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Effie Raitt

director of the University of Washington School of Home Economics

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ98430028 ↗
Source-derived summary

Effie Isobel Raitt (June 13, 1878 – December 4, 1945) was an American dietitian and college professor. She was head of the University of Washington's School of Home Economics for more than thirty years, from 1912 to 1945. Raitt Hall on the university's central Quad is named in her honor. She was a national leader of both the American Home Economics Association and the American Dietetic Association.

Early life and education

Effie Raitt was born in Patterson, Iowa, the daughter of George Patterson Raitt and Janet (or Jeanette) McFadden Raitt. All of her grandparents were born in Scotland; her father was a Presbyterian minister. She trained as a dietitian at Columbia University and Northwestern University.

Career

Raitt was a professor and dean of home economics at the University of Washington from 1912 to 1945. She also taught summer courses at the University of California. She was president of the American Home Economics Association from 1934 to 1936, and vice-president of the American Dietetic Association in 1924.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Effie Raitt” as director of the University of Washington School of Home Economics. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Effie, Raitt and director.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1878, 1945, 1912, 1934—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1878. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Effie, Raitt and director providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Effie Raitt”, the useful work is to connect “director of the University of Washington School of Home Economics” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q98430028. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1945, 1912 and 1934.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Effie Raitt”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Effie Raitt primary sources, Effie Raitt archive and Effie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Effie Raitt”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Effie Raitt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.