Mary Lyon

American educator

• Born: February 28, 1797
• Birthplace: Buckland, Massachusetts
• Died: March 5, 1849
• Place of death: South Hadley, Massachusetts

Combining a strong religious faith with a firm belief in the necessity of advanced training for women, Lyon served as the impetus for the creation of what is now Mount Holyoke College, the oldest continuing institution of higher learning for women in the United States.

Early Life

The sixth of eight children, Mary Mason Lyon was the daughter of Aaron Lyon and Jemima Shephard Lyon, both of whom were descended from old New England stock. Mary Lyon’s father, a veteran of the American Revolution and a struggling small farmer in western Massachusetts, died in 1802. Shortly after her husband’s death, his widow made the decision to continue working the family farm with her children. While still a child, Lyon learned to perform many household chores; she also attended nearby one-room schools.

Upon her mother’s remarriage in 1810, Lyon remained on the family farm in order to keep house for her brother, who paid her a salary of a dollar a week. This she saved for her education. In 1814, Lyon began to teach in summer schools for local children; she “boarded round,” as was the custom. As she matured, Lyon turned into a sturdy, well-built woman who possessed blue eyes, auburn hair, and a fine complexion. Apparent from her youth was her warmth, great physical energy, and selfless concern for others.

In 1817, Mary Lyon drew upon her small inheritance and meager earnings and enrolled in Sanderson Academy, a new coeducational institution in Ashfield, Massachusetts. This school introduced her to such advanced subjects as astronomy and Latin. While at Sanderson, Lyon made the acquaintance of Thomas White, whose daughter Amanda became a close personal friend. Throughout Lyon’s life, White acted as a confidant and supporter; he also carefully managed her money, serving eventually as executor of her estate.

In 1821, Lyon and Amanda White attended the Byfield (Massachusetts) Female Seminary. This school was headed by the Reverend Joseph Emerson, who firmly believed that permanent institutions of higher learning should be created for women. At Byfield, Lyon formed a lifelong friendship with Zilpah Grant, a teacher at the Academy. At that time, Lyon, who had been brought up in a religious household, became concerned about the state of her soul. In March, 1822, she was baptized and received into the Congregational Church. For the duration of her life, Lyon would remain a devout Christian.

By the mid-1820’s, Mary Lyon could be found teaching and studying in a variety of institutions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It was not unusual for her to teach at one school during the fall and spring terms, and then to teach at another during the summer. In 1828, however, Lyon suffered from a severe case of typhoid fever. She decided that henceforth she would devote herself completely to one institution, the Ipswich (Massachusetts) Female Seminary. Her friend Zilpah Grant served as principal of the school.

Lyon’s experiences at Ipswich proved instructive for her. The seminary had been founded with no endowment; she quickly realized that any successful educational institution had to be based on continuing funding that could ensure permanence. Also while she was at Ipswich, Lyon came to the conclusion that her goal in life was to be a teacher of teachers. This meant that, in the future, she would insist on minimum age requirements for her students, the study of sciences, and a curriculum that excluded such ornamental courses as conversational French or painting.

During the summer of 1833, in the midst of her Ipswich years, Lyon traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, and the Midwest. She visited numerous schools and colleges along her route. Urged to do so by generous local citizens, she seriously considered establishing a female seminary in Detroit, Michigan. After prayerful deliberation, Lyon decided against the Detroit plan. She returned to the East, where she became determined to create her own academy.

Life’s Work

Although still teaching at the Ipswich Female Seminary, in 1834 Lyon began to meet with benevolent men such as Thomas White. These individuals supported her in her belief that what needed to be created was a new school for women that would be run by a disinterested board of trustees. Lyon hoped that in this proposed institution, teachers could be persuaded to accept low salaries and that students would do domestic work in a dormitory atmosphere. Such policies would help keep tuition low so that even girls of modest means could attend the school. The goal of the institution would be to educate women teachers.

During the next three years, Lyon worked unceasingly to make her dream a reality. Remaining humble and self-effacing, she exhibited a remarkable determination. For the most part, Lyon relied on wealthy male trustees to fund her institution. As these men raised the school’s endowment, Lyon traveled throughout New England collecting money from women on farms and in small towns. It was her hope that the dormitory rooms of her students could be furnished from contributions made by such women.

After lengthy negotiations, Lyon’s trustees made the decision to establish her school in South Hadley, which had made the best offer for it with a contribution of eight thousand dollars. The new institution would be named Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, after a nearby mountain. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted the school a charter in 1836. Soon thereafter, construction commenced. Lyon closely supervised this process.

On November 8, 1837, the barely completed seminary opened its doors to the eighty eager students who had been accepted for admission. According to Mary Lyon’s original plans, all of her pupils were over seventeen, and everyone was required to engage in domestic work. The curriculum consisted of a three-year program that called for the concentrated teaching of courses over a short period of time. Science was emphasized, and guest lecturers such as Edward Hitchcock of Amherst College frequently came from nearby institutions. Public oral examinations proved to be a highlight of the end of each school year. Students also received religious training, a requirement upon which Lyon insisted. She hoped that all of her students would be “saved”; she frequently held religious meetings in her quarters to further this goal. The seminary directed much attention to foreign missions; it was not uncommon for students to enter this field of endeavor upon graduation. Lyon herself made a plea for increased missionary work when she published a short book, A Missionary Offering , in 1843.

