Jackson, Elizabeth, 1893-1968

Elizabeth Jackson, bachelor's, master's, doctorate degrees awarded by Radcliffe. Her academic focus was the style and technique of English verse.

Elizabeth Jackson was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to William Dunham Jackson and Mary Vose Jackson. Elizabeth Jackson was raised in a family of educators. Her mother taught high school prior to her marriage; her father was professor of science and mathematics at the Normal School in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, now Bridgewater State College.

Jackson attended Radcliffe, earning her bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees by the age of 23. After graduation, Jackson, along with her brother Dunham Jackson, came to the University of Minnesota. She began teaching at the University of Minnesota in 1916 as an instructor in the English Department. Dunham followed her a few years later and joined the Mathematics department in 1919, where he would continue to teach until his death in 1946. Jackson was promoted to the rank of assistant professor in 1920, associate professor in 1945 and to the rank of full professor in 1960.

Throughout Elizabeth Jackson's 45 year teaching career at the University of Minnesota she taught composition, the literature of the Bible, English literature and modern poetry. Her academic focus was the style and technique of English verse.

E.J., as she was affectionately known on campus, spent the years 1924-1925 on sabbatical leave in London. In 1933-1934 she took a second sabbatical and traveled extensively throughout Europe. She also worked as an exchange professor at the University of Hawaii in 1935-1936.

In 1944 the University of Minnesota Press published her only book The Faith and Fire Within Us: An American Credo . The book, as described by Jackson, is an attempt "to discover, describe, and estimate the beliefs that underlie American Society." Drawing heavily on quotes by prominent authors, politicians, philosophers and poets, the book is part pro-American propaganda for the war effort and part personal philosophy.

Other publications include a paper entitled "Project in Anti-Education Research" in which she analyzes modern education theory and ultimately dismisses much of it due to its lack of practical application. Elizabeth Jackson died November 25, 1968 at the Villa Maria nursing home in Minneapolis.

From the guide to the Elizabeth Jackson papers, 1908-1968, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])