Putnam, Emily (James) Smith

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PUTNAM, Emily (James) Smith

Born 15 April 1865, Canandaigua, New York; died 7 September 1944, Kingston, Jamaica

Daughter of James C. and Emily Adams Smith; married George H.Putnam, 1899 (died 1930); children: Palmer Cosslett Putnam

The daughter of a judge, Emily Smith Putnam was the youngest of five children. Putnam's parents encouraged her intellectual curiosity, and gave her every educational opportunity. At an early age, Putnam became fascinated with ancient Greek history. She was a member of the first graduating class of Bryn Mawr College (1889).

Putnam became a pioneer in postgraduate education. She was among the first women to study at Girton College, Cambridge, England. She taught at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York (1891-93)—where she published her first scholarly work, Selections from Lucian (1892)—and at the newly established University of Chicago (1893-94). In 1894 she accepted the challenging appointment of dean of Barnard College. Putnam believed women should be educated to pursue their interests, whatever they might be, and that her job as dean was to make certain the young women received an education equal to that of the young men at Columbia University. Putnam helped create an innovative relationship between the men's and women's colleges which was followed by administrators at other universities.

Putnam married a publisher and scholar in 1899, and when she became pregnant in 1900, she was forced to resign her position. Her only child, Palmer Cosslett Putnam, became a noted author of scientific and technical works. Although Putnam maintained her ties with Barnard as a member of the Board of Trustees (1901-05), she devoted the next 14 years to her family and writing. During this period, Putnam published a variety of articles, ranging from "Americans at the English Universities" and "Preparation for College" to "Lucian the Sophist" and "Pagan Morals." These articles, in addition to short stories, appeared in the most noted journals of the day.

In 1914 Putnam returned to Barnard as a lecturer on Greek literature and history. In 1919 she, together with Columbia University professor James Harvey Robinson, helped found the New School for Social Research in New York City, an institution for the promotion of adult education. Putnam became a member of the New School's board of directors, and lectured there from 1920 until 1932. Putnam continued to write articles and short stories, and translated a number of works by French social theorists. Candaules' Wife, and Other Old Stories (1926) is devoted to interpreting and expanding upon certain stories of Herodotus.

After retiring from Barnard in 1929 and from the New School in 1932, and after the death of her husband in 1930, Putnam moved to Spain with her sister Alice, and lived there until the Spanish Civil War forced them to relocate in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Lady: Studies of Certain Significant Phases of Her History (1910), the volume for which Putnam is best known, combines Putnam's interest in history and the educational development of women: woman "can hardly understand herself unless she knows her own history." The Lady contains essays on the role, education, and social life of the "female of the favored social classes" in ancient Rome and Greece, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Putnam studies other lifestyles in "The Lady Abbess," "The Lady of the Salon," and "The Lady of the Blue Stocking." Her work concludes with the chapter, "The Lady of the Slave States," because Putnam believed the economic changes the world was undergoing at the turn of the century eliminated the distinctions between social classes which had been so prevalent in history. Her collection of historical sketches is as valuable now as it was in 1910.

A noted scholar, writer, historian, and educational administrator, Putnam provided an example for many women of her own and subsequent generations to follow in the quest for knowledge.

Other Works:

The Dread of Responsibility by E. Fauget (translated by Putnam, 1914). The Secret of the Maine by M. Berger (translated by Putnam, 1918). The Illusion by R. Escholier (translated by Putnam, 1921).