Quiet and self-effacing, she preferred to work behind the scenes, lobbying legislators and soliciting donations from her wealthy friends.

This research was used to support legislative proposals pertaining to moneylending, pensions, sanitation, and the minimum wage, and eventually led to the creation of the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industry.

[1] She served on several legislative committees, investigating working conditions in Massachusetts, and provided financial and other support for various social reform organizations, including the Milk and Baby Hygiene Association, the Tyler Street Day Nursery, and Denison House.

[1] She was active in the women's suffrage movement, worked on behalf of the blind, and served on the executive committee of the Massachusetts Child Labor Commission.

[3] She died of nephritis[1] on February 13, 1918, at her home at 29 Chestnut Street in Boston and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Speakers included her friend and fellow reformer, Emily Greene Balch, who remembered her as "the never failing fairy godmother" of Boston social and labor reform,[1] and the director of the Ohio State School for the Blind, who credited her with organizing "the first work to be conducted with the adult blind 15 years ago in her own office."