The Part Taken by Women in American History/Women Educators
Women Educators.
EMMA WILLARD.
Emma Willard, born in Berlin, Conn., in February, 1787, was one of the women whose names received votes for a place in the Hall of Fame. Her biographer, Dr. John Lord, in summarizing her claim for immortality in the hearts of her fellow-citizens, declares that her glory is in giving prominence to the cause of woman's education. In this cause she rendered priceless service. When we remember the institution she founded and conducted; the six thousand young women whom she educated, many of them gratuitously; when it is borne in mind the numerous books she wrote to be used in schools and the great favor with which these books have generally been received; when we think of the zealous energy in various ways which she put forth for more than half a century to elevate the standard of education of her sex, it would be difficult to find a woman who, in her age or country, was more useful or will longer be remembered as both good and great. Not for original genius, not for immortal work of art, not for a character free from blemishes and blots, does she claim an exalted place among women, but as a benefactor of her country and of her sex. In this influence she shed luster around the home, and gave dignity to the human soul.
Emma Willard was deeply religious, and never lost sight of the highest and noblest influence in her educational work. Beautiful hymns which she composed were sung by her pupils in the "Troy Female Seminary," of which, for many years, she was the head.
An interesting occasion in her life occurred in connection with a visit of General La Fayette to this country in 1825. His services in the cause of American Independence, in upholding the constitutional liberty in France and his mingled gallantry and sentiment early gave him prominence and fame, and made him an idol of the American people.
All this feeling Mrs. Willard had nobly imbued in the verses with which she celebrated this distinguished visitor's coming to her school in Troy. The young women of her school sang this poem before General La Fayette, who was affected to tears by this reception, and at the close of the singing said: "I cannot express what I feel on this occasion, but will you, madame, present me with three copies of those lines to be given by me as from you to my three daughters?"
Emma Willard was a woman of loftiest patriotism, and her "National Llymn" deserves at least equal appreciation with Doctor Smith's "Columbia." Her prose displays uncommonly strong mental powers and endowments. She published a large book or treatise on the motive powers which produce a circulation of the blood, which gained her great praise both at home and abroad. In 1849 she published "Last Leaves From American Llistory," giving a graphic account of the Mexican War, and later appeared her "History of California" and a small volume of poetry.
In Emma Willard's case the promise of the Psalmist, "That the righteous shall bear fruit in old age," was splendidly realized. To the close of her long and useful life she maintained her youthful vivacity, her enthusiasm of spirit and her power of work. Every Sunday evening she gathered around her hospitable board her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as her friends, and heard them repeat passages of Scripture. This was a habit of many years. Beautiful were those family reunions, but the most beautiful thing among them was the figure of the benignant old lady. Entering into every subject of interest with the sympathy of youth, she received from all the profoundest reverence and respect.
She died April 15, 1870, at the age of eighty-three. A distinguished educator said of her at the time of her death, "In the fullness of age she approached the termination of life with the calmness, Christian philosophy and faith of a true believer." The place of her death was the old seminary built at Troy where, half a century before, she had founded an institution which was an honor to the country, and where she taught the true philosophy of living and dying—works done in faith made practical in works.
MARY LYON.
While still very young, Mary Lyon, who was afterwards to become the foremost woman in America in the mental and spiritual training of young girls, wrote a letter to her sister revealing not only the strength of her thought and the intensity of her patriotism, but the deep bed rock of Christian faith which undergirded all her thinking. "This day," she wrote, "completes half a century since the Declaration of Independence. How interesting must be the reflections of those few who remember that eventful day. Who on the face of the earth fifty years ago could have expected such results? It is true that Washington and almost all Americans who lived in the days of Washington hoped for independence, but did they look forward to this time and expect such a nation as this? Must not all believe that self-promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the Judge who putteth down one and setteth up another. Must net all exclaim, 'This is the finger of God!'" This same spir ituality of her mind was made manifest later in her influence over all those whom she taught. As time went on and Mary Lyon became more and more intrenched in her life work of teaching, her spiritual life deepened and her activities were intensified in two or three very important ways. She was deeply imbued with the importance of instruction in Bible truths, and in the conversion of her pupils, and more and more impressed with the importance of loyalty and self-sacrifice for the promotion of foreign missions. I think she was the pioneer in what is now quite common in Christian colleges—a definite laboring for the conversion of students as an important part of the college work. It was her custom to write to Christian friends in all parts of the country and enlist their prayers for the spiritual condition of her school. She had wonderful faith in prayer, and the results justified her faith. Mary Lyon's power in developing Christian character in her pupils lay in the fact that she not only lived a Christian life herself, but regularly taught it to her pupils. Her manner was simple ; there was not the slightest pretense of speaking for effect or trying to speak eloquently, but her intense faith and earnestness made her a powerful speaker. Doctor Hitchcock, at one time president of Amherst College, says that the vividness with which she evidently saw and thought the truths she was telling was only second to her power. If she ever had a fleeting doubt of the certainty of future retribution that doubt was never known or suspected by her most intimate friends. The foundations of faith never wavered. The principles of the Christian religion seemed interwoven in the fibres of her soul. The world to come was as present to her thoughts as this world to her eyes. Her confidence in God was as simple and true as a child's in its mother.
Mary Lyon had broad and noble ideas concerning the necessity for the education of woman and the possible bless ings that would come from it to the world. One one occasion, when she was under the strain of great effort to obtain needed help for Mt. Holyoke Female School (the institution of which she was the founder is now known as Mt. Holyoke College) she wrote a letter to a leading minister, in the course of which she said: "Woman elevated by the Christian religion was designed by Providence as the educator of our race. From her entrance into womanhood to the end of her life this is to be her great business. By her influence not only her friends, her scholars and her daughters are to be affected, but also her sons, her brothers, the young men around .her, and even the elder men, not excepting her father and his peers. Considering the qualifications which the mothers in our land now possess is there not a call for special effort from some quarter to render them aid in fitting their daughters to exert such an influence as is needed from this source in our infant Republic, on our Christian country?" Such a letter would not seem daring now, but it took a prophetess to write it twenty years ago. Miss Lyon's work in behalf of foreign missions was so immense that it can only be referred to in this short sketch of her life. So many missionaries went out from her seminary that worldly families became afraid to send their daughters there to school lest they should give themselves to Christian work. After her death, in 1849, one writer suggested the breadth of her missionary work in these words, "Is she missed? Scarcely a state in the American Union but contains those she trained. Long ere this, amid the hunting grounds of the Sioux and the villages of the Cherokees the tear of the missionary has wet the page which has told of Miss Lyon's departure. The Sandwich Islander will ask why his white teacher's eyes dim as she reads her American letters. The swarthy African will lament with his sorrowing guide, who cries, 'Help, Lord, for the Godly 'ceaseth!' The cinnamon groves of Ceylon, and the palm trees of India overshadow her early deceased missionary pupils, while those left to bear the heat and burden of the day will wail the saint whose prayers and letters they so prized. Among the Nestorians of Persia, and at the base of Mount Olympus will her name be breathed softly as the household name of one whom God hath taken."
SOPHIA SMITH.
