Mary Allen West (July 13, 1837 – December 1, 1892) was an American journalist, editor, educator, philanthropist, superintendent of schools, and temperance worker.

Successful in teaching and influential in educational circles, West earned a reputation as a "lady of grit, grace, and gumption."

[5] When the American Civil War broke out, she worked earnestly in organizing women into aid societies to assist the Sanitary Commission.

[10] While she was State president of the WCTU, she was often called upon to "help out" in the editorial labors of Mary Bannister Willard, the editor of the Union Signal, published in Chicago.

[12] Before Willard went to Germany to reside, West removed to Chicago, and accepted the position of editor-in-chief, with Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew as her assistant.

As editor of that paper, the organ of the national and the world's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, her responsibilities were immense, but they were carried well.

This the Union Signal had, and the women of the WCTU repeatedly, in the most emphatic manner, endorsed West's policy and conduct of the paper.

Its avowed purpose was to provide a means of communication between woman writers, and to secure the benefits resulting from organized effort West was made president, and is now filling the position for the fifth consecutive annual term.

West, in 1892, visited California, the Sandwich Islands, and Japan in the interests of temperance work, [13] arriving in Yokohama in September.