Catherine Eddy Beveridge

Who was Catherine Eddy Beveridge?

Catherine Eddy Beveridge was a socialite and philanthropist. Beveridge came from a prominent Chicago family. Her father, Augustus Eddy, made his fortune as a businessman and his reputation as a member of a ministerial family, while his wife, Abby Spencer Eddy was a member of a family who ran a successful hardware business. Like many wealthy young women at the time, Catherine received an education in the humanities and traveled extensively. Much to the chagrin of her role models and mentors, her mother Abby Eddy and her aunt Delia Caton Field, Catherine married Albert J. Beveridge, an Indiana Senator, in 1907. The couple raised two children, Albert Jr. and Abby, in Indianapolis and Beverly Farms, Massachusetts; but also spent substantial time in Washington, D.C. The couple had a passionate marriage, and according to their grandson, about the only thing that they ever fought about was his smoking, which she did not like.

Beveridge became a prolific philanthropist of the arts, donating to institutions throughout the country, including the National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Indianapolis. She died on May 28, 1970, but is memorialized in the book The Chronicle of Catherine Eddy Beveridge by her grandson, Albert J. Beveridge III and Chicago writer Susan Randomsky.