Introduction

Biography

After gra­du­at­ing from Le­land Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Tho­burn be­came a sec­re­ta­ry of the Young Wo­men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion (YWCA) to do edi­to­ri­al work in Chi­na, where she spent eight years.

After re­turn­ing to Am­eri­ca, she un­der­took spe­cial re­spon­si­bi­li­ty for the YWCA’s in­ter­na­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram.