Mary Sumner Benson

Mary Sumner Benson
Mary Sumner Benson, from the 1947 yearbook of Milwaukee-Downer College
BornApril 6, 1903
New York, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 8, 1988 (age 85)
South Hadley, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)Historian, college professor
RelativesGeorge C. S. Benson (brother)
Charles Burt Sumner (grandfather)

Mary Sumner Benson (April 6, 1903 – September 8, 1988) was an American historian and college professor, author of Women in Eighteenth-Century America (1935). She taught at Mount Holyoke College from 1952 to 1968.

Early life and education

Benson was born in New York City and raised in California, the daughter of Eugene Huntington Benson and Helen Thais Sumner Benson.[1] Her father was an Episcopal priest. Her grandfather was Charles Burt Sumner,[2] and her brother George C. S. Benson was the first president of Claremont McKenna College.[3] She graduated from Pomona College in 1923, and earned her master's degree from Columbia University in 1930. She completed doctoral studies at Columbia in 1935. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[4]

Career

Benson's 1935 book based on her dissertation, Women in Eighteenth-Century America, was described by the Times of London as "a solid and documented work that happily escapes dullness."[5] She taught at Lindenwood College in the 1930s,[6][7] and at Milwaukee-Downer College in the 1940s.[8] She was a professor at Mount Holyoke College from 1952 to 1968, and was chair of the history department there from 1958 to 1964. She was a delegate to the International Federation of University Women meetings in the United States,[9] England, France, Finland, Australia, and Mexico.[4]

Publications

  • Women in Eighteenth-Century America: A Study of Opinion and Social Usage (1935)[10][11]

In addition to her 1935 book, Benson wrote book reviews for the Mississippi Valley Historical Review,[8][12] and for Far Eastern Quarterly and its successor, The Journal of Asian Studies.[13] Her 1935 book was reissued in 1966.[14]

Personal life and legacy

Benson traveled with her longtime colleague Meribeth E. Cameron to Greece in 1964.[15][16] She died in 1988, at the age of 85, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.[4] Her papers are in the Mount Holyoke College Archives.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Helen Sumner Benson (death notice)". Oakland Tribune. 1954-03-05. p. 41. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Attend College Founded in 1888 by Grandfather". Progress-Bulletin. 1921-09-23. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "George C. S. Benson". Claremont McKenna College. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  4. ^ a b c "Mary Sumner Benson, longtime Mount Holyoke history professor". The Republican. 1988-09-10. p. 38. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "London Times' Criticism of Local Author". Ukiah Daily Journal. 1935-09-20. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "St. Charles Items". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1937-02-14. p. 60. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Second Wedding in Benson Family in Week". Ukiah Republican Press. 1937-09-29. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b Benson, Mary Sumner (1943-12-01). "Apostle of Democracy: The Life of Lucy Maynard Salmon. By Louise Fargo Brown. (New York: Harper & Bros., 1943. 268 pp. Illustrations, appendices, and index. $3.50.)". Journal of American History. 30 (3): 438–439. doi:10.2307/1896800. ISSN 0021-8723.
  9. ^ "Amherst on Tour for Guests of AAUW". The Morning Union. 1971-08-08. p. 47. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Benson, Mary Sumner (1935). Women in Eighteenth-Century America. Internet Archive. columbia university press.
  11. ^ "Review of Women in Eighteenth-Century America: A Study of Opinion and Social Usage. By Mary Sumner Benson". The New York Times. June 30, 1935. p. 35. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  12. ^ Benson, Mary Sumner (1959). "Review of American Cookery". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 45 (4): 663–664. doi:10.2307/1888724. ISSN 0161-391X.
  13. ^ Benson, Mary Sumner (1944). "Review of U. S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic; Collective Security: The Why and How". The Far Eastern Quarterly. 3 (3): 263–265. doi:10.2307/2048877. ISSN 0363-6917.
  14. ^ "Professor Benson's Book is Being Reissued Again in January". The Republican. 1965-12-15. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Untitled social item". Transcript-Telegram. 1964-08-03. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2025-05-28. Retrieved 2025-05-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Meribeth Cameron and Mary Sumner Benson were both on the faculty at Milwaukee-Downer College in the 1940s, and both on the faculty at Mount Holyoke College in the 1950s and 1960s. Both were active in the International Federation of University Women. Benson's book reviews for Far East Quarterly were submitted to Cameron, as she was the journal's book review editor from 1941 to 1951.
  17. ^ Mary Sumner Benson papers, Mount Holyoke College.
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