Madeline was born in Bayonne New Jersey, on August 24, 1877. After graduating from Smith College she went on to study law at Harvard, although women were strictly barred. She attended four lectures dressed as a man, in a tailored suit and trousers, with a hat hiding her hair, before she was discovered by the professor. She argued her case strenuously before the faculty but was not allowed to continue. She completed her law degree at New York University in 1902. Although she handily passed the bar she did not like trying cases so she turned instead to social reform work. She worked in the juvenile court system until 1912 when she was appointed to the New York State Commission of Prison Reform beginning her long career in public service.
In 2913 Madeline decided that the best way to determine what reforms were needed in the prison system was to become a prisoner! With the cooperation of the warden and chief matron, she was incarcerated for four days as “Maggie Martin” in the women’s penitentiary at Auburn on a trumped up forgery charge. Upon her release she wrote a scathing expose for the New York Sunday Post that described the deplorable conditions and her poor treatment as a prisoner.
In 1918 Madeline became engaged to Roger Baldwin, the future founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. As a conscientious objector, he served a year in prison for refusing the draft. They were finally married in August of 1919. They lived in Greenwich Village until 1924 when Madeline was selected as the international secretary of the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom in Geneva Switzerland. She spent most of her life abroad from this point on with occasional visits to New York or Florida.
In her mid fifties she returned to school and earned her Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Geneva.
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