Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/559

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554
OWLER.
PALMER.

paper on a European mission, and her description of the "Passion Play" and her letters from various parts of France, Great Britian and Ireland were widely read. She spent the year 1892 abroad in the interests of the "Herald," in Brittany, Alsace-Lorraine, Italy and the Scandinavian peninsula. She was accompanied to Europe by her only son, Charles, a boy of twelve years. Mrs. Owler is the author of an art biography soon to be published, which w ill show that she has talent in another field, that of art-criticism.


PALMER, Mrs. Alice Freeman, educator, born in Colesvillc, Broome county, N. Y., 21st February, 1855. Her maiden name was Alice Elvira Freeman. Her parents were farmers, and her youth was passed on a farm. She was the oldest of a family of four children. Her father was a delicate man unsuited for farm life. His tastes ran to medicine, and he studied with a neighboring village physician, and finally took the course in the medical college in Albany, N. Y., graduating in 1866. While he was in college, Mrs. Freeman managed the farm. ALICE FREEMAN PALMER. When Alice was ten years old, the family moved into Windsor, and Dr. Freeman began to practice there. Alice studied diligently and prepared to take the course in Vassar, but changed her plans, and in 1873 went to the University of Michigan, where she was graduated after a four-year course. While in Ann Arbor she organized the Students' Christian Association, in which male and female students met on equal terms. In 187Q she was engaged as professor of history in Wellesley College. In 1881 she became acting president of that college, and in 1882 she accepted the presidency, which she filled until 1888. She has since been a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education, trustee of Wellesley College, president of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Association, president of the Association of Collegiate Alumna?, president of the Woman's Educational Association, Massachusetts commissioner of education to the World's Fair and member of many important educational and benevolent committees. She has lectured on educational and other subjects. In 1882 the University of Michigan conferred upon her the degree of Ph.D.. and in 1887 she received the degree of Doctor of Letters from Columbia College. In 1887 she resigned all active duties and became the wife of Prof. George Herbert Palmer, of Harvard University. Her home is in Cambridge, Mass.


PALMER, Mrs. Anna Campbell, author, born in Elmira, N. Y., 3rd February, 1854. Her maiden name was Anna Campbell. She has passed her life, except four years of childhood, in Ithaca, N. Y., in the beautiful Chemung Valley. She was an author while yet a mere child. ANNA CAMPBELL PALMER. When she was ten years old, she published a poem in the Ithaca "Journal." At the age of fourteen she was left an orphan, and in 1870 she became a teacher in the Elmira public schools. She taught successfully for a number of years. In September, 1880, she became the wife of George Archibald Palmer. Her family consists of two daughters. In her early years she wrote under a number of pen-names, but after her marriage she chose to be known as "Mrs. George Archibald," and that name has appeared with all her productions since that date. She has written much and well. Some of her best work has appeared in the "Magazine of Poetry." Her published works are "The Summerville Prize" (New York, 1890); a book for girls, "Little Brown Seed " (New York, 1801); "Lady Gay" (Boston, 1891); "Lady Gay and Her Sister" (Chicago, 1891), and "Verses from a Mother's Corner" (Elmira, N. Y.). She has a fifth volume in press. Mrs. Palmer's life is quiet and her tastes domestic.


PALMER, Mrs. Bertha Honore, social leader and president of the ladies' board of managers of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, was born in