Sophia Smith, educationist, was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, August 27, 1796, daughter of Joseph and Lois (White) Smith, granddaughter of Lieutenant Samuel and Mary (Morton) Smith, and of Lieutenant Elihu White; niece of Oliver Smith, philanthropist, and first cousin once removed of Benjamin Smith Lyman, geologist. Her early education was extremely meagre. She attended school in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1810, for three months, and in 1814 was for a short time a pupil in the Hopkin's Academy, Hadley, Massachusetts. She was an extensive writer, and in 1861 inherited a large fortune ($450,000) from her brother, Austin Smith. In later years she conceived the idea of building a college for women, defined the object and general plan of the institution, appointed the trustees and selected Northampton, Massachusetts, as its site. The college, which bears her name, and which was the first institution for the higher education of women in New England, was opened in September, 1875, with L. Clark Seelye as president. Miss Smith bequeathed for the founding of the college, $365,000 and also $75,000 for the endowment of Smith Academy, at Hatfield, Massachusetts, where she died, June 12, 1870.
MARY L. BONNEY RAMBAUT.
Miss Bonney was born June 8, 1816, in Hamilton, Madison County, New York. Her father was a farmer in good circumstances. Her mother had been a teacher before her marriage. Religion and education were prominent in their thoughts and directed the training of their son and daughter. Miss Bonney was a pupil for several years of the Female Academy in Hamilton and also under Mrs. Emma Willard, in Troy Seminary, at that time the best institution for young ladies in this country. Her father's death occurred when she was quite young, obliging her to take up the profession of teaching. In 1850 she decided to establish a school of her own and provide a home for her mother. In connection with Miss Harriette A. Dillaye, one of the teachers in Troy Seminary, and a friend of her earlier days, she founded the Chestnut Street Seminary, located for thirty-three years in Philadelphia and later, in 1883, enlarged into the Ogontz Seminary, in Ogontz, Pennsylvania, one of the famous schools for girls in the United States. Here, for nearly forty years, Miss Bonney presided. Her attention was first attracted to the cause of the Indians through a newspaper article in regard to Senator Vest's efforts to have the Oklahoma lands opened to settlement by the whites. It was at this time Miss Bonney formed the friendship with Mrs. A. S. Quinton, and these two women began their task of aiding in righting the wrongs done by the government to the Indians. Miss Bonney gave freely from her own income to this cause. She became the first president of the society and devoted the latter years of her life to this work. While in London, in 1888, as a delegate to the World's Missionary Conference, Miss Bonney met and married Rev. Thomas Rambaut, D.D., LL.D., a friend of many years and also a delegate to the conference. Mrs. Rambaut died in 1900.
LOUISE POLLOCK.
With all the time and attention now given to the study of psychology in America it is interesting to review the career and work of a pioneer in this line of work. Mrs. Pollock was born in Erfurt, Prussia, October 29, 1832. Her father, Frederick William Plessner, was an officer in the Prussian army, but retiring from active service was pensioned by the emperor and devoted the rest of his life to literary labors. He seems to have taken special delight in directing the education of this young daughter, who at an early age showed a marked preference for literary pursuits. On her way to Paris, where she was sent at the age of sixteen to complete her knowledge of French, she made the acquaintance of George H. Pollock, of Boston, Massachusetts, whose wife she became about two years later in London. Her own five children started her interest in books treating of the subject of infant training, hygiene and physiology, and in 1859 she first became acquainted with the philosophy of the kindergarten by receiving from a German relative copies of everything that had been published upon the subject up to that time. Her first work as an educator was naturally enough in her own family, but her husband being overtaken by illness and financial reverses, Mrs. Pollock turned her ability to pecuniary account and began her literary work in earnest. Executing a commission from Mr. Sharland, of Boston, she selected seventy songs from German melodies for which she wrote the words; then she translated four medical works, a number of historical stories, besides writing for several periodicals. In 1861 her "Child's Story Book" was published and among the kindergarten works which she received from Germany was a copy of Lena Morganstern's "Paradise of Childhood," which she translated in 1862, into English. She had become so enthusiastic over adopting the kindergarten system in her own family that she sent her daughter Susan to Berlin, where she took the teacher's training in the kindergarten seminary there. In 1862, upon the request of Nathaniel T. Allen, principal of the English and Classical School, of West Newton, Massachusetts, Mrs. Pollock opened a kindergarten in connection therewith, the first pure kindergarten in America. During 1863, she wrote four lengthy articles on the kindergarten, which were published in the Friend of Progress, New York, and were the earliest contributions to kindergarten literature in this country. Tn 1874, Mrs. Pollock visited Berlin for the purpose of studying the kindergarten system in operation there, and upon her return to America she moved her family to the City of Washington where her "Ledroit Park Kindergarten" was opened, and her series of lectures to mothers was commenced. The sixty hygienic and fifty-six educational rules which she wrote in connection with those lectures were afterwards published in the New England Journal of Education. Other works from her pen are: "The National Kindergarten Manual," "The National Kindergarten Songs and Plays" and her song book, "Cheerful Echoes." In 1880 through President Garfield, she presented a memorial to Congress, asking an appropriation to found a free national kindergarten normal school in Washington. But, although it was signed by all the chief educators of the country, it was unsuccessful. Then she turned from Congress to Providence and with better success, for after giving a very profitable entertainment in 1883, the "Pensoara Free Kindergarten," with the motto, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these, ye have done it unto me," was opened. In order to raise the necessary funds for its continuance a subscription list was started at the suggestion of Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, who during her life was a regular subscriber. In connection with that kindergarten, Mrs. Pollock had a training class for nursery maids in the care of young children, and in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and other places, nursery maids' training classes were soon opened upon the same plan. Mrs. Pollock with her daughter was for years at the head of the National Kindergarten, a kindergarten normal institute for the training of teachers, hundreds of whom went out to fill positions throughout the country.
MARY LOWE DICKINSON.
Mary Lowe Dickinson was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1839. "We read of all-round women. They are of two kinds. There is the little all-round woman, smooth and small, like a bird's egg, holding infinite unfolded possibilities that never had the proper warmth and brooding for adequate development. And there is the other all-round woman, big as the world, with all sorts of excrescences and deficiencies, mountains and valleys of character, with rivers of thought and seas of sympathy, and forests of varied feeling crowned with abundant leaves for the healing of the nations, and with plains of experience and deserts of sorrow, and inside a burning heart of love that penetrates all, and now and then shows itself in some volcanic outburst that reveals the real passion and fervor of its inward life. And yet, with all this infinite variety, the all-round nature holds all in such true balance and poise, develops in such fine proportion, as never to seem to be all sympathy or all sense, or anything but a rounded and symmetrical whole."
Perhaps if the writer of the above paragraph had dreamed that the day would come when her own words would be chosen as perhaps the most fitting description of her own development she would have hidden them, as she has hidden most of her best thoughts, from the world.
From a primary school in a Massachusetts country town, the step to the head assistant principal's place in the Hartford Female Seminary brought her to the opening of Vassar, which occurred in her twenty-fourth year. The lady principal chosen to be the mother of Vassar was sixty years old. From among the younger educators of that day, it was proposed that this teacher should take, in the new college, the vice-principal's or elder sister's place. But an opportunity opening for three years of life and study abroad with one of her own pupils, the teaching was interrupted, to be resumed with still greater eagerness after three years of travel and student life in the great European centers. After one year as principal of what was then one of the most flourishing of New York City boarding schools, came the marriage with John B. Dickinson, a prominent banker of New York, and after that the social and philanthropic life which was interrupted only by periods of European travel until her husband's death.
Being recognized as one who had watched the development of every new educational movement, the opportunities to put personal touch upon one institution after another came to this busy woman's life. Boards of trustees conferred with her in reference to plans; philanthropists desiring to found educational institutions, and heads of schools and colleges, sought her co-operation, and invited her to aid in the development of their work. One after another, many institutions of prominence for the education of girls invited her to a place on their faculty. Wellesley, the Woman's College of the Northwestern University, Lasalle Seminary, Vassar, the Universities of Denver and Southern California, invited her to positions of honor and trust. Having made a specialty of the study of literature, keeping abreast constantly of the changes and advancement made in that department both in American and European colleges and universities, Mrs. Dickinson was quite ready when the opportunity offered to undertake the chair of literature in the University of Denver, Colorado. Here for two years she worked earnestly, especially for the advancement of young Western womanhood, which she insisted was the coming womanhood of our day. The work involved many outside demands, much lecturing upon literary and philanthropic topics, and heavy responsibilities, under which her health gave way; but the work had been so well done that the board of trustees continued to hold her position open for her. When return to that altitude was impossible, she was honored by the board of trustees, who named the chair of literature for her. Of this chair they made her emeritus professor, conferring upon her also a lectureship in English.
In the lecture field, one of Mrs. Dickinson's strong characteristics has been the combination of womanliness that never rants, with the earnestness that never fails to present the truth as she sees it with uncompromising directness and power. Much of her speaking has been before educational and philanthropic societies, in colleges and schools and before literary and historical clubs. She has been too busy a woman for much distinctive club life, but she is a member of the Barnard, Patria, and several other clubs.
Aside from her general interest in the development of all phases of woman's education and the special interest in the study of literature, no one subject has more engrossed her attention than that of education in citizenship. So far as possible, she has tried to avoid representing the work of organizations, believing that individual influence over individuals was the surest basis of help. Nothwithstanding this preference for individual labor, she has at one time been secretary of the Bible Society, one of the oldest organizations in New York; the superintendent of a department of higher education in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; the president of the National Indian Association; the general secretary from its beginning of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, and she is now an honorary president—having served as president for several years—of the National Council of Women of the United States, an organization composed of twenty national societies, whose aggregate membership numbers more than half a million women.
Nor have the educational and philanthropic phases made the entire life of this working woman. Her work has been threefold. Teaching in schools or living a life crowded more or less with women and girls to whom she was teaching some one thing or another that they needed most to know; giving instruction or lecturing in schools and putting her hand to the wheel in charitable societies, there has been another life of work, in which the amount of labor done would have sufficed alone, it would seem, to fill one busy life.
Never fancying herself possessed of any special talent, nevertheless, when the fortune went and troubles came, Mrs. Dickinson turned to account the use of her pen, a facility in the use of which had marked her from a child. After her misfortunes, she began scattering about, at the solicitation of her friends, bits of verse written at one time or another.
Mrs. Dickinson's first book was a gathering up of these little verses, which made a home for themselves in the hearts of many people, and made a way for the author to such fields of journalistic work as would have kept her busy without her other tasks. From that time until this she has been an active writer along all journalistic lines. Never believing in her own talent, always saying that if she had any genius or great ability she would never have needed the spur of necessity, holding steadily to her early resolution never to write anything that should harm or belittle human nature, she pursued the work of reviewer, novelist, poet, biographer, essayist, and educator, never permitting her name to be used if by any means it could be avoided. Thus, enormous amounts of work that have issued from this pen were never recognized as her own. She wrote for the cause which interested her, for the object to be obtained. Her first novel, "Among the Thorns," was an expression of her thought as to the responsibilities of wealth and the best methods for alleviating the woes of the poor. "The Amber Star," printed first in England, and reprinted in America, deals with the problem of waif-life and the question of caring for dependent and orphan children. "One Little Life" is the expression of her thought as to the true significance of The King's Daughters' character and work in the world. Various smaller works have been issued from her pen, one called "Driftwood," including fifteen or twenty of the smaller stories, of which she has given the world more than three hundred, but few of which, however, appeared under her own name. These stories, short or long, reveal unquestionably the true story-teller's gift. The power of characterization, the power of making the individuals live the tale out before one's eyes, the unquestioned plot power, have long ago had their recognition, and opened the way for whatever work in this direction her busy life can do. Her latest novel, "Katherine Gray's Temptation," is said to be the strongest analytical work and the best character-study that has yet appeared from her pen.
CAROLINE HAZARD.
Caroline Hazard, educator, was born at Oakwoods, Peace Dale, Rhode Island, June 10, 1856, daughter of Rowland and Margaret (Rood) Hazard, grand daughter of Rowland Gibson and Caroline (Newbold) Hazard and of the ninth generation from Thomas Hazard, the founder of the town of Newport, Rhode Island. She was liberally educated primarily in a private school, and for ten years as a member of a class of twenty women conducted by Professor Jeremiah Lewis Diman, D.D., of Brown University. She was elected president of the board of trustees of the South Kingston High School; maintained the kindergarten in Peace Dale; was president of a King's Daughters circle in Peace Dale and became a member of the "Society of Colonial Dames." She also is listed as organizing the Narragansett Choral Society in 1889, and instituted free Sunday afternoon concerts held in the Hartford Memorial Building, Peace Dale. This building was erected as a memorial to her grandfather, Rowland Gibson Hazard. During her tour of the old world 1876-77, she added to her knowledge of political economy, art and literature. In 1899 she was elected president of Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, as successor to Mrs. Julia J. Irvine. She was elected a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society and of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. The University of Michigan conferred upon her the degree of M.A., and Brown University the degree of Litt.D., in 1899. She published "Memoirs of Professor J. Lewis Diman" (1886); "College Tom"; "A Study of Life in Narragansett in the Eighteenth Century by his Grandson's Granddaughter," (1893); "Narragansett Ballads, with Songs and Lyrics," (1894); and "The Narragansett Friends' Meeting in the Eighteenth Century," (1899); she also edited philosophical works of her grandfather, Rowland Gibson Hazard, (1899); and contributed to magazines.
LOUISE KLEIN MILLER.
Miss Louise Klein Miller was born in Montgomery County, Ohio. When she was two years old, the family moved to Miamisburg, Ohio, where she attended the village school. Inefficient and uninteresting teachers gave direction and color to her whole life. At times they were so deadly dull she "took to the woods" and there from the Great Teacher she learned the songs and nesting habits of the birds, the color of the butterflies' wings, when and where the first spring flowers bloomed and was unconsciously absorbing the great truths Nature has in store for those who love her. The training at Central High School, Dayton, Ohio, organized the knowledge she had been accumulating from original sources. After graduation, she attended the Normal School and taught in the city schools.
In 1893 she went to the Cook County Normal School, where she came under the influence of Colonel Parker and Mr. Jackman, who were the exponents of rational nature study. After a post-graduate course, she went to East Saginaw, Michigan, as supervisor of nature study in the schools and assistant in the training school. This position was occupied for two years, when she was called to fill a similar position in Detroit, Michigan, and remained there four years.
During the summer months she taught at the Bay View, Michigan Summer School, and with Doctor John M. Coulter, of Chicago University, studied the evolution of plants under the most favorable conditions. At Cornell University, Professor L. H. Bailey gave a more practical direction to her work in agriculture and horticulture. Here she studied forestry, geology, entomology, chemistry, and other subjects which are fundamental in the work she was later to pursue.
From Cornell University she was called to Briarcliff Manor, New York, where some of the millionaires of New York City had established a School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture. Later she was called to Lowthorpe, a school of horticulture and landscape gardening for women, Groton, Massachusetts. This afforded an opportunity for study at the Arnold Arboretum.
