Writer, dancer, African-American activist. Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou spent her difficult formative years moving back and forth between her mother's and grandmother's. At age eight, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was subsequently killed by her uncles. The event caused the young girl to go mute for nearly six years, and her teens and early twenties were spent as a dancer, filled with isolation and experimentation.

At 16 she gave birth to a son, Guy, after which she toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess. On returning to New York City in the 1960s, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and became involved in black activism. She then spent several years in Ghana as editor of African Review, where she began to take her life, her activism and her writing more seriously.

Maya Angelou's five-volume autobiography commenced with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1970. The memoirs chronicle different eras of her life and were met with critical and popular success. Later books include All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986) and My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me (1994). She has published several volumes of verse, including And Still I Rise (1987) and Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1995). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1993, Angelou read On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration, a poem written at his request. It was only the second time a poet had been asked to read at an inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. In 2006, Angelou agreed to host a weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio's Oprah & Friends channel. She also teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where she has a lifetime position as the Reynolds professor of American studies.

Drawing from her own life experiences, Angelou published Letter to My Daughter in 2008. She wrote the work for the daughter she never had, sharing anecdotes and offering advice. Well received, the book earned several honors, including a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Non-Fiction.

 

 

First Lady Michelle Obama

 

When people ask Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate. First and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.

But before she was a mother — or a wife, lawyer, or public servant — she was Fraser and Marian Robinson's daughter.

 

The Robinsons lived in a brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Fraser was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, and despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age, he hardly ever missed a day of work. Marian stayed home to raise Michelle and her brother, Craig, skillfully managing a busy household filled with love, laughter, and important life lessons.

 

A product of Chicago public schools, Michelle studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton University. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met the man who would become the love of her life.

 

After a few years, Michelle decided her true calling lay in encouraging people to serve their communities and their neighbors. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago's City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service.

 

In 1996, Michelle joined the University of Chicago with a vision of bringing campus and community together. As associate dean of student services, she developed the university's first community service program, and under her leadership as vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, volunteerism skyrocketed.

 

As First Lady, Michelle Obama looks forward to continuing her work on the issues close to her heart — supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, and encouraging national service.

 

Michelle and Barack Obama have two daughters: Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Like their mother, the girls were born on the South Side of Chicago.

 

 

 

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Few of the millions of people who have followed her career as a television reporter are aware that Charlayne Hunter-Gault was one of the pioneers who risked her life to desegregate the colleges and universities of the South. In January of 1961, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first two African-Americans to attend the University of Georgia, following two years of efforts by the state of Georgia to deny them admittance.

The future journalist started life modestly in the small South Carolina town of Due West, where she was born on February 27, 1942, the first of three children of Charles and Althea Hunter. In her autobiography, In My Place, Hunter-Gault explains that her mother had hoped to have a boy, who would be named for her husband, Charles. Undaunted, Althea created a feminine version of Charles, Charlayne.

Charlayne's father was a chaplain in the U.S. Army and was stationed across the country in California when Charlayne was born. His military career led to long absences, and Charlayne's mother had to assume most of the responsibility for raising the children over the years. When Charlayne was small, her mother moved them to Covington, Georgia, where she had relatives and where they shared a house with her own mother. There were a number of moves during Charlayne's childhood, first to Indiana when Charles Hunter returned from overseas in 1945. Although her father was popular with the soldiers, societal attitudes were changing slowly. Hunter-Gault recalls the negative comments of some white men encountered on a street in Indianapolis shortly after her father was promoted to captain. Her father showed no visible reaction to the comments.

When Charles received his next assignment, Korea, the family returned once again to Covington. There Charlayne lived the typical life of a child growing up in a small southern town, going to school, church and the movies, playing with friends, and visiting with relatives. At the age of five she began her formal education at Covington's only black school, where classes were large, and where there was no lunchroom or science equipment. Sometimes the students would be given orange juice or apples to take home when the white schools had more than they could use. Despite the lack of government support, there was an active PTA and the families worked hard to raise money for the school, competing to see who could raise the most.

In 1951 the family moved to Atlanta, where they were joined by Charles after he returned from a second tour in Korea. The Hunters moved into a neighborhood that was changing from white to black, and by her second year there, Charlayne was attending a segregated black school that had once been white. During her last year of elementary school, the Supreme Court handed down the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision. It had no immediate impact on Charlayne or her classmates.

In the fall shortly after Charlayne began high school, her mother informed her that the family was moving to Alaska, where her father had been stationed since the previous spring. A typical teenager, Charlayne was dismayed at the idea of leaving her friends, her new school, and her comfortable home. The plane trip was long and the house on the army base was small for a family of five. There were other adjustments to be made--to cold weather and to the enchantments of snow, and to attending an integrated school. Charlayne was the only black student and even military children were not free of the prejudice pervasive in society. At the first dance, no one except her teacher asked her to dance. On another occasion, she was denied admission to a club for teens until her father intervened. She was behind the other students academically, and had to work hard to catch up. Wrapped up in herself and her problems, Charlayne failed to notice that her parents were also unhappy. In the spring after school was out, Charlayne, her mother and her two brothers moved back to Atlanta. Her father stayed behind. Her parents would eventually divorce.

Charlayne completed her high school years in Atlanta, attending a school she describes as "an idyllic island in a sea of segregation" (In My Place, 114). In the Atlanta of that day, blacks knew they would be treated differently from whites by salesclerks and that they wouldn't be served in restaurants. Certain things were just taken for granted, but some brave people were beginning to challenge the status quo. It was the late 50s, and the civil rights movement was now underway. However, it had little impact on the popular high school student as yet.

Charlayne was beginning to think about college and a career in journalism. She had heard that Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan had a good journalism school, and she applied there. Georgia had journalism programs at the traditionally white schools, but the state did not want blacks even to apply. Therefore, the state would allow her to use state scholarship money out of state for a program that was not offered at the black colleges in Georgia.

At the same time, black leaders were beginning the push to desegregate Georgia's colleges. Previous efforts had been derailed by the state, and the activists were looking for "squeaky-clean" candidates who would be hard to challenge. Alfred Holmes persuaded his son Hamp, a top-notch student, to be one of those candidates. The activists approached Charlayne, who was an honor student at her high-school. The two young people were interested, but somewhat naive about what awaited them. The adults took them over to Georgia State, where they were greeted pleasantly in the registrar's office. But the course offerings were limited, and neither student was interested. First Hamp, and then Charlayne, said they wanted to apply to the University of Georgia. The adults agreed to get the application materials. Charlayne recounts that it was much later when she learned how worried the adults were at the prospect of sending the two young people seventy-five miles away to a college in small-town Georgia where it would be difficult to protect them. But, in her words, "no one, throughout the long-drawn-out process, ever spoke of fear" (In My Place, 127).

Although the two would eventually be admitted, the state of Georgia put as many obstacles in their way as possible. Initially, the university declared that the dorms were full. So Hamp went off to begin his college career at Morehouse, and Charlayne began hers at Wayne State. Charlayne initially found adjusting to life at a northern, urban campus difficult. Most students at the college were commuters, and the dorm rooms were allocated according to the high schools students had attended. Although Charlayne had two white roommates, most of the students were segregated by race. Charlayne soon settled in, got a part-time job, and began to enjoy the intellectual atmosphere of the school. She prepared to pledge a black sorority, and joined in the campus life.

In the meantime, her friends at home in Atlanta were becoming involved in the civil rights movement, boycotting stores like Rich's, marching and engaging in sit-ins. When Charlayne came home on spring break, she was amazed at the changes she saw in her friends. She returned to finish her freshman year at Wayne, still more an observer than a participant in the civil rights movement. Back in Atlanta that summer, Charlayne and Hamp went to court for a hearing concerning their applications for admission to the University of Georgia. The university had continued to turn them down, claiming there was no space. The judge refused to order their admission, but scheduled a trial for the fall. Although Charlayne sympathized with and supported the students who were involved in the civil rights struggle, she did not become active in the movement that summer. Her lawyer had warned that an arrest would provide the University of Georgia an excuse to deny her admission. In the fall, Charlayne went back to Detroit for what would be her last semester at Wayne.

Shortly before Christmas in 1960, Charlayne was called home for a hearing in her case. The university was now claiming that admitting her in mid-year would not be in her best interest because she might lose credits. It was the biggest story in the state, and the courtroom was full. The lawyers for Charlayne and Hamp provided evidence that in a similar case, the university had admitted a white girl. In early January, Charlayne was back at Wayne when she learned that the judge had ordered their admission. Her days as a "normal" college student were over.

Charlayne, her mother, her lawyer, and Hamp and his father headed for Athens on a cold Monday morning. Going down the night before had not been an option--no hotels accepted blacks, and any black family who offered them hospitality would be put at risk. A noisy white crowd awaited them, some shouting insults, but making no physical threats. In the midst of registering, the phone rang and they learned that the judge had stayed their admission at the state's request. The Appeals Court lifted the stay later that same day. Back to the campus they went, followed everywhere by the crowds. At the end of the day, they returned home to Atlanta. Meanwhile, the state had asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the stay. The Court declined to do so. In Athens, students wandered the streets, setting off firecrackers, raising Confederate flags, and blowing horns.

If their first experience on the campus had been intimidating, the truly difficult period for the two new students was about to begin. Hamp was living off-campus with a black family, but Charlayne would be living in a dorm. She was assigned a large room with a kitchenette--isolated from her fellow students. That first night she could hear the crowds outside chanting. The next day, she attended her first classes at Georgia. There were no disruptions in her classes, but the campus swarmed with reporters and student protests. That night, the crowds grew outside of her room. The mood had turned ugly, fueled in part by the basketball team's defeat by Georgia Tech. Suddenly there was first one, then another loud crash, as a brick and a coke bottle were thrown through her window, shattering glass everywhere. Some of the girls in the dorm began to scream at Charlayne and another student who had befriended her. Soon the university officials decided to send Charlayne to Atlanta for safety and a little after midnight, the state patrol arrived. They stopped to pick up Hamp and the convoy headed to Atlanta. The university had suspended Charlayne and Hamp.

It took two trips to court to get the two students readmitted. The following Monday, they were back on campus, accompanied by plainclothes police. The campus had quieted down--student leaders had called for restraint, the university had announced that rioters would be expelled, and the FBI and a grand jury were conducting investigations. Many faculty had signed petitions calling for Hamp and Charlayne to return, despite concerns about their own job security. However, Charlayne's ordeal was not over. For the next week, the girls in her dorm took turns pounding on the floor above her ceiling at night so she could not sleep. Later, some of the students complained of discrimination because Charlayne had a nicer room! But gradually the crowds on campus grew smaller, and some students showed signs of friendliness. During this period, the state of Georgia reluctantly began to move toward court-ordered desegregation of its public schools.

Hamp and Charlayne returned home to Atlanta every weekend. Charlayne's weekends were full--she was in demand as a speaker and often traveled up and down the east coast. The NAACP had provided the financial support and the lawyers for the court battle, and sometimes she was asked to speak at local meetings. Unlike Hamp, Charlayne enjoyed the public speaking, later describing it as a "lifeline" during a period when she was often alone by necessity rather than by choice.

Although there was now no question that Charlayne would be able to stay at Georgia, problems still remained. Charlayne wanted to be able to eat in the school cafeteria. The stress she was living under was causing some stomach problems. She hoped she would feel better if she ate better. It took another court order to declare all university facilities desegregated. The university had a physical education requirement, but Charlayne had been excused from modern dance because some of the other students didn't want her in the class. Because she didn't want to take phys ed, she tried to use the prejudice of the white students to her advantage. She listed swimming and bowling as her first two choices. She knew some of the students would object to being in the pool with her, and the university used the town bowling facilities, which were not desegregated. She did get excused from phys ed that quarter, although afterwards she took archery and tennis! Later when she brought a car on campus, she would sometimes return to find a flat tire. Once someone scratched an obscenity on the side, requiring a paint job. But Charlayne survived the first year.

That summer she was offered an internship with the Louisville Times, the first black person to hold a job there. Some of the paper's staff opposed her being hired--one editor was fired as a result. But some of the reporters played a mentoring role to Charlayne and her fellow intern. It was a positive experience overall. After two months, Charlayne returned to Atlanta and began to write for the black paper, the Inquirer, using what she had learned in Louisville.

Charlayne and Hamp returned to the University of Georgia in the fall, still the only black students there. Gradually, Charlayne began to stay on campus on the weekends and to make friends. In the spring semester, a black graduate student was assigned as Charlayne's roommate. Charlayne resented the university's approach, but the two were compatible. In the fall of Charlayne's senior year, two black freshmen were assigned as her roommates. Although Charlayne tried to be a "big sister" to them, she still resented the university's attitude, and its refusal to place her in a senior dorm. Things were changing, but very slowly.

After receiving her B.A. in journalism in1963, Charlayne went to work at the New Yorker, once again as the first black on the staff. She became a staff writer there the following year. Remembering the barriers as well as the doors opened by her race and gender, Charlayne comments in an interview that she was able to get ahead there because she had ability and worked hard. "...like everybody else, when I wasn't licking envelopes and typing schedules, I was working on some little piece at lunchtime at my desk..." (I Dream a World, 62). In 1967 she left the magazine to study social science at Washington University of St. Louis supported by a Russell Sage Fellowship. In St. Louis, she continued to expand her horizons as a journalist, editing articles for Trans-Action magazine and covering the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. for them. Soon she was offered a position as reporter and anchor of a local evening news broadcast, and the following year, 1968, she went to work for the New York Times, eventually becoming Harlem Bureau Chief. She remained with the New York Times for nine years, with some time out in the 1970s to direct a Columbia University minority journalism program. In 1978 she joined the staff of PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer Report, becoming their national correspondent in 1983. She was to remain with the program for nineteen years.

Hunter-Gault has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In addition to a number of honorary degrees awarded by colleges and universities, she has received Good Housekeeping's Broadcaster of the Year Award, the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, Journalist of the Year from the National Association of Black Journalists, Distinguished Urban Reporting Award from the National Urban Coalition, the American Women in Radio and Television Award, National News and Documentary Emmy Awards, and awards for excellence in local programming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She has also written articles for such magazines as Essence, Ms., Life, and Saturday Review. She has reported on and received awards for her stories on topics as diverse as the life of a twelve year old heroin addict, the invasion of Grenada, and the impact of apartheid in South Africa.

On a personal level, during her senior year in college, Charlayne fell in love with a fellow student and friend, Walter Stovall. Charlayne later said that this relationship gave her "a window into small-town white public education" and life (In My Place, 237). With this young white man, who saw segregation as "unfair," she attended her first college football game, something that he described to her as virtually a "religion" among small-town, southern whites. The two married after graduation in 1963 and had a daughter, Susan. The marriage ended in divorce, with the couple remaining on good terms. In 1971, Charlayne married African-American investment banker Ron Gault, and had a son, Chuma.

In May of 1997, Hunter-Gault announced that she would be leaving The News Hour With Jim Lehrer at the end of June. She wanted to join her husband, Ron Gault, in South Africa, where he had been transferred in 1996. She now works as a reporter for National Public Radio in the country she had described during the era of apartheid as "one of the greatest challenges that we in the media face" (I Dream a World, 62), reporting on the transition to black majority rule.

Sources:

Holley, Mary R. "Charlayne Hunter-Gault," Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc.,1992.

Holt, J. Chris. "Re:Charlayne Hunter-Gault." jholt@npr.org December 17, 1997.

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. In My Place. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

"Lunch," Lear's. October 1993, 16-18.

Morning@npr.org "Re: Charlayne Hunter-Gault." December 17, 1997.

Olendorf, Donna (ed). "Hunter-Gault, Charlayne," Contemporary Authors.  Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1994.

Smith, Jessie Carney. "Hunter-Gault, Charlayne," Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Brooklyn, N.Y.:Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1993.

Summers, Barbara (ed). "Charlayne Hunter-Gault," I Dream a World. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Inc., 1989. 

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Maria Theresa (1717-1780), archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, began her rule in 1740. She was the only woman ruler in the 650 history of the Habsburg dynasty.   She was also one of the most successful Habsburg rulers, male or female, while bearing sixteen children between 1738 and 1756.

Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.  In 1711, Charles VI found himself the sole remaining male Habsburg. An old European law, the Salic Law, prohibited a woman from inheriting her father's kingdom. Concerned that he may not father a son, Charles VI issued a decree in 1713, known as the Pragmatic Sanction. This document guaranteed the right of succession to his daughter. At this time, many of the great powers of Europe agreed to her succession of power, at a price.  Upon the death of Charles VI in 1740, however, challenges to the Habsburg lands led to the War of the Austrian Succession.

During the last several years of her father's reign, two wars had already left the monarchy financially compromised, and the army weakened. And since Charles VI had believed that his daughter would surrender true power to her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, he did not take the time to teach her the workings of the government. Without money, a strong army, and knowledge of state affairs, Maria Theresa knew she had to rely on her judgment and strength of character. 

King Frederick II of Prussia was her first challenger, when he took the occasion of Charles VI's death to occupy Silesia, beginning the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Bavaria and France joined in and invaded Maria Theresa's lands from the west. This challenge by Frederick II became the dominating element of Maria Theresa's long reign. The archduchess was determined that her internal and external policies would focus on the strengthening of her state and the creation of positive diplomacy in order to defeat the Prussian monarch. Maria Theresa was determined not to surrender to her enemies, but to reconquer all of her lands. She began by initiating reforms. Maria Theresa strengthened the army by doubling the number of troops from her father's reign, reorganized the tax structure to insure a predictable annual income to support the costs of the government and army, and centralized an office to assist in the collection of the taxes. Economic reform fueled prosperity for her empire.  The war ended with the loss of Silesia, but her state intact, and her husband recognized as Holy Roman Emperor.  

In 1756, Maria Theresa felt that Austria was strong enough to renew her conflict with Frederick II. With the direction of her state chancellor, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, the empress reorganized Austria's foreign policy in the so-called Diplomatic Revolution." On the advice of Kaunitz, Maria Theresa abandoned its accord with Great Britain and secured an alliance with France and Russia.  Yet, Frederick II surprised everyone when he attacked first, invading one of Austria's allies, Saxony. This conflict began what is known as the Seven Years' War (which combined with the French & Indian war in the American Colonies). In 1763, after much bloodshed, Maria Theresa signed the Treaty of Hubertusberg, ending all hostilities and recognizing Prussian possession of Silesia once and for all.

Two years later, Maria Theresa suffered a great personal loss, the unexpected death of her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine. Her love for him was so deep that from the day of his death until her own death in 1780, she dressed in mourning. After Francis Stephen's death, Maria Theresa became increasingly withdrawn. She continued reforms, but they came at a slower and more systematic pace. She changed her foreign policy from vigorously trying to regain Silesia to maintaining peace. After fifteen years of war and frustration, Maria Theresa was reluctant to get involved in conflicts that might prove unsuccessful. After the death of Francis Stephen, Maria Theresa recognized the eldest of her sixteen children, Joseph II, as emperor and coregent. Joseph II's  many fundamental differences in beliefs with his mother, caused anxiety and arguments. Periodically, Maria Theresa considered abdication of the throne. However, she never did abdicate. Instead, she allowed Joseph II only limited powers, since she felt his judgment too rash.

Maria Theresa was courageous, generous and kind. She respected the rights of others and expected others to respect her rights. In the later part of her rule, the empress focused more on human concerns, and less on financial and administrative improvements. She became increasingly involved with the problem of serf reform. Throughout the empire, the peasants were obligated to pay monetary and work dues to their lords. In 1771, Maria Theresa issued the Robot Patent, the serf reform designed to regulate the peasants' labor payments in all of the Habsburg lands.

The empress had a long reign which spanned forty years. She died on November 29, 1780. Some historians have termed Maria Theresa as the savior of the Habsburg Dynasty. Her efforts to transform her empire into a modern state solidified the Habsburg rule. Although when she came to the throne, her state appeared on the brink of dismemberment, Maria Theresa provided a strong foundation for the continuation of the Habsburg Dynasty into the modern era.

 TEACHER HERO:
MARY LYON
by Lu Stone

Mary Lyon, founder of Mount Holyoke College, was a pioneer in the struggle to establish institutions of higher education for women. Mary Lyon was born on February 28, 1797, on a remote New England farm. The Lyon family lived in Buckland, a town in the hills of western Massachusetts. In 1814, townspeople offered Mary Lyon her first teaching job at a summer school in Shelburne Falls, a town next to Buckland. She was 17 years old. At the time, teachers needed no formal training--young Mary Lyon’s reputation as an excellent student years earlier was enough of a qualification. Female teachers were especially in demand due to a growth in population and large numbers of men moving west in search of better opportunities. Teaching fired Lyon’s desire to continue her own education, a goal not easy to achieve in the early 19th century for an intelligent young woman with little money. Although private female academies, often called seminaries, were springing up in New England, women of modest means, like Mary Lyon, could not afford their fees. Moreover, the curriculums, which included "lady-like" skills like drawing and needlework, were far less challenging than at male schools where students studied subjects like geometry, science, and Latin. Despite the financial burden and a busy teaching schedule, Mary Lyon was determined to further her learning. In her own words, she gained "knowledge by the handfuls." She alternated time spent in classrooms and at lectures--sometimes traveling three days by carriage to enroll at a school--with teaching and running a school. Against the advice of her family, Lyon paid for her education by cashing in a small inheritance from her father. Ever frugal and resourceful, she saved a portion of her small salary and traded coverlets and blankets she had woven for room and board. Mary Lyon’s reputation as a gifted teacher spread far beyond the Buckland schoolhouse. Over the next 20 years, she taught at schools in western and eastern Massachusetts, and in southern New Hampshire. She became an authority on the education of women. These were the years when Mary Lyon developed her educational philosophy and gained experience in managing a school. Inspired by her own struggles to obtain an education, she worked hard to expand academic opportunities for young women and to prepare them to become teachers, one of the few professions open to women. The year, 1834, was a turning point for Mary Lyon. She decided to leave Ipswich Female Seminary, where she was assistant principal, and focus all of her time and efforts on founding an institution of higher education for women. For the next three years, she crusaded tirelessly for funds and support. It was not the best time to ask people for donations--the United States was in a severe economic depression. But Mary Lyon persisted. She wrote circulars and ads announcing the plan for the school, raised money, persuaded prominent men to back her enterprise, developed a curriculum, visited schools and talked to educators as far away as Detroit, chose the school’s location, supervised the design and construction of a building, brought equipment, hired teachers, and selected students. She endured ridicule from those who felt her ambitious undertaking would be "wasted" on women. Her constant travels often left her in a state of exhaustion. Yet, Mary Lyon never doubted her belief that women deserved to have the same opportunities for higher education as their brothers. In the fall of 1837, the schoolteacher from Buckland at last saw her dream fulfilled when the first 80 students arrived at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Many had traveled two or three days by stagecoach and carriage; all had passed difficult oral entrance examinations in English grammar, math, U.S. history, and geography. Upon Mary Lyon’s instructions, they each brought with them a Bible, an atlas, a dictionary, and two spoons. In 1837, Mary Lyon was an educator ahead of her time. She required seven courses in the sciences and mathematics for graduation, a requirement unheard of at other female seminaries. She introduced women to "a new and unusual way" to learn science--laboratory experiments which they performed themselves. She organized field trips on which students collected rocks, plants, and specimens for lab work, and inspected geological formations and recently discovered dinosaur tracks. She invited distinguished scientists to give lectures, and inspired women to pursue careers in the sciences as college teachers and researchers. Mary Lyon herself taught chemistry. Her interest in the sciences and high expectations for women sparked a tradition of leadership in science education that continues to this day at Mount Holyoke College. The success of Mount Holyoke opened the doors of higher education for women. Mary Lyon proved that women were as intellectually capable as men, and that an institution for women offering a college curriculum could survive financially. Her impact on education was felt across the United States and in distant corners of the world. Graduates of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary carried Mary Lyon’s ideals and teaching methods into schools which they founded or taught at, in places like Albert Lea, Minnesota and Marion, Alabama; Bitlis, Turkey and Honolulu, Hawaii; Umzumbe, South Africa and the territory of the Cherokee Nation; Kobe, Japan and Clinton, New York. One founded the first public school in Oklahoma; classes were held in a tent. Through the work of Mount Holyoke’s alumnae teachers, the quality of elementary and high school education improved nationwide; the presence of well-educated female teachers in the classroom offered role models for bright and aspiring girls and young women.

Written by Lu Stone Photos courtesy of Mount Holyoke College