Ada Howard was the first president of Wellesley College. After post-graduate study under private teachers she adopted the profession of a teacher. She was at Mount Holyoke seminary, 1858-61; at the Western, Oxford, Ohio, 1861-62, and was principal of the woman's department, Knox college, Illinois, 1866-69. In 1870-75, she leased Ivy Hall, a private school in Bridgeton, N.J. In 1875 she was elected the first president of Wellesley college, Mass., the selection being made by Henry Fowle Durant, the founder of the college. This promotion made Howard the first woman president of a college in the world. Here she worked in full harmony with Mr. and Mrs. Durant and her labors in furthering the plans of the founders were unremitting up to the time of the death of Mr. Durant in 1881. In that year, her failure in health demanded immediate and complete rest and the trustees gave her leave of absence, but finding herself unable to resume her duties, she resigned in 1882. In appreciation of her work at Wellesley, the alumnae, in 1890, placed in the art gallery a life-size portrait of their first president, and a scholarship was established in her honor, known as the Ada L. Howard scholarship, Her subsequent life was passed in rest and travel, as her continued ill-health called for frequent change of climate. She was obliged to restrict her literary work to occasional articles for leading magazines. She received from Mount Holyoke college the honorary degree of Litt.D. in 1900.
Early life and education
Ada Lydia Howard was born in Temple, New Hampshire, on December 19, 1829. She was the daughter of Lydia Adaline Cowden and William Hawkins Howard. Her father was a teacher, scholar, and scientific agriculturalist. Three of her great-grandfathers were officers during the Revolutionary War. She was the granddaughter of Col. William and Mary Howard; great-granddaughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Howard, and of Thomas Cowden, Esq., the most prominent founder of Fitchburg, Mass. Her ancestry was English and Scotch. She was taught by her father and at New Ipswich Academy and Lowell High School. Howard graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1853 and then continued her studies with private teachers.
Career
After graduation she moved to Ohio, where she taught at the Western College. In Illinois, she worked for the Knox College as the principal of the Woman's Department and a faculty member. In 1886, when she taught at the college, there were separate classrooms and curriculums for men and women. She felt that women should have the same opportunities for education as men. Unable to influence President William Curtis to create an equal co-educational program, she resigned in 1867, shortly after she had become principal. That day nearly all of the students did not show up for classes and demanded Curtis' resignation. The next day, Curtis resigned. Howard's position was reinstated. She also was made professor of literary criticism, rhetoric, and moral philosophy. Howard also taught at Mount Holyoke and Oxford Female Institute. She moved to New Jersey, where she ran a school for girls, Ivy Hall, in Bridgeton. She was president of Wellesley beginning in 1875. The founder, Henry Fowle Durant, was very involved in the administration and decision-making of the college. In placing a woman at its head and conferring upon her the full powers of president of a corporate college, Durant was enthusiastic in his confidence and said: "I have been for four years looking for a president. She will be a target to be shot at and for the present the position will be one of severe trials. I have for some time been closely investigating Miss Howard. I look upon her as appointed for this work not by the trustees, but by God, for whom the college was built." She followed his lead, but his insistence that staff be of the evangelical Christian faith made hiring staff difficult. There was a division in the college between faculty members hired by Durant that supported his position and other staff members who did not support Durant's nearly fanatical beliefs. Conflict at the college escalated at the same time that Durant and Howard's health declined. Durant stopped coming to the campus. Durant died in 1881 and she resigned shortly after due to health reasons. She then lived in New York City, where she died in 1907.
