resident who is a retired Chicago Public School (CPS) principal who continues to help by substitute teaching. Katharine was subbing at Vanderpoel when she saw “rainbow colors” coming from behind a shade covering a window on the third floor of the school. Pulling aside the shade, she found the window, which is inscribed “Catherine A. Burke,” and “Dedicated by pupils, friends and associates – June 1935.”
Curious about the history of the window, Katherine tried to find information through CPS and the school. When no information was available in those files, she contacted the Vanderpoel Art Association, which started its collection in that school. The Vanderpoel volunteers didn’t know about the window, but they arranged to have it photographed.
Katherine then reached out to RHS, and we started researching it. This is the story we’ve uncovered so far.
Catherine A. Burke was the first principal of the Vanderpoel School, serving from 1912 to 1929.
Catherine was born in Joliet, Illinois, on June 7, 1862. Her parents were Patrick and Elizabeth Burke, both from Ireland. When Patrick died in 1905, the Joliet Evening Herald newspaper described him as “one of the best known of the Joliet pioneers.” He worked for a railroad and then for a company in the Joliet limestone industry. He was best known for being a leader in the temperance movement. He was also described as a “lover of good literature” who enjoyed discussing books and authors.
There were at least six Burke children, and Catherine and her older sister Mary became teachers. They graduated from the Joliet high school. Many high schools in those days prepared girls for careers as grade school teachers. Later, Catherine and Mary both studied at the University of Chicago.
Both women earned good reputations as instructors at the Eastern Avenue school in Joliet. By 1900, the parents and these two daughters had moved to Chicago so that Mary and Catherine could take “a high place as teachers in the public schools.” They rented a house at 3800 S. Indiana Avenue. After the father died, the mother and daughters moved to 453 Oakwood Boulevard, where they rented an apartment in a two-flat.
Catherine was employed as a teacher in the CPS schools. A 1906 Chicago Tribune article reported that the school board approved a salary promotion for Catherine because she held a principal’s certificate. This meant she had taken coursework and passed an exam, which qualified her for promotion within the school system. Her promotion had been recommended by Ella Flagg Young, who had been a District Superintendent of CPS and would become the first woman superintendent of CPS, and the first woman superintendent of any large school system in the country, in 1909.
Young advocated for employment rights for female teachers, addressing issues like employing married women as teachers, advancement opportunities for women in the Chicago schools, and pay equity between female and male teachers. Other Progressive women were also involved in the school system by then – famous social worker and reformer Jane Addams of Hull House was a member of the school board.
In 1912, Young appointed Catherine as the first principal of a new school opening in Beverly at 95th Street and Prospect Avenue. At the time, Catherine was reported as a teacher at the Willard School. She had held previous positions at the Park Manor School and the Brenan School.
The original name of the new school in Beverly was the John Farson School, named for a well-known Chicago banker, lay religious leader, and philanthropist, whose sister Elizabeth Farson was a CPS principal. Farson had no connection to Beverly; his name had been chosen by the president of the school board.
The Beverly community wanted the school named for John H. Vanderpoel, the artist who had been head instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Vanderpoel, who had lived in North Beverly, had died in 1911. The school board president said it was too late to change the name of the school because Farson’s name already had been, literally, carved in stone on the front of the school.
However, in 1913, with the support of Farson’s widow, the name of the school was changed to Vanderpoel’s name.
In 1914, the Vanderpoel Memorial Association (today’s Vanderpoel Art Association) was founded by the artist’s friends and fans. They started an art collection which was installed in the school. The first piece obtained for the collection was “The Buttermakers” by Vanderpoel. Artists and collectors donated hundreds of pieces of artwork for the collection.
Displaying artwork in schools was the usual practice back then. The collections were often managed by the local women’s clubs. When the current Morgan Park High School was established in 1914 – 1916, prominent clubwoman Gertrude Blackwelder oversaw the acquisition of artwork for the school, with the assistance of the Morgan Park Woman’s Club. The situation at Vanderpoel was unique, with the emphasis on the collection as a memorial to the late artist/educator.
Catherine Burke served as a vice president of the Vanderpoel Memorial Association. The art collection was a very important part of the school.
Next post: Catherine Burke’s years as a school principal in Beverly, and the stained-glass window.