Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/770

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Women as Educators
729


Wisconsin School for the Blind at Janesville, Wisconsin, of which Thomas H. Little was superintendent. In 1862 Mr. Little and Miss Coles were married. On the death of her husband in February, 1875, Mrs. Little was chosen by the board of trustees as his successor. At this time no other woman in the United States was in charge of so important an institution as the Wisconsin School for the Blind, and during her superintendency it was one of the best managed institutions of the country, and Mrs. Little is recognized as a leading educational authority in this particular line of work. Mrs. Little was a zealous Christian and thorough Bible student. One of her daughters was a missionary, and on the opening of the Oberlin Home for Missionary Children in 1892, Mrs. Little assumed charge. In this school the children of missionaries are educated.

FLORENCE RENA SABIN.

Dr. Florence R. Sabin, associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Medical School, is the only woman professor in that institution and is a distinguished physiologist. She was born in Central City, Colorado, November 9, 1871, and is the daughter of George Kimball and Rena Miner Sabin. Received her degree of B.S. from Smith College in 1893, and that of M.D. at the Johns Hopkins University in 1900. She is the author of several works, among them being "An Atlas of the Medulla and Mid-Brain." Dr. Sabin has written articles for medical journals and magazines on medical and anatomical subjects.

JANE SHERZER.

Was a graduate of the University of Michigan; has been a student of languages in Paris, Jena and Munich; she studied for three years in the Berlin University taking the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D., in English, German, old Scandanavian and Philosophy, and is one of the very few women who have attained to the great scholastic distinction of winning the Doctorate of Philosophy at Berlin.

HELEN ALMIRA SHAFER.

Was born September 23, 1839, in Newark, New Jersey. Her father was a clergyman. He gave his daughter a thorough and liberal education. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1863. In 1865 she became a teacher of mathematics in the public schools at St. Louis. Mrs. Shafer ranked as the most able teacher in her line at that time and was one of the most potent educational forces in the city of St. Louis. In 1877 she was called to Wellesley College as professor of mathematics filling this chair until 1888, when she was elected president of Wellesley. In 1878 Oberlin College had conferred upon her the degree of A.M. and in 1893 that of LL.D. As president of Wellesley College she manifested an executive ability and faculty for business quite as marked as her talents as a teacher. At the time of her death, January 20, 1894, she was considered one of the most prominent and successful college administrators.