Sophie Chantal Hart (August 20, 1868 – December 4, 1948) was an American professor of English composition and head of the English department at

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 ...

from 1906 to 1936.

Early life

Hart was born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

, the daughter of Eugene Hart and Ann McCormick Hart. She lived in San Francisco as a girl, after her widowed mother remarried. She earned a bachelor's degree at

Harvard Annex Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and hel ...

(later Radcliffe College) in 1892, in the same small class as astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. She earned a master's degree at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1898.

Career

Hart taught English Composition at Wellesley College from 1892 to 1937, and head of the English department from 1906 to 1936. She edited and annotated editions of Tennyson's ''Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine and The passing of Arthur'' (1903), and Nicholas Rowe's ''The Fair Penitent and Jane Shore'' (1907). During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Hart led the college's successful fundraising effort to provide an ambulance for the Red Cross in Paris. In addition to her studies in England, she took study and service trips to Russia, China, India, Turkey, and Japan. She was feared in danger after the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

. She knew Gandhi from her interest in the peace movement, and was a friend to Wellesley alumna Mei-ling Soong. She retired from Wellesley in 1937; the following year, the school established a named chair and a lecture series in her honor. Hart participated in the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

movement in Boston, and while visiting in England. She was also active in the

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

, the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

, the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in the 1920s. In 1933, Marjory Stoneman Douglas hosted her as a speaker at her studio in Florida. In retirement, she was president of the Tucson branch of the

National League of American Pen Women The National League of American Pen Women, Inc. (NLAPW) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization for women. History The first meeting of the League of American Pen Women was organized in 1897 by Marian Longfellow O'Donoghue, a writer ...

Personal life

Hart became guardian of three Japanese women students in the 1910s, bringing them from Japan to the United States for schooling. Hart retired to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, and died there in 1948, aged 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Sophie Chantal 1868 births 1948 deaths Radcliffe College alumni University of Michigan alumni Wellesley College faculty People from Waltham, Massachusetts American women in World War I