Laura Johnson Wylie
{{short description|American academic}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Laura Johnson Wylie
| image = LauraJohnsonWylie1917.png
| alt = An older white woman with grey hair in an updo
| caption = Laura Johnson Wylie, from the 1917 yearbook of Vassar College
| birth_name =
| birth_date = December 1, 1855
| birth_place = Milton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date = April 2, 1932 (age 76)
| death_place = Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Professor of English, suffragist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| partner = Gertrude Buck
| relatives =
}}
Laura Johnson Wylie (December 1, 1855 – April 2, 1932) was a college professor. She was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. at Yale University, in 1894. She taught English at Vassar College from 1895 to 1924; she was head of the English department for most of her tenure there.
Early life and education
Wylie was born in Milton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Theodorus Wylie and Sarah Murray Johnson Wylie. Her father was a Presbyterian minister; her mother died Wylie was four years old, and her father remarried twice.{{Cite book |last=Bordelon |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DqVXGV_M1VMC&dq=Laura%20Johnson%20Wylie&pg=PA74 |title=A Feminist Legacy: The Rhetoric and Pedagogy of Gertrude Buck |date=2009-03-10 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-8651-2 |pages=74–76 |language=en |via=}} She graduated from Vassar College in 1877,{{Cite news |date=1924-03-15 |title=Miss Laura Johnson Resigns |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-life-miss-laura-johnson-resigns/171564052/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |work=Brooklyn Life |pages=12}} as valedictorian of her class.{{Cite news |date=1877-06-28 |title=Commencement Exercises at Vassar |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/democrat-and-chronicle-commencement-exer/171564294/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |work=Democrat and Chronicle |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was one of the first women admitted to a graduate program at Yale University, where she completed doctoral studies in 1894; her thesis was the first thesis by a woman published by Yale.{{Cite web |title=Laura Johnson Wylie '1877 |url=https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/distinguished-alumni/laura-wylie/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=Vassar Encyclopedia|language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1898-01-23 |title=Women Students of Yale; Result of Experiment for First Five Years Shows a Gradual Growth |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-women-students-of-yal/171571783/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |work=Omaha World-Herald |pages=20 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Wylie taught Latin and English at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn from 1884 to 1892, while she was in graduate school.{{Cite web |last1=Vayzman |first1=Liena |last2=Vaughan |first2=Ruth |last3=Wexler |first3=Laura |author-link3=Laura Wexler |date=September–October 2012 |title=The pioneers |url=https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3518-the-pioneers?page=3 |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=Yale Alumni Magazine |language=en}} English at Vassar College from 1895 to 1924,{{Cite book |last1=Bruno |first1=Maryann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bEfDUaq8HEC&dq=Laura%20Johnson%20Wylie&pg=PA50 |title=Vassar College |last2=Daniels |first2=Elizabeth A. |date=2001-02-01 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-0454-4 |pages=50 |language=en}} and was head of the English department beginning for most of that time. She and her colleague Lucy Maynard Salmon co-founded Vassar's Equal Suffrage League in 1909, and she was president of the league and its successor organization, the Women's City and County Club, until 1928.{{Cite book |last1=Flad |first1=Harvey K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCXXlztlWUUC&dq=Laura%20Johnson%20Wylie&pg=PA110 |title=Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie |last2=Griffen |first2=Clyde C. |date=2010-03-25 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2636-5 |pages=110–111 |language=en}} She served on the board of the Poughkeepsie Community Theatre, and left $10,000 to the theater in her will. In retirement, she taught at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, and spoke to community groups about literature.{{Cite news |last=Suydam |first=Emma B. |date=1925-01-11 |title=Literary Authority Defines Character in Modern Novel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-post-literary-authority-d/171571525/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |work=The Pittsburgh Post |pages=40 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Publications
Wylie wrote two textbooks. She edited a collection of Gertrude Buck's poems and plays,{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=JoAnn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1enUWZrpvsC&dq=Laura%20Johnson%20Wylie&pg=PA159 |title=Toward a Feminist Rhetoric: The Writing of Gertrude Buck |date=1996-04-15 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre |isbn=978-0-8229-9061-1 |pages=159 |language=en}} and school editions of The Winter's Tale and Adam Bede.
- Studies in the Evolution of English Criticism (1894)
- Social Studies in English Literature (1916){{Cite book |last=Wylie |first=Laura Johnson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EiIfAAAAMAAJ |title=Social Studies in English Literature |date=1916 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |language=en}}
- "What Can Be Done About It?" (1918)
Personal life
Wylie's partner was fellow Vassar professor Gertrude Buck. They shared a house on Market Street in Poughkeepsie, and hosted suffrage meetings and other groups there. Wylie died in 1932, at the age of 76.{{Cite news |date=1932-04-04 |title=Laura Johnson Wylie |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/poughkeepsie-eagle-news-laura-johnson-wy/171563785/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |work=Poughkeepsie Eagle-News |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} Eleanor Roosevelt contributed to Miss Wylie of Vassar (1934), a tribute book of essays about Wylie.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- Suzanne Bordelon, [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Studies_of_Writing_Program_Ad/wXI4Tqx5f0MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Laura%20Johnson%20Wylie&pg=PA91&printsec=frontcover "The 'Advance' Toward Democratic Administration: Laura Johnson Wylie and Gertrude Buck of Vassar College"] in Barbara L'Eplattenier, Lisa Mastrangelo, eds., Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline (Parlor Press 2004). {{ISBN|9781932559224}}
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Category:Vassar College alumni
Category:Vassar College faculty