Aurelia Henry Reinhardt

Aurelia Henry Reinhardt
Aurelia Henry in 1900
Born Aurelia Isabel Henry
April 1, 1877
San Francisco
Died January 28, 1948(1948-01-28) (aged 70)
Palo Alto, California
Nationality American
Education University of California, Berkeley (1898)
Ph.D., Yale (1905)[1]
Known for President, Mills College, 1916-1943
Moderator, American Unitarian Association, 1940–1942
Spouse(s) George Frederick Reinhardt, M.D.
Children G. Frederick Reinhardt, Paul Henry Reinhardt, M.D.
Signature

Aurelia Isabel Henry Reinhardt (1877-1948) was an educator, activist, and prominent member and leader of numerous organizations. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, completed her doctoral dissertation at Yale, and studied as a fellow at Oxford. After teaching at the University of Idaho, the Lewiston State Normal School, and with the Extension Division of the University of California, she was elected president of Mills College in 1916, and held the position until 1943, making her the longest serving president in the history of the school.

She was a peace activist during the First World War, was an active member of the Republican Party, and supported the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and the formation of the League of Nations. She wrote on and spoke extensively throughout the US and Europe, to a range of social, political and business groups, on topics including the education of women, women's suffrage, world peace, and international cooperation. She was president of the American Association of University Women, and a prominent member of the American Unitarian Association, serving for two years as its first female moderator, as the only female member of its Commission of Appraisal, delivered the Ware Lecture in 1932, and was briefly a minister in Oakland, California. She was a director of the Starr King School for the Ministry, and was a delegate at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations in 1945.

She was married to George F. Reinhardt in 1909, with whom she had two sons she raised after his unexpected death in 1914. Following her retirement in 1943, she traveled internationally before returning to California, where she died on January 28, 1948, due to heart problems. She was the recipient of honorary degrees from a number of educational institutions, and has been commemorated through the establishment of a society, fellowship, a university building, and a professorship bearing her name. She was named nationally as "one of the ten outstanding women of 1940," and honored as the California State Mother in 1946.

Early life

Aurelia Isabel Henry was born on April 1, 1877, in San Francisco, California. One of six children, she was the daughter of Mary and William Warner Henry, a wholesale grocer, land owner, and businessman.[2][3][4]:563[5] She spent part of her childhood in San Jacinto and Escondido, California. After graduating from Boys High School in San Francisco in 1888, she studied at the University of California, Berkeley, completing a bachelor's degree with a major in English literature in 1898. She then taught elocution and physical culture at the University of Idaho from 1898 to 1901.[3][6]

She completed a Ph.D. in literature at Yale in 1905 with a doctoral dissertation on Epicœne by Ben Jonson. She continued teaching at Lewiston State Normal School in Idaho[lower-alpha 1] from 1903 to 1908, taking one year off to revise her dissertation for publication. She traveled abroad as a recipient of an Association of Collegiate Alumnae Fellowship, studied as a fellow at the University of Oxford, and published an English language translation of De Monarchia by Dante Alighieri.[3][4]:563–4[7][8]

In 1909 she married George F. Reinhardt, M.D., professor of hygiene, founder and director of the student health service at the University of California, Berkeley, and member of the California Board of Medical Examiners. They were wed in a ceremony at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley. He died unexpectedly in 1914, following an "operation for a minor affliction" and four days of illness. He was survived by his widow and their two sons.[9][4]:564[10][2][11][lower-alpha 2]

Career

In 1914, following the death of her husband, Reinhardt became a lecturer in English in the Extension Division of the University of California. She was a member of the Town and Gown Club of Berkeley, Prytancan and English Club of the University of California, Phi Beta Kappa, the Dante Society of America, and Concordance Society of America.[7][lower-alpha 3]

After two years of teaching she was appointed president of Mills College in Oakland, California, at that time the only women's college on the West Coast and the second oldest women's college in the country. There she served from 1916 to 1943, through a period of substantial growth, making her the longest serving president in the institution's history.[2][13][6]

