Pioneer Women’s Educator Mary Lyon Writes a Male Clergyman Who Was Applying for a Job as Teacher

She was founder and president of Mt. Holyoke College, which she established to promote women’s higher education

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Lyon employed only women as full teachers at Mount Holyoke, so this man’s application was an unusual one

Mary Mason Lyon was a pioneer in women’s education. She established Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1837 and served as its first president (or “principal”) for...

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Pioneer Women’s Educator Mary Lyon Writes a Male Clergyman Who Was Applying for a Job as Teacher

She was founder and president of Mt. Holyoke College, which she established to promote women’s higher education

Lyon employed only women as full teachers at Mount Holyoke, so this man’s application was an unusual one

Mary Mason Lyon was a pioneer in women’s education. She established Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1837 and served as its first president (or “principal”) for 12 years. Lyon’s vision fused intellectual challenge and moral purpose, and her intention was to create an institution to provide women with education equivalent to that provided in the then men-only colleges.. She valued socioeconomic diversity and endeavored to make the seminary affordable for students of modest means.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, South Hadley [Massachusetts], August 2, 1843, to a clergyman. “Rev. & Dear Sir. I have received your application for a teacher. I have delayed writing because I have been quite unable to investigate as carefully as I should like to do, & have been unable to specify a time when I could attend to it. There is but little probability that I could recommend a principal, but there is more probability that I might recommend an assistant. Tomorrow when our exercises are over, & our dinner too, I would endeavor to devote a little attention to it, if you were here. We should be happy to see you at our exercises & to have your company at our table at dinner. Respectfully yours, Mary Lyon.”

Lyon employed only women as full teachers at Mount Holyoke. Whether this gentleman got hired as an assistant is an interesting question.

Lyon’s is a very rare autograph. A search of public sale records going back 40 years turned up but one other example, and that was 15 years ago.

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