Stamp, Adele H., 1890-1974

First dean of women at the University of Maryland College Park and active member/organizer of various state and national women's organizations.

From the description of Papers of Adele H. Stamp, 1922-1983 (bulk 1950-1959) (University of Maryland Libraries). WorldCat record id: 19540733

Adele Hagner Stamp (1890-1974) was born in Catonsville, Maryland, the daughter of Frederick and Anna Harken Stamp. She attended St. Timothy's, a private all-girls school in Stevenson, MD, and Western High School, the oldest all-girls public high school in the United States. Stamp taught at a public school in Baltimore after graduating from high school. Later hired as a social worker by the Y.W.C.A., she organized recreation programs for women factory workers in industrial centers. In 1918 the War Council of the Y.W.C.A. sent her to the Old Hickory Munitions Factory in Tennessee to direct recreation activities for the factory's 5,000 women. From 1919 to 1920 she directed an industrial service center in New Orleans, prior to her 1921 graduation from Tulane University with an A.B. in sociology. In 1922 she briefly served as a field representative of the American Red Cross. In 1924 she received a master's degree in sociology and recreation from the University of Maryland.

In 1922 Adele H. Stamp was appointed the University of Maryland's first dean of women and held this position until her retirement in 1960. During her tenure at the University of Maryland she organized and promoted women's activities. She initiated the campus celebration of May Day, which began in 1923 and continued annually until 1961. She founded the Women's Student Government Association, the Women's Senior Honor Society, which became the Maryland Chapter of the Mortar Board, and the Freshman Honor Society for Women, later a chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta. For fifteen years she served as the national treasurer of Alpha Lamda Delta and a national scholarship awarded annually was named for her. She organized the first Women's Physical Education Club in 1926 and in 1938 founded the Campus Club, an association for women professors and faculty wives.

In 1959 the campus yearbook, the Terrapin, was dedicated to her, the first woman to receive that honor. When she retired in 1960, Stamp was named Dean Emeritus by university president Wilson H. Elkins. In 1983, the university student union was renamed the Adele H. Stamp Union in her honor.

Her activities extended beyond the university to the state and national level as well. She organized the State Association of Deans of Women and served on the board of the State Federation of Women's Clubs as chairman of both the Library Extension and Education Committees. Her other interests included the League of Women Voters of which she served as state Education Chairman. In 1929 she organized the College Park branch of the American Association of University Women and founded Delta Kappa Gamma, an honor society for women teachers, in 1937.

She maintained her political interests as a member of the League of Nations Association of Maryland and chairman of its Education Committee. During World War II she served on the advisory committee for the WAC's in the Washington area. She was also an active member of the National Democratic Women's Club and attended three Democratic National Conventions as a member of the Maryland Delegation.

Adele H. Stamp died on October 17, 1974 after a long illness.

From the guide to the Adele H. Stamp papers, 1895-1983, 1930-1959 (University of Maryland)