The work of the children of the Village Improvement Association, of Groton, was placed under her direction and she began school gardens. After two years at Groton, she went to Cleveland, Ohio, where she occupies her present position. She established school gardens and the Board of Education created the position of curator of school gardens and appointed her to fill the position which is unique, being the only one of its kind in the country. The duties are to supervise the school gardens, give illustrated lectures on gardening in the public schools, extend the home garden work, arrange for autumn flower shows and superintend the improvement of school grounds. Under her leadership, this school garden work is recognized as being among the best in the country. The influence of her work in the city is marked. Each school yard and garden has become a radiating center for civic improvement. Disease breeding and fly breeding places have been cleaned up and the city made more sanitary and more beautiful. Children are being taught the yielding capacity of a small plot of ground, succession of crops and harmonious color effects; they are becoming interested in gardening and many are seeking the suburb and country life. She has always emphasized the physical, mental and moral influence of this work in the fresh air and sunshine.
Miss Miller is a lecturer of wide experience, appearing at Chautauquas, before Civic Associations, Women's Clubs, Teachers' Associations in many parts of the United States and Canada. She is the author of "Children's Gardens," a "Course in Nature Study for the Pennsylvania Schools," and is also contributor to many magazines.
She is interested in all movements for the constructive upbuilding of humanity; is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; member of the Executive Board of the American Civic Association; vice-president of the National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild; vice-president of School Gardening Association of America; and honorary member of the Iowa State Audubon Society.
LUELLA CLAY CARSON.
Miss Carson was born in Portland, Oregon, March 12, 1856. Is the daughter of John Crosthwaite and Elizabeth Talbot Carson. Graduated from one of the private schools of Portland, receiving a state diploma in 1888 and a life diploma in 1890. Studied in Boston at one of the schools of expression of that city; Harvard College; University of Chicago; University of California, and Cambridge, England. Was preceptress of the Taulatin Academy and Pacific University; vice-president of the Couch School, Portland, Oregon ; professor of rhetoric and elocution, English literature, American literature, and dean of women of the University of Oregon; president of Mills College, California since 1909. Is the author of "Public School Libraries," and "A Reference Library for Teachers of English," "Handbook of English Composition," and is one of the conspicuous educators of the country.
SARAH PLATT DECKER.
President of the Woman's College of Denver and ex-president of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs. One of the most important women in the country.
HESTER DORSEY RICHARDSON.
Born in Baltimore. Is the daughter of James Levin and Sarah Ann Webster Dorsey. Married Albert Leverett Richardson January 27, 1891. Has written on Maryland history and is engaged in historical and genealogical research. Represented the Executive Department of Maryland in the historical work at the Jamestown Exposition in 1907. Was the founder of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore; member of the Colonial Dames; historian of the Baltimore Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution; incorporator of the Maryland Original Research Society and was secretary of the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1901 to 1905.
ANN LOUISE WOLCOTT.
Was born in Providence, Rhode Island, May 25, 1868. Student at Wellesley College. At one time principal of Wolfe Hall, Denver, Colo. Founder of Wolcott's School, Denver. A member of the Archaeological Institute of America; also of the State Forestry Association of Colorado, Colonial Dames, National Congress of Mothers, and prominent in the school of American Archaeology. One of the leading educational women of the West.
KATHERINE ELIZABETH DOPP.
Born at Belmont, Wisconsin, March 1, 1863. Daughter of William Daniel and Janet Moyes Dopp. Student of the schools of Wisconsin and of the University of Chicago. Principal and teacher in several of the normal schools of Wisconsin and Illinois. Principal of the Training Department of the State Normal School, Madison, South Dakota, in 1896, and of the training department of the Normal School of the University of Utah in 1898. Instructor in Correspondence Study Department of Philosophy since 1902; lecturer in Educational Extension Division since 1894 of the University of Chicago. Has written several educational works, industrial and social histories, "The Tree Dwellers," "The Early Cave Men," and "The Later Cave Men," articles and reviews in educational and sociology journals.
FLORENCE AMANDA FENSHAM.
Born in East Douglass, Massachusetts, May 25, 1861. Daughter of Hon. John and Sarah Alice Fensham. Student of the Chicago Theological Seminary, Mansfield College, and at Oxford and Cambridge, England and Edinburgh. Teacher in the American College for Girls in Coustan, Turkey, in 1893. Was professor of Biblical literature and dean until 1905, and instructor in Christian Instruction of the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago from 1906 to 1909, and dean of the training school for women in Chicago since October, 1909.
MARY ELIZABETH LITCHFIELD.
Born at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, May 9, 1854. Daughter of Lawrence and Sarah Minot Litchfield. Author of "The Nine Worlds; Stories from Norse Mythology."
ELLA LYMAN CABOT.
Born in Boston. Daughter of Arthur Theodore and Ella Lowell Lyman. Graduated from Harvard College in 1904, and took a special course in logic and metaphysics. Married in 1894 to Richard Clark Cabot. Teacher of ethics in private schools and member of the State Board of Education, many reform associations, council of Radcliffe College, Massachusetts Society Civic League and German Educational Department of the Boston Woman's Municipal League. Has written books entitled "Every-Day Ethics," "Teachers' Manual of Ethical Training," and other educational works.
NINA ELIZA BROWNE.
Born at Erving, Massachusetts, October 6, i860. Daughter of Charles Theodore and Nancy Smith Brown. Assistant librarian of the Columbia University Library, New York, also the State Library; librarian of the Library Bureau, Boston, in 1893; assistant secretary, then secretary, of the publishing board of the American Library Association, and the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission. Is a compiler and bibliographer of Hawthorne; editor of the catalogue of graduates and non-graduates of Smith College.
MARY DANA HICKS PRANG.
AMY MORRIS ROMANS.
Born at Vassalboro, November 15, 1848. Daughter of Harrison and Sarah Bliss Bradley Homans. Prominent educator. Principal of the Hemenway School and McRae and Chadbourn private school; in charge of the educational work founded by the late Mrs. Mary Hemenway from 1877 to 1909. Organized and directed the Boston Normal School of Household Arts, Boston School of Gymnastics; director of Hygiene and Physical Education in Wellesley College since 1909.
MARY AUGUSTA SCOTT.
Daughter of Abram McLean and Julia Anne Boyer Scott. Has received degrees from Vassar and Cambridge, England; student in Romance languages at Johns Hopkins, and the first woman fellow of Yale, Ph.D., 1894. Professor of English language and literature at Smith College. Author of "Elizabethan Translations from the Italian." Editor of "Operative Gynecology," by Dr. Howard A. Kelly, "Walter Reed and Yellow Fever," by Dr. Kelly, "Bacon's Essays," and contributor to the Dial for many years. Writer of reviews and criticisms in literature for academic journals, American and foreign.
ELLEN BLISS TALBOT.
Born in Iowa City, Iowa, November 22, 1867. Daughter of Benjamin and Harriet Bliss Talbot. Professor and head of the department of philosophy of Mount Holyoke College. Author of "The Fundamental Principles of Fichte's Philosophy." Contributor to philosophical and psychological journals and reviews.
MARY VANCE YOUNG.
Born in Washington, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1866. Daughter of John Seavers and Jane Vance Young. Was instructor of the Romance languages of Smith College; professor of Romance languages at Mount Holyoke College since 1901; Ofticier dAcademie, French Government; member of the Modern Language Association of America; Societe Amicale Gaston, Paris, and author of Moliere's "Kunst Komodien," also an Italian grammar.
