President's Letter

From These Grounds

by William G. Durden '71

January 2, 2010

Dear Dickinsonians:

This academic year, Dickinson celebrates the 125th anniversary of the matriculation of women. We mark this milestone from the arrival of Zatae Longsdorff in 1884 as a transfer student from Wellesley College.

Zatae, of course, proved to be a most remarkable woman. After graduating from Dickinson, she went on to earn a medical degree, serve as a doctor on an Indian reservation, win election to the New Hampshire legislature and become the first woman elected president of the American Medical Society.
Zatae’s accomplishments not only heralded the value of a Dickinson education for women as well as men, but they also confirmed the convictions of our founder, Dr. Benjamin Rush. As on so many issues, Rush was far ahead of his time in his views on the role of women in American society. He was an early advocate for giving women access to public education, primarily because he believed educated mothers would be better able to prepare their children—especially, their sons—for lives of engaged citizenship in the new democracy.

Although this emphasis on women as mothers reflects the prevailing 18th-century perspective, Rush clearly valued the contributions a learned woman could bring to the pressing issues of the day. We see this in the company he kept. He was, for example, a very close friend of the magnificent and powerful Abigail Adams. He also was extremely supportive of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, about whom he eventually penned a biography. Fergusson established what may have been the first literary salon in America; it became the intellectual center for a firestorm of revolutionary ideas. A frequent visitor to her parlor, Rush once wrote that she “appeared to be all mind.”

Today we continue to find inspiration in the accomplishments of Zatae and in Dr. Rush’s progressive views about women. Last year, with the generous assistance of Raphael Hays ’56 and Linda Goodridge Steckley ’63, Dickinson was able to hire a full-time director for the Women’s Center. (See Page 27 for more.)

And at the recent opening of an exhibit celebrating the 125th anniversary of women at Dickinson, I announced that Landis House, located at the corner of College and Pomfret streets, would become the permanent home of the center, providing a dedicated space in which issues related to women and gender can be addressed to enhance our campus culture.

It is fitting that Landis House has its own special history that celebrates the accomplishments of women. The house was once the home of Lois Lowry, a granddaughter of its former owner, Merkel Landis, class of 1896. Lowry became a noted young-adult author and a recipient of the Newbery Medal.

During World War II, she and her mother returned to Carlisle to live in the family house. Her memories of those years later served as the basis of her popular book, Autumn Street. For a college that reveres its past, we are now appropriate stewards of this little piece of history.

As we celebrate the past 125 years of women at Dickinson, it is equally important that we look to the future. We have a powerful legacy to uphold as we seek to provide opportunities for our women students—who now constitute 55 percent of our enrollment—to contribute to the advancement of our 21st-century global society. I am confident that the new Women’s Center, coupled with our strong curricular offerings in women’s & gender studies, will open new doors for our current students that will allow them to set an example for future generations of Dickinsonians.