Helen Barrett Montgomery

Who was Helen Barrett Montgomery?

Helen Barrett Montgomery was an American social reformer, educator and writer. In 1921 she was elected as the first woman president of the Northern Baptist Convention. She had long been a delegate to the Convention and a policymaker. In 1893 she helped found a chapter of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Rochester, and served as president until 1911, nearly two decades. In 1899 Montgomery was the first woman elected to the Rochester School Board and any public office in the city, 20 years before women could vote.

Montgomery was an activist for women's and overseas missions and a successful fundraiser; in 1910-1911 she raised one million dollars by her national speaking tour, used chiefly to support colleges for women in China. In 1921 as president of the Women's American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, she gave their "Jubilee" contributions of more than $450,000 to the National Baptist Convention. In 1924 she was the first woman to publish a translation of the New Testament from the original Greek. Living mostly in Rochester, New York, she was influential in national and international progressive movements.