Sara Branham Matthews The grand lady of microbiology
Among Wesleyan alumnae who have served in the public sector, no name has been more heralded over the years than that of Sara Branham Matthews from the Class of 1907. In 1950, when the Wesleyan Alumnae Association began recognizing individual alumnae for their distinguished achievement, it was no surprise that Sara Branham Matthews was among the alumnae so honored that first year. In 1992, the newly formed Georgia Women of Achievement (GWA) chose from among hundreds of accomplished women in Georgia history to include Sara in its first class of honorees. A newly released video by GWA highlights the contributions of this daughter of Wesleyan whose greatest 6
contribution in a lifetime of scientific achievements was the development of a successful treatment for spinal meningitis. Born in 1888, a time when higher education for women was rare, Sara Branham was blessed to be part of a family whose members believed strongly in the value of women’s education. When she graduated in 1907, Sara became the third generation in her family to graduate from Wesleyan College. Preceding her were her mother Amanda Stone Branham from the Class of 1885 and her paternal grandmother Elizabeth Flournoy Stone, one of the nine members of Wesleyan’s first graduating class in 1840.
Both of Sara Branham’s grandfathers had served on the faculty of Wesleyan. Wesleyan Professor George W. W. Stone, her mother’s father, went on to teach applied mathematics at Emory. Her paternal grandfather Walter R. Branham taught history at Wesleyan and fell in love with Elizabeth Flournoy there. In addition, she had aunts, great aunts, and “more cousins than I can name” who attended Wesleyan. While the Branham family was committed to education, professional opportunities for women, even bright college graduates like Sara Branham, were severely limited in 1907. Teaching was one of the few careers open to women,