SOURCE: "Martha Carey Thomas: The Scholarly Ideal and Bryn Mawr Woman," in Collegiate Women: Domesticity and Career in Turn-of-the-Century America, New York University Press, 1977, pp. 26-40.

In the following essay, Frankfort describes the evolution of Thomas's vision of the educated woman.

When in 1899 Martha Carey Thomas, the young and spirited president of Bryn Mawr College, accused the venerated president of Harvard University, Charles Eliot, of having "sun spots" on his brain, the account was carried in newspapers across the country. Her presumption was a rarity among even educated women whose preoccupation with conflicts between womanliness and intellect often necessitated withdrawal from issues that would bring the ambiguity to the surface. But Martha Carey Thomas took a firm stand in favor of the intellect, and her fierce rhetoric attests to her willingness—even eagerness—to confront those who argued that the feminine nature stood in opposition to rigorous intellectual...