Josephine Shaw Lowell (December 16, 1843 – October 12, 1905) was a Progressive Reform leader in the United States in the Nineteenth century.

Her parents, Francis George and Sarah Blake (Sturgis) Shaw, were Unitarian philanthropists and intellectuals who encouraged their five children to study, learn and become involved in their communities.

They lived for some years in France and Italy and then settled on Staten Island while Josephine (known as "Effie") was a child.

He wrote to her on 10 March 1870 in acknowledgment of them, saying that it would be hard "not to recognize the high and noble spirit that dwelt in those young men".

[3] A young widow, Lowell moved back to Staten Island with Carlotta, and lived with her parents.

Lowell viewed the very poor as "worthless men and women" who were "vicious and idle" individuals that needed to "learn to enjoy work".

Women of child-bearing age, fifteen to forty-five, were admitted into this institution, in order to "prevent them from multiplying their kind" (New York State Board of Charities Report, 1879).

She died of cancer in 1905, at her home in New York City, and is buried with her husband at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain in Bryant Park, which is behind the New York Public Library Main Branch building, was dedicated in 1912.