About the Exhibit

As to the Woman Question is the digital version of an exhibit at the Bentley Historical Library  on display for the 2020 winter semester, recognizing the 150th anniversary of the enrollment of Madelon Stockwell, the first woman to attend the University of Michigan in 1870. The exhibit was created by Project Archivist Caitlin Moriarty. Special thanks to Brian Williams, Gary Krenz, Sarah McLusky and Lara Zielin for their help throughout the project. 

The title, As to the Woman Question, comes from the October 6, 1869 letter from Henry Frieze to James B. Angell. 

Archival and Manuscript collections

James B. Angell papers, Bentley Historical Library

Hull Family Papers, Bentley Historical Library

Alice Freeman Palmer Correspondence, Bentley Historical Library

Madelon Louisa Stockwell Correspondence, Bentley Historical Library

Henry Philip Tappan papers, Bentley Historical Library

Willard Family Scrapbooks, Bentley Historical Library

University of Michigan Alumni File Index, Bentley Historical Library 

University of Michigan Board of Regents Portrait Collection, Bentley Historical Library

University of Michigan Faculty and Staff Portrait Collection, Bentley Historical Library

University of Michigan Office of the Registrar records, Bentley Historical Library

University of Michigan Student Portraits, Bentley Historical Library

Archival Photographic Files, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Stockwell Family Papers, Albion College Archives

Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections, Kathryn A. Martin Library, University of Minnesota Duluth

Helen D. Lyman papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

Publications

Attaway, Doris., and Barritt, Marjorie Rabe. “Women’s Voices : Early Years at the University of Michigan.” Bulletin (Bentley Historical Library) ; No. 47. Ann Arbor : Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, 2000. 

Anderson, Olive San Louie,. “An American Girl and Her Four Years in a Boys’ College.” New York : D. Appleton and company, 1878. Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson,. “Women at Michigan : The ‘Dangerous Experiment,’ 1870s to the Present.” Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 1999. 

“The Chronicle.” Ann Arbor, Mich.,: The Chronicle Association, 1869. 

Huber, J. Parker. “Toward Camelot : The Admission of Women to the University of Michigan.” Bulletin (Michigan Historical Collections) ; No. 18. Ann Arbor : Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan, 1970. 

McGuigan, Dorothy Gies. “A Dangerous Experiment ; 100 Years of Women at the University of Michigan.” Ann Arbor : Center for Continuing Education of Women, 1970.

Palmer, Alice Freeman,. “Why Go to College? : An Address.” New York ; Boston : T. Y. Crowell & Company, 1897. 

Perry, Charles Milton. “Henry Philip Tappan, philosopher and University President”. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1933.

Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan. 

Report on the Admission of Females, Appendix B, Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, September 29, 1858, Page 782. 

Tappan, Henry Philip. “A Discourse on Education : Delivered at the Anniversary of the Young Ladies’ Institute, Pittsfield, Mass., October 2, 1846.” New-York : Roe Lockwood & Son, 1846. 

Turpin, Andrea L. "A New Moral Vision: Gender, Religion, and the Changing Purposes of American Higher Education, 1837-1917". Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016.

Further Resources

Biographical Sketch of Sarah Burger Stearns. Taylor Okeson. Included in Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920, Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States.

Chapin, Augusta Jane (1836-1905). Harvard Square Library: A Digital Library of Unitarian Universalist Biographies, History, Books, and Media.

University of Michigan Alumnae Council Survey Responses, 1924, Bentley Historical Library

“A Dangerous Experiment: Women at the University of Michigan”, Michigan in the World Exhibit.

“No Admittance”, Kim Clarke, University of Michigan Heritage Project

"Madelon's World", Kim Clarke, University of Michigan Heritage Project

“Women Apart”, James Tobin, University of Michigan Heritage Project

“The First Women”, James Tobin, University of Michigan Heritage Project

Copyright Information

The Bentley Historical Library has made the content in this exhibit available for educational and research purposes.  Some material may be protected by copyright law.  It is the responsibility of anyone interested in reproducing, broadcasting or publishing content from the Bentley Historical Library collections to determine copyright holders and secure permissions accordingly. If you have questions or concerns regarding the inclusion of material in this exhibit, please contact our reference department at bentley.ref@umich.edu.