Clarke, Annie Barber

Annie Barber Clarke was born June 9, 1861, the daughter of Reverend Henry Barber and Elizabeth Pratt in Deerfield, Mass. She was a member of the first graduating class of Radcliffe (1883) and received her AM from Columbia University (1891).

Following graduation, ABC and her classmate, Abbie Parsons, taught at the Parsons school in Greenfield, Mass. (later the MacDuffie school). She then joined the staff at Miss Anne Brown’s school, on Fifth Avenue, New York City. From 1896 to 1901 she was secretary to Professor Warren in Harvard's Oriental Languages Department.

In 1901, ABC married the Reverend Ward Robinson Clarke, a Unitarian minister in Dover, New Hampshire. Their son, composer Henry Leland Clarke, was born in 1907. While in Dover, ABC was active in the suffrage movement, often organizing lectures.

The Clarkes moved to Oklahoma City for three years, then to Montpelier, Vermont, and finally settled in Saco, Maine. In 1944 they returned to Cambridge.

ABC was the first president of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association, 1887-1890, and an alumna trustee, 1894-1900. Throughout her life she was an avid writer and often submitted poems and short stories to local and national publications.

Annie Barber Clarke died November 19, 1956.

From the guide to the Papers, 1875-1978, (Radcliffe College Archives, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)