KATHERINE COMAN.
Born at Newark, Ohio, November 23, 1857. Daughter of Levi P. and Martha Seymour Coman. Was professor of economics since 1900 at Wellesley College; author of "The Growth of the English Nation," "History of England," "History of England for Beginners," "Industrial History of the United States" and other books.
ELLEN HAYES.
Born in Granville, Ohio, September 23, 185 1. Daughter of Charles C. and Ruth Wolcott Hayes. Was lecturer and writer on astronomy and other scientific subjects; professor of mathematics, applied mathematics and astronomy since 1904 of Wellesley College. Author of "Elementary Trigonometry," "Algebra," "Calculus with Applications," etc.
MARY EMMA WOOLLEY.
Born in South Norwalk, Connecticut, July 13, 1863. Daughter of Rev. Joseph J. and Mary E. Ferris Woolley. Was instructor and associate professor of Bible history for several years in Wellesley College. President of Mount Holyoke College since 1900. Member of the Board of Electors for the Hall of Fame; member College Entrance Examination Board. Director of the Woman's Educational Industrial Union of Boston. Member of the Executive Committee of the American School Peace League; vice-president of the American Peace Society. Member of the Moral Educational Board of Ethical-Social League; vice-president of the National Consumers' League; trustee of the American International College; vice-president of the Third National College Playground Association of America; member of the Advisory Committee American Scandinavian Society; member of Hellenic Travelers Club; Rhode Island Society for Collegiate Education of Women; Salem Society for Higher Education of Women; Daughters of the American Revolution; member of the Sorosis; Boston College; Northeast Wheaton Seminary Club; Pawtucket Woman's Club; Springfield College Club, and Lyceum of London, England.
SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD.
Born in Abington, Massachusetts, February 15, 1859. Daughter of Jonathan and Abigail Noyes Arnold. Taught in the public schools of Massachusetts, New York, and Minneapolis. Dean of Simmons College since 1902. Author of books for teachers, "Stepping Stones to Literature," "Reading: How to Teach It," "Waymarks for Teachers."
ELEANOR COLGAN.
Enjoys the distinction of having had conferred upon her by the Pope, for her excellent work among the Italian children of this country, the order of Knighthood of the Church and the Papacy, and is the first woman in America entitled to wear the gold cross of the order. She is an instructor in the Brooklyn Training School for Teachers.
MARY BERNARDINE CORR.
MARY ISABEL CRAMSIE.
Was born in Friendsville, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1844. President for ten years of the Sacred Thirst Total Abstinence Society. Superintendent of the Catholic division, Newsboys' Sunday School for some years; secretary of the Diocesan Union for many years, and organized one of the first total abstinence societies for boys and girls under twenty years of age. Is the author of poems and has written for the Catholic World, the Northwestern Chronicle and local newspapers.
MARY HICKEY DOWD.
Was born at Manchester, New Hampshire, January 22, 1866. Daughter of John and Mary Joy Hickey, and in 1889 married Dr. John F. Dowd. Taught in the public schools of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Delivered lectures on her travels in England. Associate editor of the Guidon for years, and author of "Life of Rt. Rev. Denis Bradley." Contributor to the various Catholic journals.
MOTHER KATHERINE DREXEL.
Daughter of Francis A. Drexel of the well-known Philadelphia family. She early became interested in the welfare of the Indians and negroes, and through Bishop O'Connor of Omaha she was lead to the founding of the community for these people and became its first superioress. She was for a while with the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh, but gave her entire fortune to the new order which she had founded. The first novitiate of this order was located temporarily at the Drexel homestead at Torresdale, Pennsylvania, and she established also a boarding school and home for colored children at St. Elizabeth's, Cornwells, in 1892, and a boarding school for Pueblo Indians in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1894; an industrial boarding school for colored girls at Rock Castle, Virginia, in 1899; a boarding school for Navajo Indians in Arizona, in 1903, and an academy for the higher education of colored girls in Nashville, Tenn., in 1905, with a preparatory annex school in 1906, and a day school for colored children at Carlisle, Pa. The order which Mrs. Drexel established is known as the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, of which she is at present superioress.
REV. MOTHER MARY AGNES HINES.
Was born in Avon, New York. Is of French and German ancestry. In 1869 she entered the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Rochester, N. Y., being received into the order in 1871. She is a woman of most remarkable character, notable business ability, and a great talent for art. She was made assistant superior in 1882. Through her active efforts the Nazareth Convent and Mother House, and the academy were gradually enlarged; a Nazareth Normal School, the community's house of studies, was erected.
The Nazareth Hall and Preparatory School for boys under twelve years of age, the St. Agnes Conservatory of Music and Art, the Home for the Aged, and St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira, all owe their existence to Mother Agnes' untiring efforts and interest in the cause of education. The schools of this sisterhood are under the regents of the University of New York, and many of their teachers have had their course of instruction in the art centers of Europe.
MOTHER IRENE (LUCY M. T. GILL).
Was born in Galway, Ireland, March, 1858. Her father, Joshua Paul Gill, was secretary of the Galway branch of the Bank of Ireland, and came to this country in 1864. In 1876 Miss Gill entered the Ursuline Convent and was later transferred to the Convent of St. Teresa, New York City, where for twelve years she was teacher and principal of the parish school. From this school many of the teachers in the public schools in New York City have graduated. In 1893 she was made superior of the community and established the Normal School at Teresa's Academy.
SISTER MARY JULIA (ELIZABETH ANN DULLEA).
Was born April 8, 1886, in Boltonville, Wisconsin. Her father and mother were natives of Ireland. Sister Julia has spent her life in teaching in Catholic schools. Is a writer of prose and poetry. She is an accomplished musician and linguist. Is very active in work for children, especially in the advancement of their physical, mental, and spiritual interests.
MATILDA THERESA KARNES.
Was born in Rochester, New York. Daughter of James Karnes of Middleton, England, and his wife, Ellen Brady, a native of Ireland. She taught industrial drawing and later astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and is head teacher of the mathematical department in the high schools of Buffalo, New York. For many years Miss Karnes' classes in English composition have won the medals offered by the Sons of the Revolution for original essays on Revolutionary subjects. Miss Karnes is the first vice-president of the Buffalo Women's Civil Service Reform Association, a subject to which she has given much study. Also on the committee of the Buffalo Humane Society. Is president of the Catholic Women's Saturday Afternoon Club, a literary, musical, and social organization of the Catholic women of Buffalo.
ELIZABETH BLANEY McGOWAN.
Daughter of James D. Blaney and Mary A. McCourt Blaney. Her grand-father was Colonel Patrick McCourt of the British Army. She taught in the grammar school of Buffalo for years. Was a member of the board of managers of the Pan-American Exposition, and organizer of the Ladies' Catholic Benevolent Association.
ELIZA MARIA GILLESPIE.
