Morrison, Sarah Parke, 1833-1916

Sarah Parke Morrison was the daughter of John J. Morrison, a president of the board of Indiana University, and in favor of coeducation in Indiana. When the board voted favorably to admit women to the university, Morrison was persuaded to continue her schooling. She was the first woman to graduate from I.U. (1869), completing a four year course in two years.

From the description of Autobiography, ca. 1919. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 19771822

In 1867, Sarah Parke Morrison became the first woman admitted to Indiana University.

After graduating in 1869 Morrison remained in Bloomington; in 1874 she became an adjunct professor of English literature and the first female faculty member. She left IU the following year.

From the description of Sarah Parke Morrison papers, 1855-1913. (Indiana University). WorldCat record id: 45062765

In 1867, Sarah Parke Morrison became the first woman admitted to Indiana University.

Morrison's parents, John and Catherine, were themselves well-educated. John graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1828, at which time he returned to his hometown Salem, Indiana and opened the Washington County Seminary. At the Seminary John was in charge of Catherine Morris' education for six years. In 1830, Catherine's parents sent her to the Quaker-run Westtown Boarding School near Philadelphia, where she studied for two years. Upon her return to Salem, John asked her to marry him, which Catherine, with her parents consent, agreed to. They were married September 11, 1832 and their first child, Sarah, was born in 1834.

In addition to the Washington County Seminary, John and Catherine worked together to open the Salem Female Seminary in 1835. Instead of hiring the customary male teaching assistants, they employed young female teachers from the East, a rarity in this time.

After a considerable amount of home schooling, Catherine decided it was time for her daughter Sarah to receive more formal training. Sarah attended Mount Holyoke Seminary, graduating from that institution in 1857. She went on to Vassar College, where she was a pupil-teacher and later to Williams College to do post-graduate work.

After studying at Williams, Sarah returned home to Salem. While preparing to attend the 1867 Indiana University commencement, Sarah's father, formerly president of the IU Board of Trustees and now Treasurer of the State, remarked to Sarah that it was time for the University to open its doors to women. Sarah agreed, and with the inducement of a five dollar bill, she also agreed to prepare an appeal to the Board of Trustees.

The Trustees failed to find any clause in the University's charter that barred women from entering the University so they declared women could enter under the same terms as men. Sarah, at 34 years of age and years of education behind her, had no desire to attend Indiana University and hoped some other woman would step forward. To her disappointment, no young woman came forward. Rather than allow her victory to fall hollow, she decided to enter as a freshman in the fall of 1867.

Sarah completed the four year program in two years, graduating in 1869. Four years after her graduation, Sarah was appointed tutor and in 1874 she became IU's first female faculty member when she was named adjunct professor of English literature. Despite Sarah's success as a student, the male students did not readily accept her as their superior. She only stayed at IU for one more year, at which time she left for other pursuits.

Sarah remained an active alumna of the University, however, frequently writing the Board of Trustees inquiring why women have not been placed as members of the various University boards. To voice her protest, she began returning her alumni ballots for the Board of Trustees marked "for some woman."

Sarah Parke Morrison died in 1919 and is buried in Indianapolis.

From the guide to the Sarah Parke Morrison papers, 1855-1913, (Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives)