Image credit: San Diego History Center
a legacy worth championing
Ellen Browning Scripps
Ellen Browning Scripps was a journalist, businesswoman, social activist and philanthropist who wrote for, helped build and invested in her family’s newspapers.
She graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1926 and they described her as the most beloved woman in Southern California.
Born on October 18, 1836, Ellen Browning Scripps was seven years old when her father, James Mogg Scripps, a London bookbinder, settled with his family in Rushville, Illinois.
One of the first women to attend college in the United States, Miss Ellen completed her studies in 1858 at Illinois’ Knox College. After graduation, she took a position as a school teacher in Rushville. Her salary: $9 a month. She left teaching in 1873 and joined her brother James in publishing the Detroit Evening News, an inexpensive, and politically independent newspaper pitched to the city's working class. She urged her younger half-brother, E.W., to launch a newspaper chain, and provided financial support. It became one of the largest U.S. media companies and anchored the Scripps family fortune.
She made her home in La Jolla in 1890 and lived here until her death in 1932.
She enlivened and helped grow the family newspapers through her daily column, "Miss Ellen's Miscellany," that simplified major news stories and made them accessible to average readers.
An early feminist and advocate for women’s rights including the right to vote, her column highlighted issues such as woman suffrage and prohibition. Her suffrage advocacy in the California Scripps newspapers contributed to women getting the vote in the state in 1911.
By 1932, her column was read worldwide and distributed to 1,000 newspapers. It had been the inspiration for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a news features service that E.W. Scripps established in 1902. In the 1870s and 1880s, the Scripps papers expanded to include The Cleveland Press, The Cincinnati Post, and the St. Louis Chronicle, eventually growing into a 24-newspaper chain. As a shareholder, she gave business advice to E.W. and sided with him in family financial disputes. He credited her with saving him from financial ruin in more than one instance.
In her obituary, The New York Times recognized her as “one of the pioneers in modern American journalism.”
Her earnings as a shareholder of the newspaper chain enabled her to donate what turned out to be seed money that helped turn La Jolla into a mecca for scientific discovery and medical talent.
She founded Scripps Memorial Hospital, which became one of the largest and most respected hospitals in California, Scripps Metabolic Clinic, a leader in endocrinology and diabetes care, and, with E.W., Scripps Oceanography Institution, a world-renowned science research center.
An ardent feminist who had little interest in parochial education, she founded and funded the Bishop’s School to prepare young women intellectually for college. She envisioned it as a progressive institution that would help them gain a sense of purpose and self-worth. In 1926, she founded Scripps Women’s College in Pomona.
Eleanor Browning Scripps was also an unyielding advocate of free speech. She and her newspaper, the San Diego Sun sided with the workers and minorities against John D. Spreckels, his newspaper, the Union Tribune, and the city council vigilantes during the attempts to restore free speech to downtown San Diego in 1912.
An environmentalist before her time, she donated land to the state with the provision that it — now Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve — remain undeveloped forever.
Her contributions to the San Diego Natural History Museum and the San Diego Zoo include the creation of the zoo’s aviary — the largest in the world. The museum became a major educational center.
“The most important and beautiful gift one human being can give to another is, in some way, to make life a little better to live.”
— Ellen Browning Scripps, 1924
Organizations and landmarks she initiated and/or funded:
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Balboa Park Tower
Birch Aquarium
Children’s Pool
Congregational Church of La Jolla
Ellen Browning Scripps Park
La Jolla High Athletic Field
Egypt Exploration Society
La Jolla Library
La Jolla Recreation Center & Playground
La Jolla Woman’s Club
Museum of Contemporary Art
Pomona College
San Diego Civic Symphony Orchestra
Scripps Cottage – San Diego State
Scripps Hospital
Scripps Metabolic Clinic (now Scripps Research)
Scripps Oceanography Institution
Scripps Pier
The Bishop’s School
Torrey Pines Lodge
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
St. James by the Sea Tower
San Diego Natural History Museum
San Diego YWCA and YMCA
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo Aviary
Scripps College
San Diego Natural History Museum
San Diego YWCA and YMCA
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo Aviary
Scripps College