Mary Augusta Jordan
A middle-aged white woman with dark hair
Mary Augusta Jordan, from the 1916 yearbook of Smith College
BornJuly 5, 1855
Ironton, Ohio
DiedApril 14, 1941 (age 85)
New Haven, Connecticut
OccupationCollege professor
Parent
RelativesEmily Jordan Folger (sister)
Henry Clay Folger (brother-in-law)
David Starr Jordan (first cousin)
Edward Jordan Dimock (nephew)

Mary Augusta Jordan (July 5, 1855 – April 14, 1941) was an American college professor of English literature and rhetoric. She was a member of the faculty at Smith College from 1884 to 1921.

Early life and education

Jordan was born in Ironton, Ohio, the daughter of Edward Jordan and Augusta Woodbury Ricker Jordan.[1] Her father was a lawyer who worked for the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. during the Lincoln and Johnson administrations, and she was said to have held Lincoln's hand when she was a little girl. The Jordans moved in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she attended Miss Ranney's school. She and both of her sisters attended Vassar College; she graduated from Vassar in 1876, and earned a master's degree in 1878.[2]

Jordan was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.[3] Her younger sister Emily married Henry Clay Folger; the Folgers founded the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.[4] Federal judge Edward Jordan Dimock was her nephew.[4][5]

Career

After college, Jordan became a librarian at Vassar, and taught in the English department. She joined the faculty at Smith College in 1884, teaching rhetoric. In 1906 she gained full professor status, and became head of the English department. She was best known for teaching Shakespeare and giving ceremonial addresses. She retired in 1921, but continued her association when the college commissioned her to write a history of English teaching at Smith.[2]

Jordan spoke at Vassar College's 50th anniversary celebration in 1915.[6] An educated white woman from a prominent and wealthy family, she considered women's suffrage "superfluous",[7] and believed that women had sufficient opportunity for shaping society through other, existing means.[8] She often debated suffrage and other issues with a fellow Vassar alumna and Smith professor, Mary Augusta Scott.[2]

Jordan wrote on gender, rhetoric, and pedagogy,[9] and proposed that women's education need not match men's, in form or content,[8] pointing to the "under-inspiration of our over-examined young men" ("The College for Women", 1892).[10] She noted that "It is a capital error in the education of women to ignore the part played by their feelings. It is still worse to try to supersede these feelings by what is called good judgment based on logical processes. The logic of feeling is quite as important as the manipulation of syllogisms, and likely to be a good deal more practical" (Correct Writing and Speaking, 1904). She also declared, "There is no one correct way of writing or of speaking English. Within certain limits there are many ways of attaining correctness" (Correct Writing and Speaking, 1904).[11][12]

Honors

Jordan held honorary doctorates from Smith College (in 1910) and Syracuse University (in 1921). Jordan House, a dormitory at Smith, was named for her in 1922.[13] The college also offers a Jordan Prize for student writing,[14] and a Jordan named chair in the English department.[2]

Publications

Written by Jordan

  • "Concerning the Higher Education" (1886)[15]
  • "The Years in Vassar College" (1899)[16]
  • Correct Writing and Speaking (1904)[17]
  • "Spacious Days at Vassar" (1915)[18]

Edited by Jordan

  • Milton's Minor Poems (1904)[19]
  • Emerson, Compensation, self-reliance, and other essays (1907)[20]
  • Emerson, Manners, Friendship, and other essays (1907)[21]

Personal life

Jordan was briefly engaged to her first cousin, Stanford University president David Starr Jordan.[2] She lived in campus housing for much of her time at Smith,[7] and opened her personal library for student use.[2] She died in 1941, at the age of 85, in New Haven, Connecticut.[22] Smith College has a collection of Jordan's papers.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Collection: Mary A. Jordan Papers". Smith College Finding Aids. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grant, Stephen H. "Mary Augusta Jordan '1876". Vassar College Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  3. ↑ Revolution, Daughters of the American (1927). Linage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (revised). pp. 59–60.
  4. 1 2 Grant, Stephen H. (2014-04-26). Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-1187-3.
  5. ↑ "Edward J. Dimock, 96, A Senior Federal Judge". The New York Times. 1986-03-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  6. ↑ "Mary Augusta Jordan: "Spacious Days at Vassar College"". Vassar College Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  7. 1 2 Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz (1993). Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-century Beginnings to the 1930s. Univ of Massachusetts Press. pp. 193–194. ISBN 978-0-87023-869-7.
  8. 1 2 MacDougall, Pauleena M. (2013-07-19). Fannie Hardy Eckstorm and Her Quest for Local Knowledge, 1865–1946. Lexington Books. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0-7391-7911-6.
  9. ↑ Wagner, Joanne. "“Intelligent Members or Restless Disturbers”: Women’s Rhetorical." in Andrea A. Lunsford, ed, Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the rhetorical tradition (University of Pittsburgh 1995). ISBN 9780822971658
  10. ↑ Jordan, Mary Augusta. "The College for Women." Atlantic Monthly (1892): 542.
  11. ↑ Kates, Susan (1997). "Subversive Feminism: The Politics of Correctness in Mary Augusta Jordan's Correct Writing and Speaking (1904)". College Composition and Communication. 48 (4): 501–517, quotes from page 506 and 508. doi:10.2307/358455. ISSN 0010-096X. JSTOR 358455.
  12. ↑ Kates, Susan (1997). "The History of Language Conventions in Mary Augusta Jordan's Rhetoric Text, Correct Writing and Speaking (1904)". In Enos, Theresa Jarnagin (ed.). Making and Unmaking the Prospects for Rhetoric. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203811207. ISBN 9780203811207.
  13. ↑ Manning, Alice H. (1975-06-28). "Mary Augusta Jordan: One of the Giants". Daily Hampshire Gazette. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "General Information". Smith College Bulletin: 182. 1927–1928.
  15. ↑ Jordan, Mary A. (Mary Augusta) (1886). Concerning the higher education. An address before the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Oct. 30th, 1886, Chicago. The Library of Congress. [Chicago].
  16. ↑ Thwing, Charles Franklin (1899). Carrie F. Butler Thwing: An Appreciation by Friends. Helman-Taylor Company.
  17. ↑ Jordan, Mary Augusta (1906). Correct Writing and Speaking. A. S. Barnes.
  18. ↑ Jordan, Mary Augusta (1916). "Spacious Days at Vassar". The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Opening of Vassar College, October 10 to 13, 1915;: A Record. Vassar college. pp. 45–46.
  19. ↑ Milton, John; Jordan, Mary A. (Mary Augusta) (1904). Milton's minor poems. University of California Libraries. New York, American book company.
  20. ↑ Emerson, Ralph Waldo; Jordan, Mary A. (Mary Augusta) (1907). Compensation, self-reliance, and other essays, by Ralph Waldo Emerson; ed. by Mary A. Jordan. The Library of Congress. Boston, New York [etc.] Houghton Mifflin and company.
  21. ↑ Emerson, Ralph Waldo; Jordan, Mary A. (Mary Augusta) (1907). Manners, friendship, and other essays. The Library of Congress. Boston ; New York [etc.] : Houghton, Mifflin and company.
  22. ↑ "Mary Augusta Jordan; Taught English at Smith College, 1884-1921; Vassar Alumna". The New York Times. 1941-04-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
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