Mabel Pollitzer

Pollitzer was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Gustave Moritz Pollitzer and Clara Guinzburg Pollitzer.{{Cite news |date=1969-05-13 |title=Leading S. C. Pediatrician Dies at 85 |pages=6 |work=The Greenville News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-greenville-news-leading-s-c-pediat/136940399/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her younger sister was photographer and suffragist Anita Pollitzer; their father was a cotton broker.{{Cite web |last=Hutchisson |first=James |date=2023-02-20 |title=At the turn of the last century, three local sisters embarked on lifelong journeys to better the lives of women |url=https://charlestonmag.com/features/at_the_turn_of_the_last_century_three_local_sisters_embarked_on_lifelong_journeys_to_better |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Charleston Magazine |language=en}} The Pollitzer family were members of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in Charleston.{{Cite book |last=Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, S.C.) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2DffP6wFCoC&dq=Mabel+Pollitzer&pg=PA8 |title=K.K. Beth Elohim: Charleston S.C. |date=1916 |publisher=K.K. Beth Elohim |language=en}} She trained for teaching at Memminger Normal School,{{Cite web |title=Mabel Pollitzer|url=https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/pollitzer_family_sc/mabel_pollitzer |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=The Pollitzer Family of South Carolina, Lowcountry Digital History Initiative}} and earned a bachelor's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1906.Teachers College, Columbia University, [https://archive.org/details/classbookteacher00coluiala/page/98/mode/2up?q=Mabel+Pollitzer Class Book] (1906 yearbook): 98; via Internet Archive.

Pollitzer taught science classes at Memminger High School for over forty years. She organized the Natural Science department, and designed the department's laboratories. She worked with students in the school's gardens. In 1920 she was elected president of the Charleston County Teachers' Association. She created an early sex education course, titled Child Development and Family Relations, for high school seniors.

Beyond the classroom, Pollitzer was involved in conservation and beautification efforts in South Carolina. She founded Charleston's annual Plant Exchange Day event in 1915, co-sponsored by the Charleston Civic Club. With her sisters Carrie and Anita, she was a charter member of the Charleston Equal Suffrage League, and later joined the National Woman's Party, for which she was South Carolina state chair.{{Cite web |last=Newman |first=Betsy |title=The Pollitzer Sisters: Fighters for Women's Rights |url=https://jhssc.org/the-pollitzer-sisters-fighters-for-womens-rights/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Turning Point Suffragist Memorial » Suffragists in South Carolina |url=https://suffragistmemorial.org/suffragists-in-south-carolina/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=1919-08-08 |title=Woman Suffrage Will Be Adopted |pages=1 |work=The Beaufort Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-beaufort-gazette-woman-suffrage-will/136940737/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |via=Newspapers.com}} She led efforts to open a free public library system in Charleston County in the 1930s; it served both Black and white residents, though in separate facilities, under the racial segregation laws of the Jim Crow South.

She was inducted into the halls of fame maintained by the Charleston Federation of Women's Clubs{{Cite web |title=Pollitzer sisters |url=https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/pollitzer-sisters/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |language=en-US}} and the National Council of Jewish Women.{{Cite web |last=Coy |first=Mary |date=2020-08-10 |title=Paved by Charleston Women: The Road to Equal Rights |url=https://charlestonwomen.com/featured/paved-by-charleston-women-the-road-to-equal-rights/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Charleston Women |language=en-US}} In 1973 and 1974, she gave interviews for the Oral Histories of the American South project.{{Cite web |title=Oral Histories of the American South |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/searchresults.html?IntervieweeSelect=2080-Mabel%20%20Pollitzer#gsc.tab=0 |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Documenting the American South}}

Pollitzer died in 1979, at the age of 94. In 2006, a historical marker was placed at the Pollitzer sisters' home in Charleston, telling their stories.{{Cite web |title=Pollitzer House Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=39448 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Historical Marker Database |language=en}} A documentary about the Pollitzer sisters, emphasizing their suffrage work, aired on PBS stations in 2021.{{Citation |title= SC Suffragists: The Pollitzer Sisters |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/sc-suffragists-the-pollitzer-sisters-u35zm8/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/anita-pollitzer-family-papers/ Anita Pollitzer Family Papers], South Carolina Historical Society, Lowcountry Digital Library
• [https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:32854 An undated photograph of Mabel Pollitzer] in later life, from the Lowcountry Digital Library

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Category:1885 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:Suffragists from South Carolina

Category:American women educators

Category:People from Charleston, South Carolina

Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni