Thought Knows No Sex

Susan Rumsey Strong

Description

"The essential powers of the spirit are neither masculine nor feminine, but human, sexless. Thought knows no sex." — Jonathan Allen, President, Alfred University (1867–1892)

One of the nation's first coeducational colleges and an early leader in women's higher education, Alfred University offered a remarkably egalitarian environment for women in an era when their voices were silenced elsewhere. Founded in 1836 as a select school in rural western New York State, it embraced women's public speaking, women's rights, and even suffrage. Susan Rumsey Strong shares the history of nineteenth-century Alfred, explaining its uniquely liberal environment by focusing on the individuals who created it and the sociocultural factors that contributed to it. Shared labor, a dense kinship system, a separatist denomination, independence from that denomination, liberal theology, and a secular mission all supported an explicit ideology of equality. Grounded in student experiences of the period, this social history explores the origins of women's higher education and the rural roots of reform. Along the way, Strong allows individual voices from diaries, letters, and recollections to recount their own stories, revealing the excitement, hopes, and fears felt by some of the first women to aspire to higher education.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Gender and Higher Education

2. Seventh Day Baptist and Farm Roots

3. Origins: The Select School, 1836–1843

4. Alfred Academy: Educational Reform

5. Kenyon’s University Years

6. “No More Thought of Changing”: Women’s Equality

7. “The Exercise of Equity”: A Voice for Women

8. Student Ties

9. “The Past Lives and Shines In and Through Us”

Conclusion
Notes
General Bibliography
Works Cited from the Alfred University Archives Herrick Memorial Library (HMLA)
Index

Sujets

• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité
• Tertiary education
• History of education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791478073
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

                     


    
      

  

Thought Knows No Sex

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Thought Knows No Sex 

Women’s Rights at Alfred University

Susan Rumsey Strong

State University of New York Press

All photographs courtesy of Herrick Memorial Library, Alfred University.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Strong, Susan Rumsey, 1944– Thought knows no sex : women’s rights at Alfred University / Susan Rumsey Strong. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7513-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Alfred University— Students—History. 2. Women—Education (Higher)—New York—Alfred— History. 3. Sex discrimination in higher education—United States—History. 4. Women’s rights—United States—History. I. Title.

LD131.A34S77 2008 378.747'84—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2007037530

I dedicate this book to my family (especially to our grandchildren, Sofia Kathryn and Michael Steven VanHook, who would have read it too if they could!), to Siena, and to the memory of my parents, Kathryn Skinner Rumsey and Dexter Phelps Rumsey, who would have been very pleased.

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Chapter One

Chapter Two

Contents 

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Gender and Higher Education

Seventh Day Baptist and Farm Roots

Chapter Three Origins: The Select School, 1836–1843

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Alfred Academy: Educational Reform

Kenyon’s University Years

“No More Thought of Changing”: Women’s Equality

“The Exercise of Equity”:

Student Ties

A Voice for Women

“The Past Lives and Shines In and Through Us”

Conclusion

Notes

General Bibliography

Works Cited from the Alfred University Archives Herrick Memorial Library (HMLA)

Index

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3.1.

3.2.

4.1.

4.2.

4.3.

5.1.

6.1.

6.2.

7.1.

8.1.

8.2.

Illustrations 

William C . Kenyon in 1839, his first year as Select School teacher.

Melissa Ward Kenyon, wife of William C . Kenyon. Late 1850s.

Abigail Maxson Allen. About 1860.

The signers of the 1849 Compact. Seated, left to right: Darwin E. Maxson, Jonathan Allen, William C . Kenyon, Daniel D. Pickett. Standing, left to right: James Marvin, Ira Sayles, Darius Ford.

The Chapel, built 1851, housing classrooms, literary societies, and school assemblies. The Gothic is on the right.

Alfred University campus, looking east from the village. The White House (the Allens’ home), observatory, Chapel, “The Gothic,” and “The Brick,” left to right. Pine Hill is in the background. About 1875.

Jonathan Allen. About 1870.

Jonathan Allen standing among the trees he planted on campus. The Chapel is in the background. 1880s.

Literary society event in the Athenaean Lyceum room. About 1894.

Students in their boarding hall, “The Brick.” 1870s.

Art class in Kenyon Memorial Hall, instructor Amelia Stillman standing right of center. 1880s.

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