Mary Morton Kimball Kehew was born on September 8, 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of a Boston merchant and banker, Moses Day Kimball, and his wife, Susan Tillinghast Morton, whose father was Governor Marcus Morton of Massachusetts.
Mary Morton was educated in private schools and abroad.
Mary Morton Kimball early devoted herself to the practical study of social science. She participated in Women's Educational and Industrial Union during the quarter-century 1892-1918 and served as its third president. As early as 1886 she was active in the affairs of the Union, and in 1892, while yet trades-unionism for men was an economic heresy, she saw the need of organizing women in industry. Securing the services of a young Chicago bookbinder, Mary Kenney, afterward Mrs. O'Sullivan, as missionary to the factories, she drew working girls into friendly gatherings where the doctrine of unionism could be preached. When the need for protection for women workers became pressing, and there were no facts on which to base reform measures, she organized at the Union the research department for the training of women capable of securing adequate industrial data which could be used for securing legislative action.
Mrs. Kehew was a pioneer in laboratory methods of teaching as exemplified in every department of the Educational and Industrial Union. She fostered its appointment bureau, which was the prototype of seven other bureaus of occupation for trained women, and she promoted the trade school for girls and the school of salesmanship. In 1903 she was elected first president of the National Women's Trades Union League. In Massachusetts Mrs. Kehew was active in establishing the state branch of the Association for Labor Legislation, was one of the founders of Denison House, and of the Public School Association, a member of the State Commission for Industrial Education, and a member of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Child Labor Commission. She did much toward founding organizations for infant welfare, including day nurseries.
In the field of higher education she lent her support to the establishment and growth of Simmons College. Her service to the blind was also important. Out of a committee which she formed at the Union there developed, in 1903, the Massachusetts Association for Promoting the Interest of the Adult Blind. Three years later the state took over the work of the organization. She then turned to the promotion of a Loan and Aid Association for the Blind, the founding of Woolson House, a settlement for blind women, and the establishment of a magazine devoted to the interests of the sightless, The Outlook for the Blind. Her plans for the Union, broadly grounded, remained sound and workable after her death.
Mary Morton Kehew was best known as the leader in constructive social movements and the moving spirit of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU). Under her administration, WEIU was transformed from a charity group to one focused on educating and organizing female workers. One of her most important achievement within the union was the foundation of the research department. This department furnished the basis for the creation of the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industry and served as a model for courses and methods in universities and women's colleges.
Mrs. Kehew was a woman of creative originality and was also a born administrator.
On January 8, 1880, Mary Morton married William B. Kehew, a Boston manufacturer who, though not himself active in public life, supported her in her interest in the progressive movements to which she largely devoted her private fortune.
