Marion A. McBride (née Snow) was born on January 5, 1850, in
Easthampton, Massachusetts, the only child of Joseph Preston Snow. She was educated in New York, but spent most of her life in the Boston area.
Journalism career She began her career at the
New-York Tribune before taking a job in 1880 as a special editorial writer for
The Boston Post. She was a reporter and correspondent for the
Boston Post from 1881 to 1885. After leaving the
Post she worked as a freelance writer, contributing regularly to
The Boston Globe, the
New York Herald, the
New Orleans Picayune, the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, the
Northampton Herald & Post, the
Chicago Inter Ocean, and the
St. Louis Chronicle. She headed a department of
American Art, and wrote articles about domestic science for
The Decorator and Furnisher,
The New England Magazine, and other periodicals. the
Ohio Woman's Press Association, the Southern Woman's Press Association, and the
New England Woman's Press Association (NEWPA). McBride initiated the founding of NEWPA in 1885.
Police matron bill Her
Boston Globe obituary suggests that she was best remembered in Boston for her work with "Mrs. Charpiot's home for intemperate women," and for her work on the police matron bill. Massachusetts was the first state to pass such a law.
Charitable and other activities In the early 1880s, McBride organized the first Woman's Department at the annual
New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute fair in Boston. She also headed the Woman's Department of the
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. She was a national superintendent of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and served for many years as secretary of the Woman's Charity Club. She died at her home on Hillside Avenue in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts, on September 18, 1909. Her obituary cites "Paralysis" as the cause of death. She was survived by a son, James McBride, who worked as a naval architect at the
Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. ==References==