Alice Freeman (1855–1902)

Alice Elvira Freeman was born in New York, a daughter of a farmer who became a physician while Alice and her mother ran the farm and the household. She was determined at a young age to receive an education, but few girls in her day were given that privilege. Alice had to promise her parents she would support the younger children in the family to win their agreement for her to attend college. She went to the University of Michigan (which had recently started to admit women), and held teaching jobs to earn money before graduating in 1876. After her father declared bankruptcy the following year, Alice moved the family to a house in Saginaw paid for with her salary as the principal of a high school. She became a professor at Wellesley College and then, at the age of 26, Alice was appointed president of Wellesley College. In 1887, she married Harvard philosophy professor and author George Palmer. Alice Freeman Palmer became a leader and public speaker for the movement to obtain higher educaton for women, and helped create the American Association of University Women. With her husband she wrote The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education (1908), published posthumously, as was her volume of poems A Marriage Cycle (1915).

Alice Elvira Freeman was born in New York. Attended University of Michigan (1876); professor at Wellesley College; president of Wellesley College. Married to Harvard philosophy professor/author George Palmer. With her husband she wrote The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education (1908), and a volume of poems A Marriage Cycle (1915).