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South Hadley, Aug
26.1847
My dear Miss Bliss,
Won’t you be willing to go
to Virginia to teach? It’s a
place where Miss Moore
taught this year.
Can’t you go now? Won't you
object to going .... Can
you teach drawing? I have
just written making further
inquiries. I shan’t hear
till I receive their letter
whether I shall wish to
recommend you. Please let me
hear from you very soon. I
may be away, but I have
arrangements to have my
letters forwarded.
Affectionately yours,
Mary Lyon
Imagine being twenty years
old and at home with your
father, a deacon and a
farmer, your mother and two
much younger sisters and
receiving this kind of
letter - asking you if you
would be willing to leave
Massachusetts and head to
Virginia to teach school.
Such was the case for Miss
Georgiana Bliss of
Longmeadow in 1847. Miss
Bliss had recently completed
a three year course of study
at Mary Lyon’s school, Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary
(today Mount Holyoke
College), and returned home
waiting for whatever her
next season of life would
bring.
Attending Mount Holyoke was
no small academic feat for
young women like Georgiana
Bliss. It was not a
“finishing school” to train
young women in the Domestic
Arts, but a place for real
academic scholarship. Entry
to Mount Holyoke was not for
the average student, and the
curriculum was rigorous and
demanding. A hallmark of
Mary Lyon’s commitment to
female education was her
high standards for
curriculum, which much more
closely mirrored its
all-male seminary peers like
Amherst College, Yale, and
Harvard. Students were
expected to be a minimum of
16 years old and have a firm
grasp of particular
mathematics, grammar and
geography textbooks. Per an
1847 course catalog for Mt.
Holyoke on “Studies required
for admission to the
seminary”:
“A good knowledge of
Wells’ English Grammar, with
an ability to apply the
principles in analyzing and
parsing, and of Modern
Geography, and a readiness
in Mental Arithmetic, that
is, an ability to give a
correct answer to the
questions as they are read
by the teacher, and to give
an account of all the steps
of the mental process, –
also a good knowledge of
common Arithmetic, including
all the more difficult
rules. In the examination of
Arithmetic, a list of
questions taken from
different authors is used.
It is recommended that
candidates for admission go
through two or three
different authors, so as to
thus gain more mathematical
discipline, and be better
prepared for examination. A
good knowledge of Mitchell’s
Ancient Geography, of
Andrews’ and Stoddard's
Latin Grammar, and Andrews’
Latin Reader, of the History
of the United States, and of
Watts on the Mind, is also
required.”
click
image to enlarge
At Mount Holyoke students
read Euclid and Milton’s
Paradise Lost, studied
Algebra, Botany, Philosophy
of Natural History,
Ecclesiastical History,
Latin, Physiology,
Chemistry, Natural
Philosophy, Astronomy,
Rhetoric, Geology, Logic,
Moral Philosophy,
Composition, French, and
Histories of Greece, Rome,
England and France. They
also made time for
calisthenics, instruction in
vocal music, and linear and
perspective drawing. All of
this came at a cost each
year of $60 (exclusive of
fuel and lights) for room
and board, paid over two $30
installments. The year was
divided into three terms,
one of sixteen weeks and two
of twelve weeks each.
All students were instructed
to arrive with their own
Bible, a dictionary, a
modern atlas, Watts’ Psalms
and Hymns, Village Hymns,and
any other books they felt
might be useful to their
studies. As a Female
Seminary, religion was at
the core of all work. Upon
examination by Mary Lyon,
poet Emily Dickinson, a
student at Mt. Holyoke in
1847, was infamously
classified as a “No Hoper”
on a scale of Saved - Hoper
- No Hoper regarding the
state of her soul. Dickinson
left after only one year of
study. Georgiana Bliss must
have fared better since Mary
Lyon sought her out to
recommend her for a teaching
position upon completing the
entire course of study.
Per later alumni directories
for Mount Holyoke, it would
appear Georgiana Bliss did
indeed take the position
offered to her in this
letter. From there, she
taught in a few other
locations before marrying a
Union College graduate, Rev.
George McQueen. What
followed next was exactly
the kind of experience an
education at Mt. Holyoke
Female Seminary prepared a
woman for: to be the wife of
a missionary. Rev. and Mrs.
McQueen set off for
missionary work in West
Africa. After her young
husband’s death in Africa in
1859, Georgiana returned to
Longmeadow briefly to be
with their young son,
Charles, before returning to
continue the work she
believed in. Georgiana
Bliss McQueen died in
Longmeadow in 1901 and is
buried in Longmeadow
Cemetery under an obelisk
shaped memorial also bearing
her husband’s name and
details of his work.
To learn more about
Georgiana Bliss McQueen’s
missionary work, see this
earlier article
about her work in Africa.
Sources
-
Archives, Longmeadow
Historical Society
-
Catalogue of Mt. Holyoke
Female Seminary, 1847-48
