The Archon, Spring 2022

Page 18

Archives

Dummer Academy 1898–1899

THE ANNEX A brief history of the first women students at the Academy We owe a debt of gratitude to Imogene Robinson ’13, whose research during her time as a student at The Governor’s Academy, as well as further study while at Centre College, provided much of the information contained in this article. While the school celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of women in 1971, Dummer Academy admitted women nearly 100 years earlier, for two brief and often forgotten periods. It all began in 1872, when the newly hired Headmaster Ebenezer Parsons welcomed a group of young women, in part to solve the sudden economic crisis that faced the school after a period of significant prosperity. The admission of these young women, however, was a figurative footnote in the school catalogue, whose only mention of the female students, in addition to their names being tagged on to the bottom of the list of male students, was this brief statement: “The school is now open to young

Headmaster Ebenezer Parsons

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THE ARCHON

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SPRING 2022


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