Reinhardt was active in local, national, and international organizations, lecturing and writing on topics including international cooperation, suffrage, and women's rights.[9][14] In 1919 she served the Oakland Chamber of Commerce as chair of the City Planning Committee, and she was regularly invited to speak at a range of organizations, such as the Retail Furniture Association of California, the Western Fruit Jobbers Association, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, or the Advertising Club of Los Angeles.[15]

During the First World War, she worked as an advocate for world peace. She supported Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's proposal to create the League of Nations, despite herself being active in the Republican Party.[4]:564 In 1920 she traveled to Washington, D.C., to deliver a petition of 30,000 signatures from Californians urging the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles to end the war.[16] In 1928 she was a Republican elector from California.[17]

In 1922 she traveled again to Oxford and then to France as a representative of the American Association of University Women.[12] In 1923 she began serving as the president of the American Association of University Women, a position she held until 1927, helping to strengthen that organization significantly. In the 1940s she served as moderator of the American Unitarian Association, which according to contemporary news reports was the first time a large church in the nation had been represented by a woman.[9][18] In 1945 she was a delegate to the inaugural meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco, California, and spoke to numerous groups throughout the country, advocating for the value of groups such as UNESCO.[4]:564 She also served the General Federation of Women's Clubs as chairperson for their department of education and was a lifelong advocate for marginalized groups and for equal educational access for women.[4]:564

Reinhardt served briefly as a minister at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland and delivered the Ware Lecture at the 1932 May meeting of the American Unitarian Association. She also served on the board of directors at the Starr King School for the Ministry.[4]:265 Reinhardt was the only woman member of the Unitarian Commission of Appraisal, commissioned to "study the church and find new directions for its re invigoration".[19]

Later life and death

Following her retirement as president of Mills College in 1943, Reinhardt traveled in Latin America, Europe, and finally Russia before returning to California. She died on January 28, 1948, in Palo Alto, California, from heart problems.[6] Her ashes are interred at the Columbarium in Oakland.[4]:563 Her eldest son, G. Frederick Reinhardt, was a diplomat. His brother Paul Henry Reinhardt, an ophthalmologist in Palo Alto, California, served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater of World War II and later taught ophthalmology at Stanford University.[20][21]

Recognition and commemoration

Reinhardt in academic regalia from a 1922 publication

Reinhardt was the receipient of multiple honorary degrees, including:

Mills College hosts the namesake Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Society, which recognizes those who financially support the college through a bequest or other charitable gift, as well as the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Faculty Purse, awarded to seniors to support post-graduate study.[22][23] The school's campus also includes the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Alumnae House, designed by architect Clarence W. W. Mayhew and built in 1949.[24]

The Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Fellowship was established in 1940 with fundraising from the South Pacific section of the American Association of University Women and is offered annually to distinguished women scholars.[25][26][27] In 1981 the Starr King School for the Ministry introduced the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Professorship, in order to "ensure a feminist perspective on the faculty".[28][lower-alpha 4]

Reinhardt was named "one of the ten outstanding women of 1940" by the publication American Women.[6] She was also selected as the California State Mother in 1946.[21]

Publications

  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia (1929). "Colleges for Women and Education for Peace". Proceedings of the Institute of International Relations. 4: 222.
  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia (July 13, 2012) [First published 1904]. De Monarchia of Dante Aligheri (translation). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1478240297. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  • Jonson, Ben (1906). Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia, ed. Epicoene, or the Silent Woman. OCLC 257568261.
  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia (1921). "Education of the Women of the United States". International Education Association: Addresses and Proceedings. 59: 65–74. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia. The Garden Club of America's Redwood Grove. Eucalyptus Press. OCLC 9025272. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia (1946). "What Price Peace?". The San Francisco Conference and the United Nations: Proceedings of the Institute of World Affairs. University of Southern California. 21: 131–139.
  • Henry Reinhardt, Aurelia (1936). Worship: Its Fundamental Place in Liberal Religion. Unitarian Association. pp. 70–79.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ now Lewis–Clark State College
  2. ↑ At least one source records George Reinhardt's cause of death as "blood poisoning", possibly a reference to Sepsis.[6]
  3. ↑ At least according to one contemporary source, "She is a life member of more literary organizations than probably any other woman of California.[12]
  4. ↑ Although the Starr King school itself has this professorship founded in 1981, at least one source from the Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society places the date instead as 1977.[29]

