Helen Almira Shafer

Helen Almira Shafer was born Newark, New Jersey on the 23 September 1839. Her father was a clergyman of the Congregational Church. She was educated in a seminary in Albion, New York, afterwards attending Oberlin College.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893}}

After graduating 1863, she taught in a school for young women in New Jersey, and for some years she was in charge of the advanced classes of the school. From 1865 to 1875 she was the teacher of mathematics in at Central High School in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attracted widespread attention for her superior methods of teaching algebra higher analytical mathematics.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}}{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893}} Professor W. T. Harris, then superintendent of the schools of St. Louis, ranked her as the most able and successful teacher of mathematics in the country.{{sfn|Journal of Education|1893}}

In 1877 she became professor of mathematics at Wellesley College, filling the position until 1888, when she was elected president of the college. Her work in Wellesley College as professor of mathematics was marked by even greater results than she achieved in St. Louis. Her methods were widely imitated in other schools. She is said to have visibly advanced the standing of Wellesley and was described as one of the most prominent and successful educators and college administrators of the nineteenth century.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893}}

In 1893 Shafer was awarded by Oberlin College a Doctorate of Law, making her only the second American woman to receive such an honour.{{sfn|Journal of Education|1893}} She died on the 20 January 1894 in Wellesley, Massachusetts.{{sfn|Chautauquan|1894}} After her death the College raised $625 to commission a memorial to her.{{sfn|Nineteenth Century|1996}} Shafer Hall, a residential building at Wellesley College, was named in her honor.

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• {{Source-attribution| {{cite wikisource |chapter=Helen Almira Shafer||wslink=Woman of the Century |plaintitle=A Woman of the Century |date=1893 |editor1-last=Willard |editor1-first=Frances |editor1-link=Frances Willard |editor2-last= Livermore |editor2-first=Mary |editor2-link=Mary Livermore |publisher= Charles Wells Moulton |location=Buffalo, N.Y}} }}
• {{Source-attribution| {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Shafer, Helen Almira|year=1900}} }}

• {{cite journal |title=Summary of Important News for January, 1894. |journal=The Chautauquan |date=1894 |volume=18 |page=762 |ref = {{harvid|Chautauquan|1894}} |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SkZAAAAYAAJ&dq=Helen+Almira+Shafer&pg=PA762 |access-date=22 December 2021}}
• {{cite journal |title=Helen Almira Shafer, LL. D. |journal=Journal of Education |date=14 September 1893 |volume=XXXVIII |issue=10 |pages=176 |ref = {{harvid|Journal of Education|1893}} |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYI6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Helen+Almira+Shafer&pg=RA2-PA176 |access-date=22 December 2021}}
• {{cite journal |journal=Nineteenth Century |date=1996 |volume=16 |issue=2 |page=21 |ref = {{harvid|Nineteenth Century|1996}}|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzBIAQAAIAAJ&q=Helen%20Almira%20Shafer |access-date=22 December 2021 |publisher=Victorian Society in America |title=Nineteenth Century |lang=en}}

{{Wellesley College presidents}}

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Category:1839 births

Category:1894 deaths

Category:Presidents of Wellesley College

Category:Wellesley College faculty

Category:19th-century American mathematicians

Category:19th-century American women mathematicians

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