Elizabeth Powell Bond (January 25, 1841 – March 29, 1926) was an educator and social activist who was the first Dean of Women at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

Family and education

Elizabeth Powell was born in 1841 in Clinton, New York, to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

couple, Catherine Macy Powell and Townsend Powell. Her father was a farmer, and when she was four, the family moved to a farm in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

. By the age of 15, she was serving as an assistant teacher at a Friends’ School in the county. She graduated at the age of seventeen from the State Normal School in Albany. Like many Quakers, she held strong views against slavery and was a suffragist, peace activist, and temperance reformer. At the age of 16, she was speaking out at local meetings of anti-slavery campaigners. She spent some time in the household of the abolitionist

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

before her marriage. In 1872, she married Henry Herrick Bond, a lawyer from Northampton, Massachusetts. They had two sons, Edwin (born 1874), and Herrick, (born 1878, died in infancy). Henry Herrick Bond died in 1881.

Career in education

Bond began her career by teaching for two years in New York public schools. In the early 1860s, she ran a boarding school for three years out of her parents’ house, with the student body including both African-American and Catholic children. In 1865, after training with the

physical culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

advocate

Diocletian Lewis Diocletian Lewis (March 3, 1823 – May 21, 1886), commonly known as Dr. Dio Lewis, was a prominent Temperance movement, temperance leader and physical culture advocate who practiced homeopathy. Biography Early life He was born on a farm near A ...

, Bond became the first instructor in

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. In the early 1870s, she briefly headed up the Free Congregational Sunday school in

Florence, Massachusetts Florence is a village in the northwestern portion of the city of Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. During the 19th century, Florence was a thriving manufacturing village shaped by progressive ideas on religion, abolitionism, and educa ...

, returning in 1885 to become the resident minister for a year. She also worked for a time as editor (with her husband) of the ''Northampton Journal''. In 1886, Swarthmore College appointed Elizabeth Powell Bond to the post of Matron of the College. In 1890, she was named Dean, a position she kept until her retirement in 1906, when she was named Dean Emeritus. She was succeeded by

Henrietta Meeteer Henrietta Josephine Meeteer (June 1, 1857 – November 18, 1956) was an American classics professor and philologist. She taught Latin and Greek at Swarthmore College, and was a dean of the college from 1906 to 1918. Early life and education He ...

as Dean. She played an important role in the development of coeducation at the college. Bond died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1926.

Legacy

An avid gardener, Bond was honored by Swarthmore with a rose garden created in her honor. A room at the college also bears her name. Her papers, including correspondence, diaries, business papers, pictures, and memorabilia, are held by Swarthmore College. Her correspondents included

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Little Men'' (1871) and ''Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised in ...

Hannah Clothier Hull Hannah Hallowell Clothier Hull (July 21, 1872 – July 4, 1958) was an American clubwoman, feminist, and pacifist, one of the founders and leaders of the Women's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Early life ...

, William Lloyd Garrison, and many others.

Family and education

Career in education

Legacy

References

Further reading