References

  1. ↑ Clare B. Fischer, "Aurelia Henry Reinhardt: President of Mills College 1877-1948", Notable American Unitarians, Harvard Square Library, archived from the original on 2012-10-03, retrieved 2013-05-29
  2. 1 2 3 Jarrell Johnson, Kim. "Back in the Day: From San Jacinto to university president". The Press-Enterprise. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Boaz, Martha (1963). "New Books: Aurelia Henry Reinhardt: Portrait of a Whole Woman. By George Hedley". California Historical Society Quarterly. 42 (2): 154–156. JSTOR 25155546.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Emerson, Dorothy May; Edwards, June; Knox, Helene (2000). Standing Before Us: Unitarian Universalist Women and Social Reform, 1776-1936. Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. ISBN 978-1-55896-380-1.
  5. ↑ "Berkeley Landmarks designated in 2016". Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leavitt, Judith A. (1985). American Women Managers and Administrators: A Selective Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-century Leaders in Business, Education, and Government. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 228–9. ISBN 978-0-313-23748-5. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  7. 1 2 California State Journal of Medicine, Volume 14. California Medical Association. 1916. p. 256. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  8. ↑ Vassar Quarterly Volumes 5-6. Vassar College. 1919. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 "Guide to the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Papers, Mills College". Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  10. ↑ Western Journal of Education. Harr Wagner Publishing Company. 1916. p. 12. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  11. ↑ "Sudden Death of Dr. G. F. Reinhardt". Riverside Daily Press. June 8, 1914. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  12. 1 2 Lyons, Louis S. (1922). Who's who Among the Women of California: An Annual Devoted to the Representative Women of California, with an Authoritative Review of Their Activities in Civic, Social, Athletic, Philanthropic, Art and Music, Literary and Dramatic Circles : Profusely Illustrated. Security Publishing Company. p. 604. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  13. ↑ Shaw, Albert (1916). Review of Reviews and World's Work. Review of Reviews Corporation. p. 488. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  14. ↑ "Aurelia Isabel Henry Reinhardt (1877-1948)". Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society Archives. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  15. ↑ Simpson, Lee M. A. (2004). Selling the City: Gender, Class, and the California Growth Machine, 1880-1940. Stanford University Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-8047-4875-9.
  16. ↑ "Dr. Reinhardt Leave Today for Washington D. C." Healdsburg Tribune. January 17, 1920. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  17. ↑ Smith, Wilson; Bender, Thomas (7 March 2008). American Higher Education Transformed, 1940–2005: Documenting the National Discourse. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-8018-9585-2. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  18. ↑ Maffett, M. L. (July 17, 1940). "Modern Women". Norwood News. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  19. ↑ Harris, Mark W. (29 July 2009). The A to Z of Unitarian Universalism. Scarecrow Press. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-8108-6333-0.
  20. ↑ "Obituary". Stanford Magazine. 28: 116. 2000.
  21. 1 2 "S.F. Woman Named 'State Mother'". Madera Tribune. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  22. ↑ "Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Society". Mills College. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  23. ↑ "Recognition of Academic Achievement". Mills College. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  24. ↑ "Reinhardt Alumnae House". Mills College. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  25. ↑ "AAUW Fellowship Honor Local Women". Berkeley Daily Gazette. July 15, 1943. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  26. ↑ "University Women to Meet Monday". Mill Valley Record. January 5, 1940. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  27. ↑ "University Women to Meet Monday". Mill Valley Record. December 6, 1935. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  28. ↑ "Remembering Bob Kimball". Starr King School for the Ministry. July 14, 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  29. ↑ "Notable Universalist and Unitarian Women: Q - R". Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  30. ↑ Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 1, February, 1929
  • Works by Aurelia Henry Reinhardt at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
  • Aurelia Isabel Henry Reinhardt at Find a Grave
  • "Aurelia Henry Reinhardt". womeninpeace.org. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Luella Clay Carson		 President of Mills College
1916–1943		 Succeeded by
Lynn Townsend White, Jr.
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