three years of life and study abroad with one of her own pupils, the teaching was
interrupted, to be resumed with still greater eagerness after three years of travel and student life in the great European centers. After one year as principal of what was then one of the most flourishing of New York City boarding schools, came the marriage with John B. Dickinson, a prominent banker of New York, and after that the social and philanthropic life which was interrupted only by periods of European travel until her husband's death.
Being recognized as one who had watched the development of every new educational movement, the opportunities to put personal touch upon one institution after another came to this busy woman's life. Boards of trustees conferred with her in reference to plans; philanthropists desiring to found educational institutions, and heads of schools and colleges, sought her co-operation, and invited her to aid in the development of their work. One after another, many institutions of prominence for the education of girls invited her to a place on their faculty. Wellesley, the Woman's College of the Northwestern University, Lasalle Seminary, Vassar, the Universities of Denver and Southern California, invited her to positions of honor and trust. Having made a specialty of the study of literature, keeping abreast constantly of the changes and advancement made in that department both in American and European colleges and universities, Mrs. Dickinson was quite ready when the opportunity offered to undertake the chair of literature in the University of Denver, Colorado. Here for two years she worked earnestly, especially for the advancement of young Western womanhood, which she insisted was the coming womanhood of our day. The work involved many outside demands, much lecturing upon literary and philanthropic topics, and heavy responsibilities, under which her health gave way; but the work had been so well done that the board of trustees continued to hold her position open for her. When return to that altitude was impossible, she was honored by the board of trustees, who named the chair of literature for her. Of this chair they made her emeritus professor, conferring upon her also a lectureship in English.
In the lecture field, one of Mrs. Dickinson's strong characteristics has been the combination of womanliness that never rants, with the earnestness that never fails to present the truth as she sees it with uncompromising directness and power. Much of her speaking has been before educational and philanthropic societies, in colleges and schools and before literary and historical clubs. She has been too busy a woman for much distinctive club life, but she is a member of the Barnard, Patria, and several other clubs.
Aside from her general interest in the development of all phases of woman's education and the special interest in the study of literature, no one subject has more engrossed her attention than that of education in citizenship. So far as possible, she has tried to avoid representing the work of organizations, believing that individual influence over individuals was the surest basis of help. Nothwithstanding this preference for individual labor, she has at one time been secretary of the Bible Society, one of the oldest organizations in New York; the superintendent of a department of higher education in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; the president of the National Indian Association; the general secretary from its beginning of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, and she is now an honorary president—having served as president for several years—of the
