Summary
Elizabeth Anna Sophia Dawes (1864–1954) was a 19th-century British classical scholar and the first woman to receive a DLitt degree from the University of London.[1][2]
Elizabeth Dawes | |
|---|---|
 In The Sketch, 29 May 1895 | |
| Born | 7 November 1864 Surbiton, England |
| Died | 19 August 1954 (aged 89) Weybridge, England |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of London |
| Thesis | The Pronunciation of Greek with Suggestions for a Reform in Teaching that Language |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Classics |
| Institutions | Bryn Mawr College |
Early life edit
Elizabeth was born on 7 November 1864 in Surbiton, England.[1] In the 1881 census, aged 16, she is already listed as "scholar". At this time, the family, consisting of father the Revd John Samuel,[2] mother Anna Sophia Elizabeth (or called Elizabeth Anna Sophia as well, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)[1] and eight children, live at Newton House on Maple Road in Surbiton.[3]
Her older sister Mary Clara Dawes was also a scholar, and the first woman to receive a Masters in Arts.[4] Mary Clara Dawes passed the matriculation examination in January 1879 and placed fourth in the list of masters of arts for the University of London in July 1884.[5][6][7]
Education edit
Dawes spent a year at Bedford College, London before matriculating as a Scholar at Girton College, Cambridge University.[8] She got a good mark in the Classical Tripos but, as was the rule at that time, could not graduate from the University of Cambridge with a degree. Her good results are notable because girls generally received an inferior education to their male counterparts, which generally translated into lower marks in the Tripos.[9]
She subsequently acquired a BA from the University of London, as well as being the first woman to receive a DLitt from the University of London, in 1895.[1][10] The title of her thesis was The Pronunciation of Greek with Suggestions for a Reform in Teaching that Language, indicating an early interest in educational reform which would persist into her career as a headmistress of a girls' school.
Career edit
Contrary to many women of the Victorian era, Dawes had a career. In addition to a professorship held at Bryn Mawr College in the US during the academic year 1886–87, when she was only 22, she was headmistress of a school in Surrey together with her sister Mary.[11] In 1928, she translated Anna Comnena's Alexiad from Greek into English.[12] The work is still in print almost 90 years later.[13]
Later life edit
Select bibliography edit
- The pronunciation of Greek with suggestions for a reform in teaching that language (1889)
- Classical Latin vocabularies for schools and colleges (1890)
- Attic Greek vocabularies for schools and colleges (1890)
- The pronunciation of the Greek aspirates (1894)
References edit
- ^ a b c d e "Elizabeth Anna Sophia Dawes". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58469. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b "Small Talk". The Sketch. X (122): 237. 29 May 1895. Retrieved 2 September 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ Dawes, Elizabeth A. S. "UK Census Records". Ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ Assinder, Semele (2012). Greece in British Women's Writing, 1866-1915 (PhD dissertation).
- ^ Faithfull, Emily (1884). Three Visits to America. New York: Fowler & Wells Co., Publishers. p. 71.
- ^ "Ladies in the London University". The Illustrated London News. Vol. 85, no. 2359. 5 July 1884. p. 81. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
- ^ "The First Lady Master of Arts". Bow bells : a magazine of general literature and art for family reading. Vol. 41, no. 1056. London. 23 October 1884. p. 420.
- ^ "Miss Elizabeth A. S. Dawes". The Times. No. 1330. London. 25 May 1895. Retrieved 2 September 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Breay, Claire (1999). "Women and the Classical Tripos 1869 – 1914". In Stray, Christopher (ed.). Classics in 19th and 20th Century Cambridge: Curriculum, Culture and Community. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society. p. 49.
- ^ Murray, Janet Horowitz; Stark, Myra (1895). "University Intelligence". The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions. ISBN 9781315396569. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
- ^ Whitaker, Joseph (1914). An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1914. Whitaker's Almanack. p. 945. Retrieved 2 September 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ Dawes, Elizabeth (1928). The Alexiad of the Princess Anna Comnena : being the history of the reign of her father, Alexius I, Emperor of the Romans, 1081-1118 A.D. London: Kegan Paul.
- ^ Comnena, Anna; Dawes, Elizabeth (2015). The Alexiad. Masterworks Classics. ISBN 978-1-6273-0130-5.
- ^ "Death of Dr. Elizabeth Dawes". Surrey Advertiser. 28 August 1954. p. 8. Retrieved 2 September 2023 – via Newspapers.com.