{{Short description|American educator and social worker}} {{Infobox person | name = Ina Law Robertson | image = InaLawRobertson1914.jpg | alt = White woman wearing glasses and a high-necked blouse; her dark hair is parted at center and braided across the crown. | caption = Ina Law Robertson, from a 1914 publication. | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1867|6|27}} | birth_place = Buena Vista, Oregon | death_date = {{death date and age|1916|3|6|1867|6|27}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois | other_names = | occupation = educator | years_active = | known_for = Eleanor Clubs housing for women in Chicago | notable_works = }}

'''Ina Law Robertson''' (July 27, 1867 – March 6, 1916) was an American educator and social worker. In 1898 she opened dormitory-style housing for women, known as the Hotel Eleanor, which grew into a large and lasting community program in Chicago.

== Early life == Ina Law Robertson was born in Buena Vista, Oregon, the daughter of Robert M. Robertson and Nancy McMeeken Robertson. Her father was a grain merchant. She trained as a teacher at Albany College in Oregon, and pursued graduate study at the University of Chicago Divinity School.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dPEpAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=RA11-PA348|title=The National Cyclopedia of American Biography|date=1921|publisher=J. T. White|pages=348}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33522085/ina_law_robertson_1907/|title=Spokane Girl Comes to Rescue of Underpaid and Sorely Tempted Working Girls|date=November 10, 1907|work=The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=49|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

== Career == Robertson was a school teacher and principal in Oregon. In 1895 she moved to Chicago for graduate study, and she opened the Hotel Eleanor in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1898, named for her close friend Eleanor C. Law. Her goal was for the building to be a home and a community center for young single working white women,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1382.html|title=Work Culture|last=Weiner|first=Lynn Y.|website=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago|access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref> often new in the city, without local connections, and not earning enough for respectable accommodations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33521427/ina_law_robertson_1901/|title=Hotel for Women Only|date=September 6, 1901|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33521856/ina_law_robertson_1899/|title=Home for Shop Girls|date=February 26, 1899|work=The Inter Ocean|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=25|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>Annie Marion Maclean, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QigrAAAAYAAJ&q=Robertson&pg=PA60 "Homes for Young Women: the Eleanor Clubs of Chicago"] ''The Survey'' (April 11, 1914): 60.</ref> In time, the Central Eleanor Club grew to include other spaces; it housed hundreds of women, and served thousands in other ways, during Robertson's lifetime.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-01-14-9601140147-story.html|title=A Haven for Dreams|last=Little|first=Heather M.|date=January 14, 1996|website=Chicago Tribune|access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-11-20-9204160406-story.html|title=A Woman's World|last=Strykowski|first=Sheri|date=November 20, 1992|website=Chicago Tribune|access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ripley|first=Sarah Cory|date=March 6, 1913|title=Where the Sunshine Never Fails|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BoBPAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=PA323|journal=The Interior|volume=44|pages=325}}</ref> The Eleanor Association and the Eleanor Camp (a summer retreat in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoD8CwAAQBAJ&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=PT101|title=Camps of Geneva Lake|last1=Smeltzer|first1=Carolyn Hope|last2=Westberg|first2=Jill|date=2016-03-28|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439655023}}</ref> were formed, to extend and fund the work of the non-profit Club.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/ladies-rooms/Content?oid=902698|title=Ladies' Rooms|last=Bergmann|first=Joy|website=Chicago Reader|date=6 July 2000 |access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lawrence|first=Jeanne Catherine|date=2000|title=Chicago's Eleanor Clubs: Housing Working Women in the Early Twentieth Century|journal=Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture|volume=8|pages=219–247|doi=10.2307/3514415|issn=0887-9885|jstor=3514415}}</ref>

Robertson was president of the Eleanor Association<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SStEAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Eleanor+C.+Law%22+Chicago&pg=PA122|title=The Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names of Chicago and Suburban Towns|date=1914|publisher=Chicago directory Company|pages=122–123}}</ref> and an active member of the Chicago Woman's Club.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnoqAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=PA143|title=Chicago Woman's Club|date=1911|pages=143}}</ref> Ina Law Robertson and Eleanor C. Law were joint trustees in an estate;<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33521306/ina_law_robertson_1899/|title=Heirs Form a Trust|date=December 1899|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> they donated a large sum to Gordon Mission College, a Presbyterian mission school in Rawalpindi.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsAQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Eleanor+C.+Law%22+Chicago&pg=PA283|title=Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America|date=1900|publisher=Board of Publication|pages=283}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snp1LwlbiPsC&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=PA120|title=Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border|last=Alter|first=Stephen|date=2001|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=9780812217438}}</ref>

== Personal life and legacy == Ina Law Robertson died in Chicago in 1916, aged 48 years, from complications following surgery.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33521550/ina_law_robertson_1916/|title=Ina Law Robertson is Dead in Chicago|date=March 8, 1916|work=Spokane Chronicle|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=11|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33521232/ina_law_robertson_1916/|title=Hundreds Pay Tribute to Ina Law Robertson|date=March 9, 1916|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 4, 2019|page=15|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> "No woman has ever adorned our city with more grace of life and efficiency and leadership," eulogized one religious publication, in reporting the news of her death.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=March 1916|title=Ina Law Robertson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QkFjUnxQYoMC&q=%22Ina+Law+Robertson%22&pg=RA1-PA80|journal=The Fourth Church|volume=4|pages=80}}</ref> As of 2016, the Eleanor Association continues, as part of the Chicago Foundation for Women, to offer limited-term affordable living and community supports for women in Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.wttw.com/2016/12/09/room-grow-chicago-s-eleanor-clubs|title=Room to Grow: Chicago's Eleanor Clubs|last=Gunderson|first=Erica|date=December 9, 2016|website=WTTW News|access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cct.org/what-we-offer/grants/eleanor-foundation/|title=Eleanor Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust|website=The Chicago Community Trust|access-date=2019-07-04}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Find a Grave|id=168829266|name=}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Ina Law}} Category:1867 births Category:1916 deaths Category:American women educators Category:Lewis & Clark College alumni Category:Educators from Oregon Category:People from Polk County, Oregon Category:University of Chicago Divinity School alumni Category:American school principals Category:People from Chicago Category:19th-century American philanthropists Category:19th-century American women philanthropists