Eliza Maria Gillespie, educator, was born near West Brownville, Pa., February 21, 1824. She removed with her parents to Lancaster, Ohio, while quite young, and was educated by the Sisters of St. Dominic at Somerset, Perry County, and at the Convent of the Visitation, Georgetown, D. C. Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury under Harrison, was her godfather, and James Gillespie Blaine, Secretary of State, under Garfield, was her cousin. While in Europe she was a leader of society and with Ellen Ewing, afterward wife of General W. T. Sherman, collected large sums of money for the aid of the sufferers from the famine in Ireland, adding to the fund by their tapestry, handiwork and magazine stories, which they wrote in collaboration. She was received into the congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1853 under the religious name of Mother Mary of St. Angels and made her novitiate in France, taking her vows from Father Moreau, founder of the order of the Holy Cross. She returned to America in 1855 an d was made Superior of the Academy of St. Mary's, Bertrand, Michigan, which in 1856 was removed to Terre Haute, Indiana, where it was known as St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, and she became the Mother Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. She obtained for the institution the shelter from the legislature and added to the immediate curriculum of the Academy, foundation for a professor's conservatory of music. She multiplied academies of the order to the number of thirty and upwards in different parts of the United States. When the Civil War called for nurses in the army, she left her home, organized at Cairo, Ill., the headquarters, enlisted a corps of sisters, established temporary and permanent hospitals and used her influence at Washington to further the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers and with the help of her corps she cooked gruel and even fed the moving army as well as those detained in the hospital. Her labors broke down her health, and at the close of the war she was an invalid. The order in the United States was separated from the European order in 1870, and she was made Mother Superior, filling the office two terms, when she retired to become Mistress of Novices. She contributed to the Catholic periodicals, notably war sketches for the Ave Maria. She died at the Convent of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana, March 4, 1887.
JANE KELLEY ADAMS.
Was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, October 13, 1852. She has always been active in the educational work of her city and state. Was one of the founders of the Woburn Home for Aged Women, president of many clubs and societies, and chairman of the Equal Suffrage League. Was president of the school board and is active among the various societies of college women in the cities near Boston.
SUSAN LINCOLN MILLS.
Was born November 18, 1826, at Enosburg, Vermont. Daughter of John and Elizabeth Tolman. A graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary and one of the teachers under Mary Lyon, its founder. She accompanied her husband, Cyrus T. Mills, D.D. to Ceylon, and they were both engaged in educational work in Batticotta College of that country. In 1865 they moved to California and opened as a college for girls what had been one of the oldest Protestant schools of that state, and in 1885 this was the only college for women in California, known as Mills College, of which Mrs. Susan Lincoln Mills was president.
CLARA BRADLEY BURDETT.
College woman and active worker in women's club organizations, and federations, and in philanthropic work. First president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs, and first vice-president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Was the builder and donor of the Pasadena Maternity Hospital, trustee of the Polytechnic Institute of Pasadena, California, vice-president of the finance committee of the Auditorium Company, Los Angeles; member of the Social Science Society, Archaeological Institute of America, and National Geographic Society. Lectures on educational and social questions. She was born in Bloomfield, New York, July 22, 1855. Daughter of Albert H. and Laura C. Bradley. Married N. Milman Wheeler Burdett in 1878.
CATHERINE ESTHER BEECHER.
Author and educator. Was born in Easthampton, Long Island, September 6, 1800, and died in Elmira, New York, May 12, 1878. She was the oldest child of Lyman B. and Roxanna Foote Beecher. Her early education was received from her mother and a devoted aunt. When but nine years of age her parents removed to Litchfield, Conn. She early began to write and was a frequent contributor to the Christian Spectator under the initials C. D. D. Some of her poems interested one of the young professors of mathematics in Yale College, whom she later married. Her life was greatly saddened by his death. He perished in a storm off the Irish coast. She opened, with her sister, a select school in Hartford, Conn. Soon it became a question for the proper housing of the many students which applied for admission and her friends of Hartford assisted her in the purchase of the land and the erection of the buildings for the Hartford Female Seminary. Miss Beecher became its principal and they opened with a corps of eight assistant teachers. One of her writings "Suggestions on Education" attracted attention and brought additional interest in the Hartford Seminary. She wrote an arithmetic which she used as one of her own text-books; also a text-book, "The Mental Philosopher." Later when her health broke down, she and her sister removed to Cincinnati and opened a school. Her later years she devoted to authorship and has written quite a good many books on domestic economy and other subjects, which are used as text-books in schools.
GERTRUDE S. MARTIN.
Gertrude S. Martin occupies the novel and interesting position of "adviser of women" at Cornell University, and as such is in a measure responsible for the physical, moral and social development of 400 young women. She realizes the responsibilities and possibilities of her task and regards every girl in the University as a daughter, or a sister, to be cared for and directed in the path that will lead to the greatest happiness and usefulness in life.
ESTELLE REEL.
Miss Estelle Reel is a woman who has done a great work in the United States. She was for many years superintendent of the Indian schools established by the United States Government in the various states. The fact that she served under different secretaries of the Interior Department and Commissioners of Indian Affairs is a guarantee that her work was satisfactory. Miss Reel is a practical woman, possessed of great executive ability and business capacity. She traveled many miles on horseback and endured hardships in the conscientious pursuance of her duties. After finishing her education in St. Louis and the East, Miss Reel was obliged to go to Wyoming for her health. Here she became a teacher and the climate proved all she had desired. She was a resident of Laramie County, the largest county of that state and its political center. During the absence of one of her friends, who was county superintendent, Miss Reel felt it her duty to look after her friend's interests, and so impressed were the political leaders of that section by her ability that Miss Reel was nominated for county superintendent, which was her introduction into politics. Her campaign was made solely on the school question in that section of the country. She was elected by a large majority and re-elected. During her services as county superintendent of Laramie County she brought about many improvements in the school system. Every school was comfortably housed and conditions were brought up to a much higher standard. She was then named for state superintendent of schools and was the first woman to occupy this position in any state of the union. She became very much interested in the leasing and disposition of the state school land with the object of securing a good school fund. The result of her efforts in this direction was that the state of Wyoming in a few years enjoyed a most satisfactory school fund and the best possible system of schools. Her duties as state superintendent took her all over the state. Many of these journeys were made on horseback. Her work in this position brought her to the attention of the officials when the Indian schools were established. They believed she would bring practical common sense into the management of these schools, an important factor in the education of the Indian. Her work has proven most satisfactory to the government. Miss Reel believed in a practical education and the Indians were first taught English, then industrial training as well as education from books. She was equally popular with her "charges," who frequently requested her to take entire care of their children. Miss Reel left the government service June 30, 1910, to marry Mr. Curt L. Meyer, of Toppenish, Washington.
NELLIE O'DONNELL.
Born June 2, 1867, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Her father was a native of Auburndale, Mass., and her mother of Brookline, Mass. They removed when Miss O'Donnell was but a child, to Memphis, Tenn. Miss O'Donnell was a teacher in the public schools of that state and was elected superintendent of public schools for Shelby County, Tenn. When elected, there were but 148 schools in the county. She has increased the number and brought them to the high standard of the present day.
HELEN ALMINA PARKER.
Was born in Salem, Oregon. Is a near relative of Commodore Oliver H. Perry. Her family is one of patriots; her grandfathers fought entirely through the Revolutionary War, and her father and only brother were in the Union Army during the Civil War. Her mother was one of the active leaders in the great temperance crusade. She is widely known as a philanthropist, having organized the first home for the friendless in Nebraska and was for many years state president of the same. Through her efforts a home was established in Lincoln. She was graduated from the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1885, and immediately entered upon her work as teacher and reader, and for years occupied the chair of oratory and dramatic art in the Cotner University of Lincoln, Nebraska.
ELEANOR LOUISE LORD.
