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Monnier, Mathilde, 1876-1954 -- Memorial Minute
Creator
Smith, Winifred, Miller, John R., de Schweinitz, Margaret
Date
[After 1954]
Text
MATHILDE monnxsn 1876 - 195k Mathilde Monnier, Professor Emeritus of French, was born in Switzerland on May 26, 1876, and died there at her home in Porrentruy, on April 22, l9Sh. She came to Vassar in 1909, after teaching for seven years at Putnam Hall in Poughkeepsie, and served the college as a distinguished member of the French Department until l9hh. Miss Monnier's work in the first World War was significant. In 1918 she was granted leave of absence to assist American soldiers of...
Show moreMATHILDE monnxsn 1876 - 195k Mathilde Monnier, Professor Emeritus of French, was born in Switzerland on May 26, 1876, and died there at her home in Porrentruy, on April 22, l9Sh. She came to Vassar in 1909, after teaching for seven years at Putnam Hall in Poughkeepsie, and served the college as a distinguished member of the French Department until l9hh. Miss Monnier's work in the first World War was significant. In 1918 she was granted leave of absence to assist American soldiers of foreign origin at Camp Devens, and in the summer of 1919 she was with the Y.W.C.A. in France, dealing with the problem of sending French war brides to America - an experience she described in the Vassar Quarterly of May 1920. While greatly attached to her work and her friends here, Miss Monnier remained the the European in our midst. Her summer vacations and her subsequent leaves of absence were spent in travel and, most often, at her apartment in Paris - where she entertained many of the contemporary writers with whom she was acquainted. Miss Monnier's students were admiring and devoted; they felt her power and her charm and were appreciative of her tireless efforts on their behalf. All her life she counted many lasting friends among them. As a teacher she maintained strict discipline and the highest standards. Under her instruction the students worked their hardest, and longed to excel. They discovered not only the meaning of the classics but also the rhythm and the tone. For Miss Monnier was one of the rare teachers of language and literature who was herself a poet. This was proved - long before her own volume of verse appeared - by her eiquisitely sensitive and musical reading of the literature she taught. She introduced and established in the Vassar curriculum the first courses in contemporary French literature and in diction. In 192k Miss Monnier and Miss White collaborated in translating from the French a novel by Isabelle Sandy, Andorra, which was published by Houghton Mifflin. Miss Monnier's volume of poems entitled Dis ersion, appeared in l9h2, published in New York By Ehe Editions MATHILDE MONNIER (Continued) de la Maison francaise, in a series which included works by several of the leading French writers. One of the publishers remarked after reading the manuscript: "I1 y a de la musique dedans." As in her work, so in her bearing, there was artistry and distinction, and in her life clarity of purpose courageously carried out to the end. Respectfully submitted, Winifred Smith John R. Miller Margaret de Sghweinitz XIII - use
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Whitney, Marian Parker, 1861-1946 -- Memorial Minute
Creator
Hofrichter, Ruth J., Kitchel, Anna T., Smith, Winifred
Date
[After 1946]
Text
MARIAN PARKER WHITNEY 1861 - 19u6 Marian Parker Whitney, who died at her New Haven home on June 16th, l9h6, in her 86th year, contributed a great deal to the development of Vassar College during her twenty-six years of service. Schooled largely in Europe, a Ph.D. of Yale, she was at home in several foreign languages and cultues and was tireless in bringing students to a broad understandirg of foreign peoples and their literatures. As Head of the German Department from 1905 to 1929 she...
Show moreMARIAN PARKER WHITNEY 1861 - 19u6 Marian Parker Whitney, who died at her New Haven home on June 16th, l9h6, in her 86th year, contributed a great deal to the development of Vassar College during her twenty-six years of service. Schooled largely in Europe, a Ph.D. of Yale, she was at home in several foreign languages and cultues and was tireless in bringing students to a broad understandirg of foreign peoples and their literatures. As Head of the German Department from 1905 to 1929 she introduced new methods of language teaching which became a pattern for other institutions. She built up a strong department, gave many books to the Vassar library and by her text books and journal articles she spread her influence far beyond this campus. As the originator of our first course in Comparative Literature - Contemporary Drama - she helped to break down narrow departmentalism. Through her European contacts as a leader in the woman suffrage movement and as chairman of the Education Committee of the International Council of Wbmen she brought many interesting guests to the college and helped work out foreign exchanes of students and teachers. In all these ways she was a most valuable member of the faculty; more than all, she was a warm, liberal and generous person, eager to make shy young instructors feel at home, constantly helpful to them and to her students, and always a most loyal friend. Ruth J. Hofrichter Anna T. Kitchel Winifred Smith XII - 57
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