Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins

Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins
Born
Minnie Galt Braithwaite

1874 (1874)
Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died1954 (aged 79–80)
OccupationSchool teacher
EmployerBureau of Indian Affairs
Known for1896 petition to the College of William & Mary to attend chemistry lectures
Notable workGirl from Williamsburg (1951)

Minnie Galt Braithwaite Jenkins (1874–1954) was a United States Indian Service (now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) school teacher and the first woman to attempt to take classes at The College of William & Mary.[1]

Biography

Education

Braithwaite was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. On October 2, 1896, she petitioned the faculty at the College of William & Mary to allow her to attend chemistry lectures. Her petition was denied 4 to 3. Among the seven men who voted, President of the College Lyon Gardiner Tyler voted in favor of the petition and English professor John Lesslie Hall voted against it.[2]

Career

Braithwaite intended to travel to China as a medical missionary after being trained at William & Mary to be a doctor, but this plan was derailed when her petition to attend was denied.[3] Instead, Braithwaite began her teaching career in 1899 at the Blue Canyon Day School near the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.[4] She later taught at the Fort Mojave School from 1902 to 1906.[5] It was at Fort Mojave that she met and married Clarence W. Jenkins in 1906. Her memoir, Girl from Williamsburg, was published in 1951.[6]

Legacy

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Department at the College of William & Mary hosts an annual lecture in commemoration of her efforts to attend classes at the College.[7]

Some of her and her family’s papers can be found in the Special Collections Research Center at Earl Gregg Swem Library. One such paper is a letter from William & Mary Board of Visitors member Thomas Barnes to Braithwaite regarding her petition to attend classes at the College.[8]

In 1996, her daughter Dorothy Jenkins Ross, a historian, published the book Jenkins Farms: Life on a Family Fruit Farm in Early California, 1910 about her family's life in Sutter County, California.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Freehling, Alison (October 2, 1996). "Light Of Learning To Shine In Teacher's Memory". Daily Press. Daily Press. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  2. ^ Rouse, Parke (September 29, 1996). "W&m Hails Woman's Effort". Daily Press. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  3. ^ Cahill, Cathleen D. (June 2011). Federal Fathers and Mothers A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869-1933. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-8078-7773-9. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  4. ^ Carter, Patricia A. (1995). "Completely Discouraged': Women Teachers' Resistance in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Schools, 1900-1910". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 15 (3): 53–86. doi:10.2307/3346785. JSTOR 3346785.
  5. ^ Sherer, Lorraine M. (1965). "The Clan System of the Fort Mojave Indians: A Contemporary Survey". Southern California Quarterly. 47 (1): 67. doi:10.2307/41169900. JSTOR 41169900.
  6. ^ Jenkins, Minnie Braithwaite (1995). Girl From Williamsburg. Richmond, Virginia: Dietz Press. p. 343. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  7. ^ "Braithwaite Lecture". College of William & Mary. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Bucktrout-Braithwaite Papers, 1780-1996". Earl Gregg Swem Library Special Collections Database. Retrieved 20 February 2018.