Helen Almira Shafer (23 September 1839—20 January 1894) was an American educator and president of

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

Life

Helen Almira Shafer was born

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

of the

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

. She was educated in a seminary in Albion, New York, afterwards attending

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

. After graduating 1863, she taught in a school for young women in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and for some years she was in charge of the advanced classes of the school. From 1865 to 1875 she was the teacher of mathematics in at Central High School in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, where she attracted widespread attention for her superior methods of teaching

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

higher analytical mathematics. Professor W. T. Harris, then superintendent of the schools of St. Louis, ranked her as the most able and successful teacher of mathematics in the country. In 1877 she became professor of mathematics at

, filling the position until 1888, when she was elected president of the college. Her work in Wellesley College as professor of mathematics was marked by even greater results than she achieved in St. Louis. Her methods were widely imitated in other schools. She is said to have visibly advanced the standing of Wellesley and was described as one of the most prominent and successful educators and college administrators of the nineteenth century. In 1893 Shafer was awarded by

Doctorate of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

, making her only the second American woman to receive such an honour. She died on the 20 January 1894 in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

. After her death the College raised $625 to commission a memorial to her.

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* * * 1839 births 1894 deaths Presidents of Wellesley College Wellesley College faculty 19th-century American mathematicians {{academic-bio-stub