page_title: Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg
section_title: University of Illinois
hierarchical_section_title: Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg / Civic activities / University of Illinois
caption_attribution_description: English: Sketches by Marguerite Martyn of Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg campaigning for reelection as a member of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees in 1912. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
context_page_description: Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg was a member of the University of Illinois board of trustees and a Republican civic and political activist.
context_section_description: Known as Mrs. Carrie A.-Bahrenberg or Carrie Alexander-Bahrenburg, she was a member of the board of trustees of the University of Illinois from either 1898 or 1900 to 1912.
  Alexander-Bahrenburg said that she "gladly" gave time to serving on the board, "where the average man with others depending on him possibly could not be so free. It is my belief that this board should always include a woman. The law is lax upon the subject, stating only that a woman 'may' serve. Therefore the woman member should be the one who is willing to fight and hold her ground."
  She said she did not work for the other candidates on the Republican ticket because "there is no use in being interested in the offices I am not permitted to vote for."
  In 1912, Illinois women were allowed to cast ballots only for University of Illinois trustees, not for any other candidates in any state or national election.
  Alexander-Bahrenberg was noted for her years of "outspoken disagreement" with university President Edward J. James, with "her colleagues on the board, and [with] other partisans of the University."
  Nevertheless, she said she held no animosity for James, and she even entertained him and his wife "lavishly" in her home. "But when it comes to business, I know neither friend nor foe," she said.
  She was instrumental in defeating a legislative appropriation for a veterinary sciences department at the university. "Since that time," according to one newspaper account, "the university administration and President Abbott of the trustees" worked against her reelection.
  In 1912, she faced opposition in the Republican state convention in Springfield from Mrs. Emmons Blaine, daughter of Medill McCormick, proprietor of the Chicago Tribune.
  She was, however, nominated for reelection "despite the combined opposition of the Chicago Women's Club, the Alumni Association and Illini of the University, numbering 5[,]000 students, which endorsed so powerful a candidate as Mrs. Emmons Blaine."
  During her campaign, she said:
  I know the faculty does not want me on the board. My endorsement consists chiefly of the votes of the people which have given me the biggest majorities ever attained by a political candidate in Illinois. I think I am the woman for the position because of unique financial training. I was owner and director of the street railway system of Belleville after the death of my first husband, Dr. Alexander. I took in money by the nickels and spent it by the thousands.
  Alexander-Bahrenberg lost the election.
caption: Sketches by St. Louis journalist Marguerite Martyn of Alexander-Bahrenberg campaigning in 1912
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