Wfomen
&
Harvard
The First 350Years
bv CATHERINE CLINTON As a student of the past and a professor of American history, I am not surprised that the oldest and most distinguished university in the country' has had a long and significant relationship with the female half of the population. 'The fact that Harvard was launched in 1636 as an institution for the education of men by men docs not preclude significant, if not critical, contributions by women. However, as a scholar engaged in revisionism. 1 also am aware that stereotypes and invisibility— shrouded in the proud guise of "traditionalism"—can inhibit our appreciation of those contributions. In the Harvard University' Archives, women are confined to eleven entries in the card catalogue. Turning to the shelf list, I asked an archivist if the category "Men Known Chiefly for Their Harvard Connection Who Died Before 1940" and its companion, the "After 1940" crowd, were literal or figurative labels. He was so puzzled by my question that I pointedly rephrased: If a woman known chiefly for her connection to Harvard had died and left her papers to the Archives, would I find the collection undet this category or under a separate
heading? T h e young man's withering glance told me all 1 needed to know, but he patiently explained that women had only recently joined the faculty, and if there were any donations by women, they would be included under the category "men." 1 reflected on how this label transformed the pioneering astronomer Williamina Paton Fleming, who in 1898 became the first woman curator at Harvard and left her papers to the Archives, into an "honorary male."'
B
uried within the official records and tucked away in published memoirs and histories, women's sustaining influences on the College are evident. Excluded from active participation in institutions of higher learning during the colonial era and expected to concern themselves with piety and charity alone, women persisted in finding outlets for their generosity. From the lieginning Harvard attracted the support of female philanthropy. T h e earliest list of benefactors includes the extraordinarily generous Lady Mowlson (Anne Radcliffe), whose gift of ÂŁ100 SF.PTF.MBKK-OCTOBKR 1986
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