History of mary lyon

  • Mary lyon reform movement
  • What did mary lyon do
  • Mary lyon education

    • Lyon, Mary ()

    Bibliography

    Personal papers of Lyon are available at the Mount Holyoke College library/archives, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA.

    Digital Texts


    Adams, Elmer Cleveland. Heroines of Modern Progress. New York: Sturgis & Walton Co., See especially chapter two, &#;Mary Lyon,&#;

    Banks, Louis Albert. The Religious Life of Famous Americans. Boston: American Tract Society,

    Bolton, Sarah Knowles.Lives of Girls Who Became Famous. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., See especially, &#;Mary Lyons&#;Teacher&#; by Harriet G. Hosmer,

    Douglas, Mrs. John. Life Story of Mary Lyon: Founder of Mt. Holyoke College. Minneapolis, MN: The Beard Art and Stationary Co.,

    Fiske, Fidelia. Recollections of Mary Lyon: With Selections from her Instructions to the Pupils in Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary. Boston: American Tract Society,

    General View of the Principles and Design of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Published by Direction of the Trustees. Boston: printed by Perkins & Marvin,

    Gilchrist, Beth B. The Life of Mary Lyon. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.,

    Gracey, Annie Ryder. Eminent Missionary Women. New York: Eaton & Mains,

    Hitchcock, Edward. The Power of Christian Benevolence, Illustrated in the Life and Labors of Mary Lyon. [Boston]: American Tract Society,

    Horton, Edith. A Group of Famous Women: Stories of Their Lives. Boston, New York, and Chicago: D. C. Heath and Co.,

    Lansing, Marion (ed.). Mary Lyon through Her Letters. Boston: Books, Inc.,

    Parkman, Mary Rosetta. Heroines of Service: Mary Lyon, Alice Freeman Palmer, Clara Barton, Frances Willard, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Shaw, Mary Antin, Alice C. Fletcher, Mary Slessor of Calabar, Madame Curie, Jane Addams. New York: The Century Co.,

    Thayer, William Makepeace. The Good Girl and True Woman: Or, Elements of Success Drawn from the Life of Mary Lyon and Other Similar Characters. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, Orig.

    _____. The True Woman: El

    Nineteenth Century

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    Mary Lyon

    Mary Lyon was a pioneer in American education who acted as a consultant to the Wheaton family at the founding of the Seminary and established the school&#;s curriculum.

    Mary Lyon, at age 38 an already well-known and respected teacher who had been influenced by Catherine Beecher and the Rev. Joseph Emerson, was teaching at Ipswich Seminary and was planning to open her own school for young women. She agreed to help the Wheatons develop Wheaton Female Seminary&#;s first curriculum and rules, hire the first teachers and do some teaching when she was in town. She also brought Wheaton its first principal, Eunice Caldwell and steadfastly maintained an appeal to establish a widely based, permanent endowment so that the institution would not have to rely on high tuition for its programs.

    While at Wheaton, Mary Lyon wrote numerous letters and circulars, took time for quiet study and thought and made short trips around New England to raise funds and an endowment for what would later become Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, MA. She began by concentrating on the alumnae of Ipswich Seminary and on the women in that town. Walking door to door, Miss Lyon succeeded in collecting $ from the ladies of Ipswich. She then used the example of their patronage to raise funds in other communities. While she relied on women&#;s organizations like sewing circles and evangelical associations, Lyon also encouraged husbands to give a portion of their estates to be invested in the education of their daughters.

    In , Mary Lyon took Wheaton&#;s first principal, Eunice Caldwell, and eight Wheaton students with her to open Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

    Mary Lyon Hall was named for Mary Lyon in

  • When was mary lyon born

    • Mary Lyon

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    Born in Buckland, Massachusetts, Mary had a difficult childhood; her father died when she was six, and seven years later her mother remarried and moved away, leaving her in the care of her brother Aaron. She attended various district schools when she was able, and in she began teaching at them as well. Eventually, she was able to attend two secondary schools, after which she began teaching at several academies, two of which were run by Zilpah Grant, the assistant to her former headmaster. Several years later, she helped found Wheaton Female Seminary—now Wheaton College—in Massachusetts.

    In , Mary made her own dreams come true when she officially opened Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (presently Mount Holyoke College), similar in nature to Grant’s schools but willing to provide education to women of all backgrounds. She promoted high academic standards, insisted upon daily exercise, and, in order to keep costs low, required her students to perform domestic tasks at the college. She soon attracted a student of young women, and she equipped her pupils with a rigorous education aimed at changing the standard role of women, with particular emphasis on the sciences.

    Mary died in after contracting erysipelas, a dangerous bacterial infection. In , she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, and the Mary Lyon dormitories at Swarthmore College and Plymouth State University are named in her honor.


    Key events during the life of Mary Lyon:


    Year
    Event
    		Born.
    		Father died.
    		Mother remarried and moved away, leaving her in the care of her older brother.
    		Began teaching at various elementary schools.
    		Helped establish Wheaton Female Seminary.
    		Opened Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
    		Died.


    Contemporary
    Short Biography
    Lucretia MottInfluential Quaker leader who advocated the rights of women. Held relatively conservative views among early feminists.
    Elizabeth Ca

    “Go where no one else will go. Do what no one else will do.”

    &#; Mary Lyon

    Mary Lyon, ca.

    Mary Lyon was a pioneering educator of women. In she founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which Emily Dickinson attended in Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, on February 28, She was one of seven children born to Aaron Lyon, a Scottish farmer, and Jemima Shepherd Lyon. Mary Lyon attended Buckland School from the age of four until she was thirteen, often boarding with local families since it was too far to travel home each day.

    When Lyon was seventeen, she was invited to teach summer school in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. At that time teachers often entered the workforce with few formal qualifications. For twenty years Lyon continued her teaching career at several schools, including Ipswich Female Seminary, which Lavinia Dickinson later attended. While teaching, Lyon used her income and a small inheritance to further her education by traveling and studying educational reform.

    In Lyon decided to leave teaching in order to raise funds for a female seminary accessible to women of modest means. Lyon conceived of a seminary founded on the principles of public benevolence, as opposed to the customary practice of funding by a wealthy benefactor. She tirelessly traveled the country collecting donations in a green velvet purse. She made a special request of church sewing societies throughout New England to contribute quilts and bedding that would furnish a chamber for each student. To keep tuition low, seminary students would live together as a family in one large building and would do much of the school’s housework (cleaning, cooking, and laundering).

    On November 8, , Mount Holyoke Female Seminary admitted its first eighty students. Mary Lyon had high academic standards for her students. An admirer of the Amherst College curriculum, she developed a rigorous course of study that included the sciences, not a subject commonly emphasized at men’s or women’s schools.