Miss Lord, dean (1907) of the Goucher College, a girls' educational institution of Baltimore, Md., is the. daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clay Lord, of Maiden, Mass. She is a graduate of Smith College, and was at one time a teacher there. She pursued a course of study at Cambridge University, England, and was the holder of a scholarship given by the Boston Women's Educational and Industrial Union in 1894. She received in 1898, at Bryn Mawr College, the Ph.D. degree. Miss Lord was for four years a professor at the Goucher College. She is a member of the American Historical Association and the author of several valuable historical works. As a college educator, trained especially in the needs and essentials which aid the modern education of the girl, Miss Lord has had an experience which admirably fits her for the position which she now holds.
ELIZABETH POWELL BOND.
Mrs. Bond was born in Clinton, New York, January 25, 1841. Is dean of Swarthmore College. Daughter of Townsend and Catherine Macy Powell. Her mother was a descendant of the "Goodman Macy" of whom Whittier writes. In 1660, he was driven from his home on the mainland to the Island of Nantucket. Mr. and Mrs. Powell made their home at Ghent, New York, and here Elizabeth spent her youth. She commenced her work as a teacher when but fifteen years of age in a Friends' school in Dutchess County. She taught in the different schools of the neighborhood, and at one time had a school in the home of her parents. She was connected with the abolition movement and the work done by the anti-slavery leaders. She taught gymnastics in Boston, and was in 1865 appointed instructor of gymnastics in Vassar College. About 1866, Miss Powell married Henry H. Bond, a lawyer of Northampton, and with him edited the Northampton Journal. After her husband's death in 1881, she returned to Florence, Massachusetts, and devoted herself to the education of her son, gathering about her a class of children. Later she accepted the position of matron in Swarthmore College, and in 1891, that of dean of this well-known school. She has written tracts on social purity, and has lectured quite extensively.
EDNA CHAFFEE NOBLE.
Born August 12, 1846, in Rochester, Vt. After a course in elocution under Professor Moses True Brown, of Boston, she was invited to the chair of oratory in the St. Lawrence University, where she taught until her marriage to Dr. Henry S. Noble. Her most important step was the opening of the training school of elocution and English literature in Detroit, Mich., in 1878. This proved a most fortunate venture. Aside from her work in the one school, her personality has been felt in the schools which she founded in Grand Rapids, Mich., Buffalo, N. Y., Indianapolis, Ind., and London, England.
ANNE EUGENIA FELICIA MORGAN.
Was born October 3, 1845, in Oberlin, Ohio. Her father, Rev. John Morgan, D.D., was one of the earliest professors in Oberlin College. Miss Morgan's mother was a Leonard of New Haven. The Leonard family removed to Oberlin in 1837. Miss Leonard married during her sophomore year at Oberlin College, Professor John Morgan, and graduated in 1866. In 1869 she received the degree of M.A from this same institution. For three years she conducted in New York and Newark, N. J., classes in philosophy and literature, devoting considerable time to music and the study of harmony with her brother, the distinguished musician, John Paul Morgan, at that time director of music in Trinity Church, New York. In 1875 she taught Greek and Latin in Oberlin College. In 1877 she accepted an appointment to teach in the classical department of Vassar. In 1878 she was appointed to the professorship of philosophy in Wellesley College. In 1887 Professor Morgan published a small volume entitled "Scripture Studies in the Origin and Destiny of Man." Her little book entitled "The White Lady" is a study of the ideal conception of human conduct in great records of thought and is a presentation of lecture outlines and notes on the philosophical interpretation of literature.
SARAH F. COLES LITTLE.
Was born March 6, 1838, in Oberlin, Ohio. Daughter of Professor Henry Coles of Oberlin Theological Seminary. Her mother, Alice Welsh, a woman of superior character and education, was for several years principal of the ladies' department of Oberlin College. Her education was obtained in Oberlin. from which college she graduated in 1859, with the degree of B.A. After graduating she taught school for several years. In 1861 she was principal teacher in the Wisconsin School for the Blind at Janesville, Wisconsin, of which Thomas H. Little was superintendent. In 1862 Mr. Little and Miss Coles were married. On the death of her husband in February, 1875, Mrs. Little was chosen by the board of trustees as his successor. At this time no other woman in the United States was in charge of so important an institution as the Wisconsin School for the Blind, and during her superintendency it was one of the best managed institutions of the country, and Mrs. Little is recognized as a leading educational authority in this particular line of work. Mrs. Little was a zealous Christian and thorough Bible student. One of her daughters was a missionary, and on the opening of the Oberlin Home for Missionary Children in 1892, Mrs. Little assumed charge. In this school the children of missionaries are educated.
FLORENCE RENA SABIN.
Dr. Florence R. Sabin, associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Medical School, is the only woman professor in that institution and is a distinguished physiologist. She was born in Central City, Colorado, November 9, 1871, and is the daughter of George Kimball and Rena Miner Sabin. Received her degree of B.S. from Smith College in 1893, and that of M.D. at the Johns Hopkins University in 1900. She is the author of several works, among them being "An Atlas of the Medulla and Mid-Brain." Dr. Sabin has written articles for medical journals and magazines on medical and anatomical subjects.
JANE SHERZER.
Was a graduate of the University of Michigan; has been a student of languages in Paris, Jena and Munich; she studied for three years in the Berlin University taking the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D., in English, German, old Scandanavian and Philosophy, and is one of the very few women who have attained to the great scholastic distinction of winning the Doctorate of Philosophy at Berlin.
HELEN ALMIRA SHAFER.
ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY.
Was born May 16, 1804, in Billerica, Mass. Her sister, Sophia, became the wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and her sister Mary, the wife of Horace Mann. She succeeded Margaret Fuller as a teacher of history in Mr. Olcott's school. She was among the earliest advocates of female suffrage and higher education for women and aided Horace Mann in founding a Deaf Mute School. Among her personal acquaintances were Emerson, Thoreau and other prominent men of the day. Her literary productions include "Aesthetic Papers," "Crimes of the House of Austria," several works on kindergarten study and circulars on education, "Reminiscences of Dr. Channing," "Last evening with Alston" and other papers. The latter years of her life she was partially blind; during these years she wrote a little, but the loss of her sight and increasing infirmities made all literary effort difficult. She was one of the most conspicuous persons in the famous literary and educational circles of Boston. Miss Peabody's death occurred in Jamaica Plains, Boston, June 3, 1894.
HELENA THERESA FRANCESCA GOESSMANN.
Daughter of Charles Anthony Goessmann, the well-known scientist. Was born at Syracuse, New York. Received degrees from the Ohio University. Was the organizer and first president of the Woman's Auxiliary Catholic Summer School, Cliff Haven, New York. Head of the department of history, Notre Dame College, Baltimore, from 1897 to 1899; head of the department of Catholic higher education, New York, from 1904 to 1907. Has lectured in the United School of New Orleans and the Summer Catholic Schools, and lectured before non-sectarian organizations on education and culture in New England. She has written a number of songs and books on philanthropic Christianity. Contributor to the press and magazines of the United States, but is known principally through her lectures. After her father's death, she was elected professor of English in the State College of Massachusetts, at Amherst.
LIDA ROSE McCABE.
JULIA GORHAM ROBINS
Granddaughter of Samuel Parkman, of Boston, and also a descendant of Colonel Thomas Crafts, who is distinguished for having read the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated in that city. Author of "Lectures on Greek Sculpture and Archaeology," and is a contributor to some of the Catholic publications of the day.
ELIZABETH W. RUSSELL LORD.
Was born in Kirtland, Ohio, April 28, 1819. Her parents were natives of Massachusetts and prominent among the early settlers of the Western Reserve. She was a student of Oberlin College, and in 1842 became the wife of Asa D. Lord, M.D. In 1847 Dr. Lord removed to Columbus, Ohio, and established the first graded school in that state, and Mrs. Lord was the first principal of the first high school, to be opened in Ohio. Dr. Lord later assumed charge of the Institution for the Blind, a work in which he was greatly interested. In 1868 he was induced to go to New York State to organize the State Institution for the Blind. Mrs. Lord aided her husband in all this work, and met with great success in teaching the adult blind to read. It is believed she has taught more blind persons to read than any other teacher in the country, probably in the world. On the death of Dr. Lord in 1875, Mrs. Lord was unanimously made superintendent of the institution which Dr. Lord had so successfully organized. Later Mrs. Lord became assistant principal of the women's department of Oberlin College, which position she has held for some 'years. She has given liberally from her means for all charitable and educational institutions. Her best gift was that in 1800 of $10,000 to Oberlin College, to build, with the aid of other friends, the "Lord Cottage" for the accommodation of young women. Mrs. Lord may be regarded as one of the noble women of America.
LUCY ANN KIDD.
Mrs. Lucy Ann Kidd was born June II, 1839, in Nelson County, Kentucky. Her father, Willis Strather Thornton, was a descendant of an old English family and one of the early residents of Virginia. She was at one time president of the North Texas Female College, in Sherman, Texas, being the first woman in the South to hold such a position.
CLARA E. SMITH.
Was born in Northford, Conn., as were seven generations of her ancestors before her. In 1902 she received the degree of B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, having previously taught for several years in the State Normal School at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1904 she received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale University for work done in mathematics. Her thesis on "A Theorem of Abel and its Application to the Development of Functions in Terms of Bessels' Func tions" was pulished in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society for January, 1907. Since 1908 she has been an instructor in mathematics at Wellesley College.
GRACE CHARLOTTE MARY REGINA STRACHAN.
Was born in Buffalo, New York. Daughter of Thomas F. and Maria Byrne Strachan. Has taken several degrees at the New York University. Is superintendent of the public schools of New York, and well known for her philanthropic work in the Young Women's Catholic Association of Brooklyn, teaching classes free. Is an ardent worker in the Association for Equal Pay for Equal Work; contributor to the Delineator, and is president of the Interborough Association of Women Teachers of Brooklyn and New York City.
VIRGINIA C. GILDERSLEEVE.
Virginia C. Gildersleeve was born in New York City, October 3, 1877, and prepared for college at the Briarly School, and graduated from Barnard College in 1899. In 1900 she received the degree of A.M. from Columbia University, and that of Ph.D. in 1908. During the years from 1900 to 1907, and from 1908 to 1910, she was instructor in the department of English, Barnard College, Columbia University. In 1910 she was promoted to the rank of assistant professor of English, and in 1911 made dean of the College. Virginia C. Gildersleeve is the author of "Government Regulations of the Elizabethan Drama," and has contributed articles to several of the leading magazines.
MARY MORTIMER.
ELLEN FITZ PENDLETON.
Is the president of Wellesley College. She was formerly the dean of Wellesley College and acting president for some time. Miss Pendleton was born at Westerly, Rhode Island, August 7, 1864. Her father is Enoch Burrows and her mother Mary E. Chapman Pendleton. She graduated in the class of 1886 at Wellesley and taught for many years in the department of mathematics before assuming the office of dean.
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG.
One of the most noted educational women in America to-day, being president of State Editors' Association of Illinois, the school board of Chicago, having won this latter distinction over several men who had long served as public school teachers, took her degree of A.B., and later, her Ph.D., at the University of Chicago. She is the daughter of Theodore and Jane Flagg. A graduate of the Chicago High School and the Chicago Normal School; was married to William Young in 1868; has been teacher since 1862, her first position being District Superintendent of Schools; professor of educational work in the University of Chicago; Principal of the Chicago Normal School; Superintendent of the schools of Chicago; member of the State Board of Education for Illinois. One of the colleges composed of women principals of the elementary schools is named the Ella Flagg Young College. President of the Illinois State Teachers' Association, and editor of the Educational Bimonthly; has written several important papers on school work.
MARY FRANCES FARNHAM.
Miss Mary Frances Farnham was born in South Bridgton, and was the daughter of the late William and Elizabeth (Fessenden) Farnham. After the death of her parents, in her early childhood, the late John Putnam Perley became her guardian and his house her home. In 1863, after private study at home, she entered Bridgton Academy, of which the late Charles E. Hilton was principal. Here she spent two years in fitting for Mount Holyoke, and was graduated with honor from that well-known institution in 1868. Returning to South Bridgton, Miss Farnham spent several years of quiet usefulness in the home of her childhood. It was during these years that she served the town most faithfully as a conscientious member of the school committee, a superintendent of schools from 1887 to 1890. During the latter year the opportunity came to her which resulted in her accepting the vice-principalship of the Bloemhof School, in Stellenbosch (thirty miles from Cape Town), Cape of Good Hope. This is a large boarding and day .school for the daughters of European colonists and, under government supervision, prepares pupils for higher examinations and degrees of the University of the Cape of Good Hope. In addition to school duties much time was spent in working on the flora of the Cape and Stellenbosch districts of Cape Colony.
Leaving Africa in 1888 and visiting the Island of St. Helena, on the way to Europe, she traveled extensively in that continent, remained a long time in London, and reached the United States the same year.
We next find Miss Farnham in the capacity of preceptress and teacher of English and history in Burr and Burton Seminary, Manchester, Vt. ; then she accepted a similar position in the Forest Park University, St. Louis, Mo. Four years as preceptress of Fryeburg Academy, Fryeburg, Me., followed, which brought her to 1895. While occupying these last three positions Miss Farnham was brought into contact with a very large number of boys and girls, and had the great privilege of training many for extended courses of study, as well as for business life.
In 1895-96 she was a student at Radclifife College, Cam bridge, Mass. In addition to general work in colonial and United States history (also in literature and sociology), Miss Farnham has been carrying on a research course under the direction of Dr. Hart, in connection with the Historical Seminary, on documentary history of Maine. The result is a more complete set of documents from original sources conferring territory or jurisdiction than has yet been made. The work has been done in the archives of Maine and Massachusetts, the Harvard, Boston and Athenaeum Libraries. These studies were supplemented by courses at the Harvard Summer School, and by continued research work the following year.
In September, 1897, Miss Farnham came to the Pacific University, Forest Grove, Ore., as dean of women and instructor in English literature; in 1901 she was made full professor. Under the titles of "Farnham Papers," "Documentary History of Maine," second series, the Maine Historical Society published in two volumes the result of Miss Farnham's researches.
Miss Farnham is a Daughter of the American Revolution; for twelve years a member of the Young Women's Christian Association Board of Oregon, and until the establishment of the Territorial. Board of the Pacific Northwest; for fourteen years vice-president of the missionary boards of the Congregational Church of Oregon ; is a director of the Oregon Audubon Society of Oregon; for eight years secretary of the Civic Improvement Society of Forest Grove ; in the work of the Oregon Federation of Women's Clubs, Miss Farnham is vice-chairman of the trustees of the Scholarship Loan Fund; she is also the club representative of the Department of School Patrons of the National Educational Association, and is chairman of the joint committee for Oregon; she had a place on the programme of that department at the recent convention in San Francisco—a discussion of the topic, "The Co-operation of Informed Citizens."