Emily Howland
Portrait of Emily Howland from American Women
Born(1827-11-20)November 20, 1827
Sherwood, New York
DiedJune 29, 1929(1929-06-29) (aged 101)

Emily Howland (November 20, 1827 – June 29, 1929) was a philanthropist and educator. Especially known for her activities and interest in the education of African-Americans, she was also a strong supporter of women's rights and the temperance movement. Howland personally financed the education of many black students and contributed to institutions such as the Tuskegee Institute[1] and Kowaliga Institute in Kowaliga, Alabama where Howland Hall was named for her.[2]

Early life and education

Emily Howland was born at Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York,[3] on November 20, 1827.[3] She was the daughter of Slocum and Hannah Tallcot Howland, who were prominent in the Society of Friends.[3] Her brother, William Howland, served in the 106th New York State Legislature.[4] She was educated in small private schools in the community, and the Margaret Robinson School, a Friends school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[5]

Career

An active abolitionist, Howland taught at Normal School for Colored Girls (now University of the District of Columbia) in Washington, D.C., from 1857 to 1859. During the Civil War she worked at the contraband refugee settlement of Camp Todd in Arlington, Virginia, teaching freed slaves to read and write as well as administering to the sick during a smallpox outbreak and ultimately serving as director of the camp during 1864-1866.[5]

Beginning in 1867, she started a community for freed people in Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia, called Arcadia, on 400 acres purchased by her father, including a school for the education of children of freed slaves, the Howland Chapel School.[6][4] She continued to maintain an active interest in African-American education, donating money and materials as well as visiting and corresponding with administrators at many schools.[4] Returning to Sherwood NY after her father's death in 1881, she inherited $50,000 ($1.52 million in 2022 dollars) and ran the Sherwood Select School until 1926 when it became a public school and was renamed the Emily Howland Elementary School by the state of New York.[4]

Howland was also active in women's suffrage, peace, and temperance movements and was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.[7] In 1858, she began organizing women's rights lectures and meetings with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In 1878, she spoke at the 30th anniversary of the Seneca Falls woman's rights convention and in 1894 the New York State legislature.[8] When the suffrage movement split into two groups, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, Howland did not take sides, but attended meetings of both groups.[7] In 1904, she spoke in front of Congress and attended the 1912 and 1913 suffrage parades in New York.[8] She has been credited with persuading Ezra Cornell that, as a Quaker, he should make Cornell University a coeducational institution.[7]

In 1926 she received an honorary Litt.D. degree from the University of the State of NY, in Albany, the first woman to have this honor conferred upon her from this institution.[4] She was also the author of an historical sketch of early Quaker history in Cayuga County, NY: Historical Sketch of Friends in Cayuga County.[9]

Howland became one of the first female directors of a national bank in the United States, at the First National Bank of Aurora in Aurora, New York, in 1890,[10] serving until her death, at age 101.

Legacy

Her papers are held by several universities, including Cornell University,[11] Haverford College,[5] and Swarthmore College.[12] A photo album containing family, friends, and colleagues, as well as souvenir images of notable abolitionists and famous figures during the 1860s and 1870s is jointly owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress.[13] In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Locke, Mamie E. (February 2000). "Emily Howland". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  2. ↑ Bieze, Michael (2008). Booker T. Washington and the Art of Self-representation. Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433100109.
  3. 1 2 3 "Obituaries". The Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association. 10 (4): 346–348. October 1929. JSTOR 43565516.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "United States Department of the Interior OMB No. 1024-0018, National Park Service. NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES.CONTINUATION SHEET. Section 8: Significance. (Property Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District. Location Cayuga County, New York)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "Finding Aid for the EMILY HOWLAND PAPERS,1926-1975 (Haverford College Library Special Collections)". Archived from the original on April 21, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  6. ↑ Jeffrey M. O'Dell and Carolyn E. Jett (June 1989). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Howland Chapel School" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-12. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  7. 1 2 3 Hope., Bacon, Margaret (1989). Mothers of feminism : the story of Quaker women in America (c1986) (1st paperback Harper & Row ed.). San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 0062500465. OCLC 21550452.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. 1 2 "NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior – National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Judith Colucci Breault (1981). The Odyssey of a Humanitarian: Emily Howland, 1827-1929. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0-405-14076-2.
  10. ↑ Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton (1893). Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Moulton, 1893). Moulton. ISBN 9780722217139. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Emily Howland Papers,1797-1938. Collection No.2681 (Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library)". Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ "An Inventory of the Emily Howland Family Papers, 1763-1929 (Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College)". Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Photograph album owned by Emily Howland". National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  14. ↑ "Michelle Obama, Mia Hamm chosen for Women's Hall of Fame". March 8, 2021.
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