M. Carey Thomas

M(artha) Carey Thomas (January 2, 1857-December 2, 1935) was the president of Bryn Mawr College and an ardent suffragist.

Related Topics:
January 2 - 1857 - December 2 - 1935 - Bryn Mawr College - Suffragist

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Carey Thomas, as she preferred to be called, was born on January 2, 1857, in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the daughter of James Carey Thomas and Mary Whitall Thomas. Her family included many prominent Quakers, including her uncle and aunt Robert Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith, and her cousins Alys Pearsall Smith (first wife of Bertrand Russell) and Mary Smith Berenson Costelloe (who married Bernard Berenson).

Related Topics:
Baltimore - Maryland - Quakers - Robert Pearsall Smith - Hannah Whitall Smith - Alys Pearsall Smith - Bertrand Russell - Bernard Berenson

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Growing up, Thomas was strongly influenced by the staunch feminism of her mother and her mother's sister Hannah Whitall Smith. Her father, a physician, was not completely happy with feminist ideas, but his daughter was fiercely independent and he supported her in all of her independent endeavors. Though both her parents were orthodox members of the Society of Friends, Thomas' education and European travel led her to question those beliefs and develop a love for music and theater, both of which were forbidden to orthodox Quakers. This religious questioning led to friction with her mother.

Related Topics:
Feminism - Hannah Whitall Smith - Society of Friends

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Thomas graduated from Cornell University in 1877. She did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University but withdrew because she was not permitted to attend classes. She did further graduate work at the University of Leipzig, but that university did not grant degrees to women. She then went to the University of Zurich and earned a Ph.D. in linguistics, summa cum laude, in 1882 for her dissertation which was a philological analysis of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. She then spent some time in Paris, where she attended lectures by Gaston Paris at the Sorbonne, and then went back home to the United States.

Related Topics:
Cornell University - 1877 - Johns Hopkins University - University of Leipzig - University of Zurich - Linguistics - Summa cum laude - 1882 - Philological - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Paris - Gaston Paris - Sorbonne

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In 1884, Thomas became dean of the college and chair of English at the new Bryn Mawr College for women. Thomas was the first female dean in the United States. Thomas was very influential at the College. She started the first graduate program at any women's school.

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In 1894 the first president of the college, James Rhoads, retired. Thomas was narrowly elected to succeed him. She was president from 1894-1922 and served also as dean from 1894-1908.

Related Topics:
1894 - James Rhoads - 1922 - 1908

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In 1908 she was first president of the National College Women's Equal Suffrage League. She was also a leading member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. After 1920 she advocated the policies of the National Woman's Party. She was one of the early promoters of an equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Related Topics:
1920 - U.S. Constitution

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Thomas lived for many years in a close relationship with her friend and housemate Mamie Gwinn. After Gwinn left Thomas in 1904 to marry (a love triangle fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's Fernhurst), Thomas took up housekeeping with the philanthropist Mary Garrett.

Related Topics:
1904 - Gertrude Stein - Mary Garrett

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Thomas died on December 2, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Related Topics:
Philadelphia - Pennsylvania

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