Stevenson, Sara Yorke, 1847-1921

Sara Yorke Stevenson; b. 19 Feb 1847
Paris, France; died 14 Nov 1921; Born in Paris, France to American parents, she became the first female museum curator in the United States, and was one of the founders of the University Museum at Penn's Egyptian Section.

Sara Yorke Stevenson (February 19, 1847 – November 14, 1921); parents moved to Paris before her birth; her parents moved to US and then Mexico, she and sisters stayed in France for school; associated with Empress of Mexico Charlotte of Belgium; relocated to Philadelphia, PA; married Cornelius Stevenson, a Philadelphia lawyer, on June 30, 1870; one child; part of a group of internationally known Philadelphia elite scholars, known as the Furness-Mitchell Coterie; active member of Philadelphia society and served as president of clubs such as the Civic Club of Philadelphia and the Acorn Club; known as an "armchair archaeologist" or anthropologist, never carried out her own fieldwork, but analyzed the information that others had collected; she mentored with Frederick Ward Putnam, Franz Boas, Zelia Nuttall, and Alice Fletcher; 1892, appointed to the Jury of Awards for Ethnology; 1894, first woman to speak at the Peabody Museum on "Egypt at the Dawn of History"; president of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, the Contemporary Club, and the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Archeological Institute of America and was founder and officer of the University Archaeological Association, the American Folk-Lore Society and the American Exploration Society; member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia; admitted to the American Philosophical Society, 1895; joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1884 Fellow in 1895; established the Equal Franchise Society of Pennsylvania, in recognition of the difficulties women faced; in 1891, Stevenson, Pepper, Talcott Williams, and Joseph Coates were appointed by the University Archaeological Association to create a department of archaeology and paleontology to manage the museum - University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum); served on the governing board from its start until 1905; curator, the Egyptian and Mediterranean section, 1890 to 1905; columnist for the Philadelphia Public Ledger under the pen names "Peggy Shippen" and "Sally Wistar"; developed one of the first college-level courses in training museum professionals in the United States, which she taught at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, now known as The University of the Arts (Philadelphia)