Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins
Minnie Galt Braithwaite Jenkins (1874–1954) was a United States Indian Service (now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) school teacher and the first woman to attempt to take classes at The College of William & Mary.[1]
Biography[edit]
Education[edit]
Braithwaite was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. On October 2, 1896, she petitioned the faculty at the College of William & Mary to allow her to attend chemistry lectures. Her petition was denied 4 to 3. Among the seven men who voted, President of the College Lyon Gardiner Tyler voted in favor of the petition and English professor John Lesslie Hall voted against it.[2]
Career[edit]
Braithwaite intended to travel to China as a medical missionary after being trained at William & Mary to be a doctor, but this plan was derailed when her petition to attend was denied.[3] Instead, Braithwaite began her teaching career in 1899 at the Blue Canyon Day School near the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.[4] She later taught at the Fort Mojave School from 1902 to 1906.[5] It was at Fort Mojave that she met and married Clarence W. Jenkins in 1906. Her memoir, Girl from Williamsburg, was published in 1951.[6]
Legacy[edit]
The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies department at the College of William & Mary hosts an annual lecture in commemoration of her efforts to attend classes at the College.[7]
Some of her and her family’s papers can be found in the Special Collections Research Center at Earl Gregg Swem Library. One such paper is a letter from William & Mary Board of Visitors member Thomas Barnes to Braithwaite regarding her petition to attend classes at the College.[8]
References[edit]
- ^ Freehling, Alison (October 2, 1996). "Light Of Learning To Shine In Teacher's Memory". Daily Press. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ Rouse, Parke (September 29, 1996). "W&m Hails Woman's Effort". Daily Press. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ Cahill, Cathleen D. (June 2011). Federal Fathers and Mothers A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869-1933. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-8078-7773-9. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ Carter, Patricia A. (1995). "Completely Discouraged': Women Teachers' Resistance in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Schools, 1900-1910". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 15 (3): 53–86. doi:10.2307/3346785. JSTOR 3346785.
- ^ Sherer, Lorraine M. (1965). "The Clan System of the Fort Mojave Indians: A Contemporary Survey". Southern California Quarterly. 47 (1): 67. doi:10.2307/41169900. JSTOR 41169900.
- ^ Jenkins, Minnie Braithwaite (1995). Girl From Williamsburg. Richmond, Virginia: Dietz Press. p. 343. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "Braithwaite Lecture". College of William & Mary. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "Bucktrout-Braithwaite Papers, 1780-1996". Earl Gregg Swem Library Special Collections Database. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
External links[edit]
- Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins at Find a Grave
- Minnie Braithwaite Special Collections at William & Mary