Mamie Gwinn Hodder

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Mamie Gwinn Hodder
A young white woman with hair arranged in an updo, wearing a heavily embroidered dark dress with a high lace-edged collar
Born
Mary Mackall Gwinn

February 2, 1860
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedNovember 11, 1940
Princeton, New Jersey
OccupationEducator
SpouseAlfred Hodder (1904–1907)
PartnerM. Carey Thomas (1880s–1904)
RelativesReverdy Johnson (grandfather)
John Johnson Sr. (great-grandfather)
William R. Travers (uncle)

Mary Mackall "Mamie" Gwinn Hodder (February 2, 1860 – November 11, 1940) was an American educator. She taught at Bryn Mawr College, and was one of the founders of the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. Her relationships with M. Carey Thomas and Alfred Hodder were fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst (1905).

Early life and education[edit]

Gwinn was born in Baltimore, the daughter of Charles John Morris Gwinn and Matilda Elizabeth Bowie Johnson Gwinn. Her father was a lawyer associated with Johns Hopkins University. Her maternal grandfather, Reverdy Johnson, was a senator, an ambassador, and United States Attorney General.[1]

Gwinn was the youngest founding member of the "Friday Night Club", a women's study group in Baltimore, together with Mary Elizabeth Garrett, Julia Rebecca Rogers, Bessie Tabor King, and M. Carey Thomas.[2] The members founded the Bryn Mawr School in 1885,[3] and ensured that women would be admitted to the medical school at Johns Hopkins in the 1890s.[4]

Gwinn and Thomas traveled and studied together in Europe from 1879 to 1883, in Leipzig and Zurich. Gwinn was granted a doctoral degree from Bryn Mawr in 1888.[4]

Career[edit]

Gwinn taught English literature at Bryn Mawr College, and worked on a translation of Beowulf, until she married a male colleague, writer Alfred Hodder, and moved to New York City.[4]

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Gwinn was the partner of M. Carey Thomas for over 20 years.[5] They lived together in the Deanery at Bryn Mawr,[6] from the 1880s until 1904, when Gwinn married Alfred Hodder, former common-law husband of activist Jessie Donaldson Hodder, and moved to New York City.[7] He died in 1907.[8] Mamie Gwinn Hodder died in 1940, at the age of 80, in Princeton, New Jersey.[9]

The romantic entanglements of Thomas, Gwinn, Mary Elizabeth Garrett and the Hodders are fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst (1905).[10][11] The Mary Mackall Gwinn Hodder Fund at Princeton University supports graduate students in the arts.[12] Princeton also holds the Alfred and Mary Gwinn Hodder Papers.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Meekins, Lynn H. (1928-07-29). "A Roman of the Elder Days/Lynn H. Meekins". The Baltimore Sun. p. 116. Retrieved 2023-06-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Sander, Kathleen Waters (2020-04-14). Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age. JHU Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4214-3864-1.
  3. ^ Turner, Frances Virginia (1935-06-02). "Bryn Mawr Marks 50th Anniversary". The Baltimore Sun. p. 58. Retrieved 2023-06-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c Hamilton, Andrea (2004-06-02). A Vision for Girls: Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School. JHU Press. pp. 15–18, 47. ISBN 978-0-8018-7880-0.
  5. ^ Rupp, Leila J. (2020-05-22). A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America. University of Chicago Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-226-77533-3.
  6. ^ Bosmajian, Haig A. (2010). Anita Whitney, Louis Brandeis, and the First Amendment. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8386-4267-2.
  7. ^ Leaming, Barbara (2004). Katharine Hepburn. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-87910-293-7.
  8. ^ "Alfred Hodder Dies at Forty; Jerome's Volunteer Aide Had Been an Invalid Three Years". The New York Times. 1907-03-04. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Mary M. G. Hodder". The Baltimore Sun. 1940-11-12. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-06-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Ravitch, Diane (1994-10-16). "Admirable and Despicable". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  11. ^ Stein, Gertrude (2017-07-17). Fernhurst by Gertrude Stein - Delphi Classics (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. ISBN 978-1-78877-895-4.
  12. ^ "FAQ". Lewis Center for the Arts. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  13. ^ "Collection overview, Alfred and Mary Gwinn Hodder Papers, 1875-1941". Finding aids, Princeton University Library. Retrieved 2023-06-13.

External links[edit]

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