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Accomplished suffragette, educator, author and advocate. President of the American General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Wrote and published what was considered to be the standard textbook for teaching Texas history.
Courtesy of The General Federation of Woman’s Clubs.
A nna H ardwicke P enn ybacker (1880)
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nna Hardwicke Pennybacker attended Sam Houston Normal Institute and graduated in 1880 as part of its first class. She later gifted $5,000 to Sam Houston State Teachers College to establish a scholarship “for the cultivation in the student body of a love for the true and beautiful in life.” Pennybacker did live a true and beautiful life. Following her time at SHNI, she continued her education in Europe, and taught grammar and high school for 14 years. In 1884, she married her SHNI classmate, Percy V. Pennybacker (who died in 1899); they had three children. In 1888, she wrote and published “A New History of Texas”. This textbook, known as “the Pennybacker text” was the standard for teaching Texas history for the next 40 years. She began a career in advocacy when she founded one of the first Texas women’s clubs, the Tyler Woman’s Club in 1894. From 1901 to 1903 she led the Texas Federation of Women. She also held many positions with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, serving two terms as president, from 1911-1912 and 1912-1916. Under her administration, she was also responsible for the creation of many libraries in Texas, and the formation of travelling libraries and art collections which she funded. From 1919 to 1920, Pennybacker worked as an associate member of the Democratic National Committee where she began a close and influential relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. Their fourteen-year friendship was based on mutual interests in the advancement of women, world peace and the Democratic party. She had such a prolific and diverse record of contributions, from Food Administration of Texas in World War I to acting as a special correspondent to the League of Nations (1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, and 1931). She was a frequent lecturer around the country and became the first woman in history to give the commencement address to the city of Houston’s combined high schools. Until her death in 1938, Pennybacker actively worked for the causes that she felt passionate about.
Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker was active throughout her entire life working with women’s clubs and lobbying for equal rights for women. She was also active in other Progressive Era causes and was a strong supporter of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Image courtesy of Sam Houston State University Archives. SHSU collection
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