M. Carey Thomas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Martha Carey Thomas
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Thomas (1919)
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| 2nd President of Bryn Mawr College | |
| In office 1894–1922 |
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| Preceded by | James Evans Rhoads |
| Succeeded by | Marion Edwards Park |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 2, 1857 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | December 2, 1935 (aged 78) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Relatives | Millicent McIntosh (niece) |
| Education | Cornell University |
| Known for | Educator, suffragist |
Martha Carey Thomas (born January 2, 1857 – died December 2, 1935) was an American educator. She was a strong supporter of women's right to vote, known as a suffragist. She also studied languages, making her a linguist. Thomas became the second president of Bryn Mawr College, which is a college for women in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
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About Martha Carey Thomas
Her Early Life
Carey Thomas was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 2, 1857. Her family called her Minnie when she was a child. Her parents were James Carey Thomas and Mary Whitall Thomas. Many people in her family were important Quakers. These included her aunt and uncle, Robert Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith.
When Carey was seven years old in 1864, she was badly burned. Her dress caught fire while she was helping the cook. Her mother quickly put out the flames. Carey had a long recovery, and her mother took great care of her.
As she grew up, Carey was greatly influenced by her mother and aunt Hannah. They were strong supporters of feminism, which means they believed in equal rights for women. Her father supported her independence. Even though her parents were strict Quakers, Carey's education and travels made her question some of their beliefs. She grew to love music and theater, which were not allowed for Orthodox Quakers. This caused some disagreements with her mother.
Carey first went to a Quaker school in Baltimore. She was very close to her cousin, Frank Smith. When Frank died suddenly in 1872, Minnie became very sad. Her parents then sent her and her cousin Bessie to the Howland Institute. This was a Quaker boarding school near Ithaca, New York. While there, a teacher named Miss Slocum encouraged Minnie to study education.
Thomas wanted to go to Cornell University for more education. Her father did not agree at first. But after much convincing from Carey and her mother, he allowed it.
Her College Years
In September 1875, Thomas went to Sage College at Cornell University. This was the women's school there. At this time, she officially changed her first name to Carey. She finished her studies at Cornell University in 1877.
After Cornell, she studied Greek at Johns Hopkins University. However, she had to leave because women were not allowed to attend classes. She then went to the University of Leipzig in Germany, but they did not give degrees to women. Finally, she went to the University of Zurich in Switzerland. In 1882, she earned her Ph.D. in linguistics with top honors. Her special study was about an old English poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. She was the first woman and the first person from another country to get this degree from the university.
Carey Thomas then spent time in Paris, France, attending lectures. She returned to the United States. She pursued her degree not just for her love of learning, but to prove that women were as smart as men.
Leading Bryn Mawr College
In 1882, Thomas wrote to the leaders of Bryn Mawr College. She asked to be the president. However, they thought she was too young and did not have enough experience. Instead, in 1884, she became the dean of the college and head of the English department.
Even though she wasn't president, Thomas was very involved in running the college. She worked closely with the president, James Rhoads. By 1892, she was doing almost everything a president would do. She even hired Woodrow Wilson as a history professor before he became president of the United States.
In 1884, Thomas visited other colleges like Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, and Radcliffe. She wanted to get ideas to make Bryn Mawr even better.
In 1885, Thomas and her friends Mary Garrett, Mamie Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers started The Bryn Mawr School. This was a special high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Its goal was to prepare young women to meet the high standards for entering Bryn Mawr College.
When President Rhoads died in 1894, Thomas was chosen to be the next president. She became president on September 1, 1894. She was president until 1922 and remained dean until 1908.
As president, Thomas focused on keeping very high standards for students and academics. The entrance exams for Bryn Mawr were as hard as those for Harvard University. Students could not get in just by having a good school record. For classes, Thomas used a "group system" similar to Johns Hopkins. Students had to take related courses in a certain order. They could not just pick any classes they wanted. There were also other rules, like needing to know a foreign language well. Thomas herself would test students on their ability to translate.
Overall, Bryn Mawr's classes under Thomas focused on traditional subjects like Greek, Latin, and mathematics. Thomas also helped build many new buildings at the college. These buildings introduced a special style of architecture called collegiate Gothic to the United States.
In 1908, she became the first president of the National College Women's Equal Suffrage League. She was also an important member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. After 1920, she supported the National Woman's Party. She was one of the first people to push for an equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment would ensure equal rights for all people.
For many years, Thomas lived with her close friend, Mamie Gwinn, at Bryn Mawr College. Their home was called "the Deanery". Later, Mamie Gwinn left to marry someone else. Thomas then formed a close friendship with Mary Garrett. Mary Garrett was also important in the fight for women's right to vote and gave a lot of money to Bryn Mawr. When Mary Garrett died, she left a large amount of money to Thomas. Thomas believed that marriage meant a "loss of freedom" for women.
Views on Race and Religion
During her time as president, and even before, Thomas made it difficult for Jewish people to join Bryn Mawr. This applied to both teachers and students. She did not want to hire Jewish teachers. She preferred to have teachers from "our own good Anglo-Saxon stock." Thomas also tried to stop a Jewish student named Sadie Szold from being admitted.
In a speech in 1916, Thomas said that she hoped the "intellectual supremacy of the white races" would continue. She believed this would happen if white women were educated. Thomas said that Black students did not apply to Bryn Mawr while she was president. However, she redirected Jessie Redmon Fauset, a Black student who received a scholarship in 1901, to Cornell University. Thomas even helped pay for some of Fauset's tuition there.
In 2017, Bryn Mawr's president, Kim Cassidy, spoke about Thomas's "racism and anti-Semitism." Some people asked the school to remove Thomas's name from buildings. President Cassidy said that while Thomas had a big impact on women's education, she also openly supported racism and anti-Semitism. In 2018, the buildings once known as Thomas Library and Thomas Hall were renamed Old Library and Great Hall.
Later Life and Death
Thomas retired in 1922 when she was sixty-five years old. She left the college in the hands of Marion Edwards Park. In 1921, a special summer school for women workers was started at Bryn Mawr, which was a big part of Thomas's legacy.
Mary Garrett left a lot of money to Thomas. Thomas used this money to travel the world in luxury for the last two decades of her life. She visited places like India, the Sahara desert, and France.
Martha Carey Thomas died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1935. She had returned to the city to speak at Bryn Mawr College's 50th anniversary. Her ashes were spread on the Bryn Mawr College campus.
Images for kids
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1899 portrait of M. Carey Thomas by John Singer Sargent.
