ABSTRACT
"America's First Official Mother"—that's how the Chicago Daily American referred to her in the banner headline that introduced its profile of Julia Lathrop. The article appeared in May 1912, three weeks after the Senate confirmed her as the chief of the Children's Bureau, the first woman ever to go through the confirmation process reserved for high-level government appointments. Lathrop's appointment as chief came rather suddenly, but the creation of the Children's Bureau did not. Lillian Wald and Lathrop's old friend Florence Kelley began the effort in 1903. Over the spring and summer she met with her own boss, the head of the Department of Commerce and Labor and the chief statistician of the Census Bureau in Washington. When Lathrop retired from the bureau, bequeathing the job of chief to her friend and protégée Grace Abbott, she also turned over the apartment to her.
