Agnes Scott College

The First Ph.D.'s

The following table gives some of the universities and colleges in the United States and Canada that have granted the Ph.D. in mathematics to women, together with the date of the first such degree granted to a woman at that institution. This information was compiled from materials in the Helen Brewster Owens Papers at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Library.

University/College First Woman Ph.D. Date
Columbia University Winifred Edgerton 1886
Cornell University Ida Metcalf 1893
Bryn Mawr College Ruth Gentry 1894
Yale University Charlotte Cynthia Barnum 1895
University of Pennsylvania Roxana Hayward Vivian 1901
University of Wisconsin Charlotte Pengra 1901
University of Chicago Mary Emily Sinclair 1908
Ohio State University Grace M. Bareis 1909
University of Illinois Elizabeth Ruth Bennett 1910
University of California Annie Dale Biddle 1911
Johns Hopkins University Clara L. Bacon 1911
University of Indiana Cora B. Hennel 1912
University of Michigan Suzan R. Benedict 1914
Catholic University Sister Mary Gervase 1917
University of Texas Goldie Printis Horton 1917
Radcliffe College Mary Curtis 1917
Syracuse University Josephine Robinson 1918
University of Minnesota Sally Elizabeth Carlson 1924
University of Cincinnati Bess M. Eversull 1924
Fordham University Sister Mary Teresa Gannon 1925
University of Kansas Florence L. Black 1926
Stanford University Marie Johanna Weiss 1928
Brown University Rose Whelan 1929
University of Iowa Dorothy McCoy 1929
Rice University Deborah M. Hickey 1929
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Dorothy Walcott Weeks 1930
University of Toronto Cypra Cecilia Krieger 1930