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Alice Vanderbilt Morris
Summary
Alice Vanderbilt Shepard Morris (December 7, 1874 – August 15, 1950) was a member of the Vanderbilt family. She co-founded the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA).
Alice was born on December 7, 1874, in New York. She was one of five daughters born to the former Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt (1845–1924) and, her husband, Elliot Fitch Shepard (1833–1893). Her mother was the eldest daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa (née Kissam) Vanderbilt. Her father was a lawyer, banker, and owner of the Mail and Express newspaper, as well as a founder and president of the New York State Bar Association.
Alice was known to her family as "Angela" because of the sweetness of her disposition and the beauty of her face, well-demonstrated by her attached portrait. She was no true angel, however, and climbed a tree against her father's specific interdiction and fell out fracturing her thoracic spine. Her father, a hard man, refused to call the doctor to punish her disobedience. She grew up deformed in Woodlea, a mansion on the Hudson now occupied as the clubhouse of the Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Among her siblings was sister Edith Shepard and brother Elliot Fitch Shepard Jr.
She attended the Radcliffe College of Harvard University. She was an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa society. She also received an honorary doctorate in Literary Science from Syracuse University "as special recognition of the field of study that you have made your own, the field of the international auxiliary language." She was Vice President of the World Service Council of the YWCA United States.
From her youth, Morris was troubled by ill health and was forced to spend much of her time on a sofa. Despite her illness, she initiated what was probably the most extensive linguistic research undertaken to date. During her stay at a clinic, Morris found a brochure on the artificial language Esperanto. She became interested in the idea of a neutral auxiliary language that could facilitate communication among diverse groups of people.
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