Anna Boynton Thompson, 1848-1923

Anna Boynton Thompson, teacher and student of philosopy, was born on September 10, 1948 in Portland, Maine, the daughter of Harriot Boynton (Sawyer) and William A. Thompson. Her earliest years were spent in Iowa and Illinois. Following the accidental death of her father, the family returned East. Her mother ran a boarding house in Boston for school teachers while ABT and her sister Mary Frances attended Boston Girls High School. They were sent by their mother to study in Europe (1871) and then began their teaching careers: MFT taught science at Edward Everett High School in Dorchester and ABT was an influential teacher of Greek and History at Thayer Academy, Braintree, Mass., until her retirement in 1920.

Both sisters studied at Radcliffe: MFT was a non-graduate (1885-1886, 1890-1891); ABT studied between 1884-1902 taking between one and three courses a year. She completed her admission requirements in 1896 and received her A.B. (1898) and A.M. (1899). She continued to do graduate work with Josiah Royce, 1899-1902. She was awarded an honorary D. Lit from Tufts (1902). Her Unity in Fichte's System (1895) was published in the Radcliffe College Monograph Series.

ABT was a significant donor to Thayer Academy and both ABT and her sister were generous donors to Radcliffe College. They left their mother's legacy and their own estates to Radcliffe which, in 1958, used them to construct a wing of the Cronkhite Graduate Center named for Harriot Boynton Thompson. ABT died in 1923, her sister MFT in 1933.

For details about the bequest see Wilbur Jordan's files and Judith Coquillette, "Through Money Power Grows: Philanthropy and Radcliffe College 1894-1928." For other material see Schlesinger Library, Anna Boynton Thompson Papers (MC 202).

From the guide to the Papers, 1890-1893, (Radcliffe College Archives, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)

Anna Boynton Thompson, teacher and student of philosophy, was born on September 10, 1848, in Portland, Maine, the daughter of Harriot Boynton (Sawyer) and William A. Thompson. HBT and WAT had met in Monson, Mass., his home town, where HBT was attending Monson Academy while WAT was studying for the ministry. They were married in October 1843 and left shortly thereafter for the West under the auspices of the American Home Missionary Society. WAT was ordained in Denmark in the Iowa Territory and they settled into a one-room cabin in Troy, southwest of the Des Moines River.

In 1848 HBT returned to Portland for the birth of ABT. On her return to Iowa, they moved first to Fairfield and in 1851 to Port Byron, Ill. There WAT built a proper house on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Coming back from a circuit preaching tour in May 1852, WAT drowned in the river. HBT sold their land but kept the house as rental property and returned to her husband's family in Monson. After working as matron at Wheaton Seminary (Norton, Mass.) and at the Boston Children's Friend Society, HBT opened a boarding house for schoolteachers in Boston, where ABT and her younger sister, Mary Francis (MFT), attended school.

Rental money from the Illinois house and her Boston boarders enabled HBT to send her daughters to study in Europe for two years, 1871-1873. After their return home, both began their long teaching careers. MFT taught science in Boston and ABT history. In 1878 ABT joined the faculty of Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass. She remained there as head of the history department for over forty years. During this time she also attended Radcliffe College, studying with professors Josiah Royce, Albert Bushnell Hart, and George Santayana, and earning her AB (1898) and AM (1899) degrees; received an honorary D. Lit. from Tufts University in 1900; traveled and studied abroad; learned Greek; was an active member of the New England History Association; and in 1895 published The Unity of Fichte's Doctrine of Knowledge, Radcliffe College Monograph Series, no. 7. At Thayer she started an elementary school (Thayerlands); urged the school to buy adjoining property, contributing a year's salary to help pay for it; and donated money for several scholarships.

HBT wrote her will in 1897. She left her estate "in trust" to her daughters but made them promise to use the principal and interest only if it was necessary for their well-being. They in turn were to leave everything to Radcliffe College, to be used to "erect a building ... for the use of the women students ... the building to be called Boynton Thompson Hall." HBT died in 1900. The sisters honored their mother's wishes and were both benefactors of the college; a wing of Cronkhite Graduate Center was named HBT Hall.

ABT died in 1923, MFT in 1933.

From the guide to the Papers, 1842-1843, 1862-1935, 1960, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)