Helen Magill White

Helen Magill White (1853-1944) was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. She earned her doctoral degree in Greek from Boston University in 1877.

Related Topics:
1853 - 1944 - Greek - Boston University - 1877

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Raised in a Quaker family, White always believed that she was deserving of the same education as a man. Her father was the president of Swarthmore College, which she attended as an undergraduate.

Related Topics:
Quaker - Swarthmore College

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She taught at the Howard Collegiate Institute, Evelyn College (a now-defunct women's annex at Princeton University), and Brooklyn High School before marrying Andrew Dickson White in 1890. Dickson was a friend of her father's and the retired president of Cornell University, whom she had met in 1887 while presenting a paper at the American Social Science Association.

Related Topics:
Princeton University - 1890 - Cornell University - 1887

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After marrying Dickson, she retired from academia, accompanying her husband to diplomatic posts in St. Petersburg and Berlin and speaking against women's suffrage in 1913.

Related Topics:
St. Petersburg - Berlin - Women's suffrage - 1913

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