Year Honored: 1981

Birth: 1910 - 1994

Born in: Wilmington, Delaware

Biography

Pearl Herlihy Daniels (born Pearl Glenn) graduated from Wilmington High School in 1927, and married her first husband, Thomas Herlihy Jr., the following year. Thomas completed a law degree at Harvard before the couple returned to Wilmington. There, Thomas set up a law firm and became involved in local politics, becoming mayor in 1945. He resigned a year later, however, to accept a judicial appointment to the municipal courts.

Daniels became involved in local politics around the same time as her husband, presiding over the Wilmington City Federation of Women’s Clubs. She continued her involvement in local politics into the 1950’s, working to modernize Wilmington’s City Charter and chairing Delaware’s State Labor Commission (which would later become the State Labor Department). During her time at the State Labor Commission, Daniels focused on enforcing child labor and women’s labor laws, in addition to improving conditions for migrant workers.
Daniels’ other local appointments include the Policy Study Commission; Committee for the Reorganization of New Castle County; Civic League of New Castle County; Intergovernmental Task Force; Council on Administration of Justice; President of Community Action of Greater Wilmington; City Government Commission; and the Greater Wilmington Development Council.

In the latter half of the 1950’s, Daniels became involved in politics on the national stage. President Eisenhower appointed her Chairwoman for the National Commission on Children and Youth, and in the 1960’s both President Kennedy and President Johnson appointed her to the Committee on Youth Employment and the National Citizens Commission for Community Relations.

Daniels, though not a lawyer herself, became a partner in her husband’s law firm, Herlihy & Herlihy. She was also the first non-lawyer elected as a trustee of the Legal Aid Society. She continued working at the firm until 1980, three years after her husband’s death. In 1980, Daniels also married her second husband, Charles E. Daniels.

For the last 30 years of her life, Daniels was an avid collector of maps depicting Delaware and the surrounding region. She created a collection encompassing nearly 200 maps, atlases, and books related to the history and cartography of Delaware, as well as the works of early cartographers of the new world. Her collection currently makes up a substantial portion of the University of Delaware Library’s Historic Map Collection.
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Sources and Additional Readings

Cochrane, L. (2001, January). Pearl Herlihy Daniels map collection papers - library.udel.edu. Pearl Herlihy Daniels Map Collection Papers. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/data/pdf/mss0400.pdf.

Delaware Commission for Women. (2006). Twenty-Fifth Anniversary: Hall of Fame of Delaware Women: The Legacy Endures.

Jerome O. Herlihy political campaign ephemera collection. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead%2Fmss0896.xml%3Btab.

Pearl C Herlihy (1910-1994) - find a grave... Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133528254/pearl-c-herlihy.