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Ethel H. Brewster

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Ethel H. Brewster (July 3, 1886 – August 18, 1947) was an American college professor and philologist. She was Dean of Women (effective 1932) and taught Greek and Latin at Swarthmore College, where she was a member of the faculty from 1916 to 1947.

Ethel H. Brewster
A white woman with hair in a bouffant updo, wearing glasses and a print top or jacket with a spread collar
Brewster, from the 1926 yearbook of Swarthmore College
Born
Ethel Hampson Brewster

(1886-07-03)July 3, 1886
Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedAugust 18, 1947(1947-08-18) (aged 61)
Great Neck, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Professor of Greek and Latin, Swarthmore College (1916–1947)

Early life and education

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Ethel Hampson Brewster was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Joseph Fergus Brewster and Jane (Hampson) Brewster. She graduated from Chester High School in 1903.[1] Her father was a direct descendant of Mayflower passenger William Brewster (Mayflower passenger).[2] She earned a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in 1907, and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911.[3] She held the Bennett Fellowship in Classics from 1912 to 1914, and completed doctoral studies at Penn in 1915, with a dissertation titled "Roman Craftsmen and Tradesmen of the Early Empire".[4][5][6]

Career

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Brewster taught Latin, French and English at Chester High School after she graduated from Swarthmore in 1907. She taught Latin at Vassar College from 1914 to 1916, and became associate professor of Greek and Latin at Swarthmore College in 1916. She taught at Swarthmore for over thirty years, and was department chair, Dean of Women[7] and acting Dean of the college[8] during her Swarthmore years.[3]

In 1919, she addressed an audience at the Philadelphia High School for Girls, saying "It is as stupid to oust ancient history from the schools in favor of American and modern European history as it would be to knock out the first two stories of a skyscraper and expect the structure to stand."[9]

Brewster was a member of Phi Beta Kappa[3] and the American Association of University Women.[10]

Publications

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Brewster's work was published in academic journals, including Classical Philology,[11] The Classical Weekly,[12][13] The Journal of Higher Education,[14] and The Classical Journal.[15]

  • "On Suetonius, De grammaticis 5" (1915)[11]
  • "The Synthesis of the Romans" (1918)[16]
  • "The Functions of a Teacher" (1923)
  • "Modern Antiquities" (1920)[12]
  • "Experiments with Translations" (1924)[17]
  • "Social Life as an Academic Problem" (1924)[18]
  • "A Weaver of Oxyrhynchus: Sketch of an Humble Life in Roman Egypt" (1927)[19]
  • "Reading for Honors" (1930)[14]
  • A Weaver's Life in Oxyrhynchus: His Status in the Community (1931)[20]
  • "In Roman Egypt" (1935)[21]
  • "Poster Politics in Ancient Rome and in Later Italy" (1944)[15]
  • "The Place of Latin in the Post-War Curriculum" (1946)[13]

Personal life

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Brewster died, unmarried, at her niece's home in 1947, at the age of 61, in Great Neck, New York.[22] Her body was found in a closet, with a bottle of sleeping pills, after she had reportedly expressed concern over her declining health.[23][24]

References

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  1. ^ "Forty-Seven Graduate from the High School". Delaware County Daily Times. June 17, 1903. p. 1. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: A Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower", Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Church which Founded Plymouth Colony in 1620, Volume 1, Part 1 - Emma C. Brewster Jones Higginson Book Company, 1908 - Plymouth (Mass.)
  3. ^ a b c Swarthmore College (1926). "Halcyon". Digital Collections, TriCollege Libraries. p. 33. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  4. ^ Lever, Katherine. "Brewster, Ethel Hampson". Database of Classical Scholars, Rutgers University. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  5. ^ Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1917). Roman Craftsmen and Tradesmen of the Early Empire. George Banta publishing Company.
  6. ^ University of Pennsylvania Bulletin. University of Pennsylvania. 1915. pp. 38–39.
  7. ^ "Personal Qualifications as a Factor in the Limitation of Enrollment". Proceedings of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. 39: 15–21. 1925.
  8. ^ "Named Swarthmore Dean". The Times-Tribune. May 25, 1932. p. 27. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "'Job' Does Not Educate; Dr. Ethel Hampson Brewster, of Swarthmore, Defends Classics". The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 3, 1919. p. 15. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Educational Leaders Coming for Conference". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 14, 1929. p. 14. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1915). "On Suetonius de grammaticis 5". Classical Philology. 10: 84–87. doi:10.1086/359939. S2CID 161573690.
  12. ^ a b Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1920). "Modern Antiquities". The Classical Weekly. 13 (16): 121–126. doi:10.2307/4387946. ISSN 1940-641X. JSTOR 4387946.
  13. ^ a b Brewster, Ethel H. (1946). "The Place of Latin in the Post-War Curriculum". The Classical Weekly. 40 (3): 18–23. doi:10.2307/4342257. ISSN 1940-641X. JSTOR 4342257.
  14. ^ a b Brewster, Ethel Hampson (December 1, 1930). "Reading for Honors". The Journal of Higher Education. 1 (9): 507–514. doi:10.1080/00221546.1930.11772229. ISSN 0022-1546.
  15. ^ a b Brewster, E. H. (1944). "Poster Politics in Ancient Rome and in Later Italy". The Classical Journal. 39 (8): 466–483. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3291901.
  16. ^ American Philological Association (1994). Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-24560-2.
  17. ^ Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1924). "Experiments with Translations". The Classical Weekly. 18 (6): 42–44. doi:10.2307/4388590. ISSN 1940-641X. JSTOR 4388590.
  18. ^ Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1924). "Social Life as an Academic Problem". Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors. 11: 67–73.
  19. ^ Brewster, Ethel H. (1927). "A Weaver of Oxyrhynchus: Sketch of a Humble Life in Roman Egypt". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 58: 132–154. doi:10.2307/282908. ISSN 0065-9711. JSTOR 282908.
  20. ^ Brewster, Ethel Hampson. A Weaver's Life in Oxyrhynchus: His Status in the Community. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1931.
  21. ^ Brewster, Ethel Hampson (1935). "In Roman Egypt". The Classical Weekly. 29 (4): 25–29. doi:10.2307/4339608. ISSN 1940-641X. JSTOR 4339608.
  22. ^ "Miss E. H. Brewster". Delaware County Daily Times. August 21, 1947. p. 2. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Ethel Hampson Brewster, Educator, Found Dead". The Kingston Daily Freeman. August 19, 1947. p. 8. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Ethel H. Brewster is Found Dead". The Philadelphia Inquirer. August 19, 1947. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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