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary quickly flourished. By the mid-1840’s, enrollment had climbed to more than two hundred students. Because of the expanding size of the student body, new additions had to be made to the seminary’s building. The curriculum also expanded in size; it became increasingly sophisticated with the introduction of such subjects as Latin and human anatomy. As the years passed, Lyon did less and less teaching. That job was performed by a handpicked group of recent graduates. Lyon herself acted as an administrator who oversaw all operations of Mount Holyoke. Increasingly, she seemed unable to delegate responsibility; the strain of many years of arduous effort were taking their toll. Having long suffered from lung problems that weakened her resistance to other illnesses, Lyon died at Mount Holyoke of erysipelas in March, 1849. She was buried on the seminary’s grounds.

Although Lyon’s death dealt a severe blow to Mount Holyoke, it did not destroy it. For several years the institution foundered as its leadership remained uncertain. By the mid-1850’s, however, this problem was solved and the school continued along on its path to permanence.

Significance

Typical of many other early nineteenth century reformers, Lyon possessed a vision of how life could be improved for society as a whole. A woman of extraordinary enthusiasm, selfless determination, and loving compassion, she refused to be discouraged by adversity and she eagerly pursued her goal of providing a first-rate higher education for American women.

From her experiences in a variety of small New England institutions, Lyon learned that often a school’s existence depended upon the health and good fortune of a single founder or teacher. To her, this was wrong. What she hoped to create with Mount Holyoke was an endowed and financially sound seminary whose control would be vested in a self-perpetuating board of trustees; these men would oversee the continuance of the institution through changes in leadership.

Furthermore, Lyon desired to prove that young women were as intellectually able as men, and that, like men, they were capable of doing advanced academic work. She dreamed that once Mount Holyoke achieved intellectual prominence, the American public would understand the advantages of educating women and go out and found other such institutions. To a great extent, this visionary plan came true, for by the late nineteenth century numerous “daughter” schools had been created that emulated Mount Holyoke’s success. However, unlike its more secular counterparts, the seminary proved to be a deeply religious institution that was devoted to Christian piety and evangelism. In this respect, Lyon and Mount Holyoke were representative of the religiously motivated reform movements of the Second Great Awakening.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, Lyon also served to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education in the United States. As Mount Holyoke’s fame spread, greater efforts were made by local teachers to prepare their students for the stiff entrance examinations that were required for entrance to the seminary. In addition, graduates of Mount Holyoke quickly came into demand as teachers in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Well-trained instructors inevitably improved the level of training in schools throughout the world.

What is amazing about Lyon’s accomplishments is that they were carried out by a conservative individual who refused to challenge the prevailing social mores of her era. Unlike some of her more vocal contemporaries, Lyon avoided the limelight; she insisted upon achieving her goals through maintaining her ladylike composure and never stepping outside her prescribed sphere. This meant that, while she routinely relied on male benefactors for advice and financial support, she refused to appear before them at any meetings of her board of trustees. Thus, she never spoke publicly to mixed audiences, and most of her personal pleas for money were reserved for rural New England women.

The result of Lyon’s efforts was the successful operation of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, an institution that would achieve collegiate status in 1888. With a permanent endowment, secure leadership, low tuition, and a carefully structured living and learning environment, Mount Holyoke served as the model of women’s higher education for generations to come.

Bibliography

Cole, Arthur Charles. A Hundred Years of Mount Holyoke College: The Evolution of an Educational Ideal. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1940. The best historical account of the first century of Mount Holyoke’s existence. Approximately one-third of the volume is devoted to an explanation of the activities of Lyon.

Fiske, Fidelia. Recollections of Mary Lyon with Selections from Her Instructions to the Pupils of Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary. Boston: American Tract Society, 1866. Badly dated as a biography, this work is valuable for contemporary reminiscences of Lyon. Also included are selections from Lyon’s lectures and Sabbath services.

Gilchrist, Beth Bradford. The Life of Mary Lyon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910. A traditional biography that is important for revealing early twentieth century attitudes toward Lyon.

Goodsell, Willystine. Pioneers of Women’s Education in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1931. Placing Lyon in the company of Emma Willard and Catharine Beecher, Goodsell provides a brief biographical sketch and includes lengthy excerpts from Lyon’s writings.

Green, Elizabeth Alden. Mary Lyon and Mount Holyoke: Opening the Gates. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1979. The definitive biography of Lyon. Providing a clear, concise, and balanced narrative, the volume shows the results of impressive research in primary and secondary sources.

Hitchcock, Edward, comp. The Power of Christian Benevolence Illustrated in the Life and Labors of Mary Lyon. 2d ed. Northampton, Mass.: Hopkins, Bridgman, 1851. A complimentary account of Lyon’s work as perceived by a close friend. The volume has historical importance as it is partially based on letters from Lyon that were later destroyed.

Levin, Miriam R. Defining Women’s Scientific Enterprise: Mount Holyoke Faculty and the Rise of American Science. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2005. Examines how Mount Holyoke’s women science teachers established a niche for themselves and helped advance the institution from the time Lyon founded the college in 1837.

Lyon, Mary. Mary Lyon Through Her Letters. Edited by Marion Lansing. Boston: Books, Incoporated, 1937. An account of Lyon’s life that was published to coincide with the one hundredth birthday of Mount Holyoke. Complimentary in tone, the book combines a narrative with excerpts from Lyon’s letters.

Porterfield, Amanda. Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. A study of Lyon and the Protestant missionary women she trained at Mount Holyoke. Porterfield views the college’s missionary work as representative of American missionary thought before the Civil War.

Sklar, Kathryn Kish. “The Founding of Mount Holyoke College.” In Women of America: A History, edited by Carol Ruth Berkin and Mary Beth Norton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. An article-length account of Lyon’s activities. Sklar emphasizes the role of evangelical religion in the founding of Mount Holyoke.

Woody, Thomas. A History of Women’s Education in the United States. New York: Science Press, 1929. The classic work on its subject. Although dated in some of its interpretations, it is useful for placing Lyon’s activities in their proper historical context.