Eva Ingersoll Brown

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Eva Ingersoll Brown (September 22, 1863 – August 28, 1928) was an American social worker, activist, and humanist. She was the daughter of the famous freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll and Eva Parker Ingersoll, and she grew up with private tutoring.

On November 13, 1889, she married Walston Hill Brown in New York City. The couple often lived with the Ingersoll family, and their living arrangement continued in this way until Eva’s mother passed away in 1923. Walston Brown bought a country estate at Dobbs Ferry, New York, described by visitors as a beautiful place with large trees and scenic views.

Eva Brown became a leading humanitarian and social reformer in New York. She served as President of the Child Welfare League and was on the advisory board of the New York Peace Society. She worked with many reform groups, including the Consumers’ League, the Women’s Trade Union League, the National Child Labor Committee, the New York Child Labor Committee, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the NAACP, among others. Her younger sister Maud Ingersoll Probasco and their mother were also active in social reform, and all four shared the agnostic outlook of Colonel Ingersoll.

Her daughter, Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield, described the family as women of vast public spirit who championed many causes of the day: birth control, child welfare, world peace, women’s suffrage and equality, clean politics, housing reform, prison reform, social justice, intellectual liberty, and animal rights.

Eva and Maud founded the American Society for Humane Medical Research, building on their anti-vivisection work. The 1914 book Children in Bondage was dedicated to Eva Ingersoll Brown by contributors including Edwin Markham, Benjamin B. Lindsey, and George Creel, honoring her work for children's welfare.

Eva Ingersoll Brown died on August 28, 1928, at the age of 64. She left behind a legacy of dedicated public service and a family deeply involved in humanitarian causes.