Alice Freeman Palmer

Alice Freeman Palmer was born in Colesville, New York on February 21, 1855. At this time, her mother was only 17 years old. As her mother went on to have Alice’s three younger siblings, they shared the responsibility of taking care of them, and attending to household chores. Both her mother and father came from early settlers and therefore owned land in the Susquehanna Valley of southern New York. Her father worked in the farm and lumber industries until in 1861, he enrolled in the Albany Medical School. During this time he established a medical practice in Windsor, New York, where Alice met her mentor Thomas Barclay. Thomas was a student at Yale University and worked as a teacher to pay off his college expenses. He encouraged her intellectual curiosities and fueled her ambitions to seek a higher education.

In 1872, Palmer took an entrance exam at the University of Michigan. At the time, the university had just begun enrolling women just two years ago. Palmer did present some weaknesses on the exam, but after leaving a memorable impression on the president and registrar of the university, she was admitted.

In 1873, her father lost money in a poor investment and lost the farm and other possessions. Instead of returning home, Palmer began working as a Greek and Latin teacher. She was able to continue her studies while supporting her family and herself. Later on, her father would declare bankruptcy, leaving Palmer to assume his debts.

After she graduated, she became a principal at a high school in East Saginaw, Michigan. It was with this salary that she was able to help out her family, and pay for the house they were renting. Soon after, she was made three offers to teach at Wellesley College by Henry Fowle Durant, the very founder of Wellesley. One offer was that she teach mathematics, another asked her to teach Greek. She ultimately accepted the offer to become the head of the history department in 1879. By 1881, she was named acting president of Wellesley and then elected president after Durant died. She was the first woman to become the head of a nationally known college. As president, she improved the curriculum and raised the standards of the school’s admission process. She began to include more distinguished faculty members. Palmer also established fifteen “feeder schools” with the intention of creating pre-college preparation.

After leaving Wellesley College, in 1892 Palmer accepted an offer by the University of Chicago as a non-resident dean of the women’s department. Here she increased the percentage of female students at the school from 24% to 48%. Much of the male faculty and staff pushed back at Palmer’s efforts, resulting in her resignation in 1895.

Alice Freeman Palmer did so much for women’s education. She created a new image of the educated woman, and fought for women’s place in institutions of higher education. She was constantly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a woman advocating for women’s education. She started many organizations that worked to solve problems of inequality in the education sector. Palmer died in 1903 from a heart attack, but her impact as an American educator and advocate lives on.