Editing Emily Howland

{{Short description|American philanthropist (1827–1929)}}
{{use dmy dates |date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Emily Howland
| image              = EMILY HOWLAND A woman of the century (page 408 crop).jpg
| caption            = Portrait of Emily Howland from ''[[A Woman of the Century]]''
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1827|11|20}}
| birth_place        = [[Sherwood, New York]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1929|06|29|1827|11|20}}
| occupation         = philanthropist, humanitarian, abolitionist, educator
| mother             = Hannah Tallcot
| father             = Slocum Howland
}}

'''Emily Howland''' (November 20, 1827 &ndash; June 29, 1929) was a [[philanthropy|philanthropist]], humanitarian, and educator. She supported the education of African-Americans. She was also a strong supporter of [[women's rights]] and the [[temperance movement]].  Howland personally financed the education of many black students and contributed to institutions such as the [[Tuskegee Institute]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Locke|first1=Mamie E.|title=Emily Howland|journal=American National Biography Online|date=February 2000|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00350.html|access-date=2 March 2017}}</ref> [[Henry Damon Davidson]]'s [[Centerville Industrial Institute]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Henry D. Davidson letter to Emily Howland | website=TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections| url=https://digitalcollections.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/object/sc198556 | access-date=2025-03-22}}</ref> and [[Kowaliga Institute]] in [[Kowaliga, Alabama]], where Howland Hall was named for her.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9qSrfyjnyUC&dq=Emily+Howland+kowaliga&pg=PA63 | title=Booker T. Washington and the Art of Self-representation | isbn=9781433100109 | last1=Bieze | first1=Michael | year=2008 | publisher=Peter Lang }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Emily Howland was born at [[Sherwood, New York|Sherwood]] in [[Cayuga County, New York]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=October 1929|title=Obituaries|jstor=43565516|journal=The Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association|volume=10|issue=4|pages=346–348}}</ref> on November 20, 1827.<ref name=":0" /> She was the daughter of Slocum and Hannah Tallcot Howland, who were prominent in the [[Quakers|Society of Friends]].<ref name=":0" /> Her brother, William Howland, served in the [[106th New York State Legislature]].<ref name=":1" /> She was educated in small private schools in the community, and the Margaret Robinson School, a Friends school in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://library.haverford.edu/file-id-841|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20150421191835/http://library.haverford.edu/file-id-841|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 21, 2015|title=Finding Aid for the EMILY HOWLAND PAPERS,1926-1975 (Haverford College Library Special Collections)|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref>

==Career==
An active [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], Howland taught at [[Normal School for Colored Girls]] (later known as the Miner School and now [[University of the District of Columbia]]) in [[Washington, D.C.]], from 1857 to 1859. During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], she worked at the contraband refugee settlement of Camp Todd in [[Arlington, Virginia]], establishing a school where she taught freed [[slavery|slaves]] to read and write as well as administering to the sick during a [[smallpox]] outbreak, coordinating relief efforts, and ultimately serving as director of the camp from 1864 to 1866.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Emily Howland Family Papers {{!}} Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/5066howl |access-date=2024-09-23 |website=archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu}}</ref>

Beginning in 1867, she started a community for freed people in Heathsville, [[Northumberland County, Virginia]], called Arcadia, on 400 acres purchased by her father, including a school for the education of children of freed slaves, the [[Howland Chapel School]].<ref name="vaNRHPnom2">{{cite web|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Northumberland/066-0110_Howland_Chapel_School_The_1991_Final_Nomintation.pdf|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Howland Chapel School|author=Jeffrey M. O'Dell and Carolyn E. Jett|date=June 1989|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=2013-08-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212202953/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Northumberland/066-0110_Howland_Chapel_School_The_1991_Final_Nomintation.pdf|archive-date=2017-02-12|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.howlandstonestore.org/Sherwood.pdf|title=United States Department of the Interior OMB No. 1024-0018, National Park Service. NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES.CONTINUATION SHEET. Section 8: Significance. (Property Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District. Location Cayuga County, New York)|access-date=March 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910101401/http://www.howlandstonestore.org/Sherwood.pdf|archive-date=September 10, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> She continued to maintain an active interest in African-American education, donating money and materials as well as visiting and corresponding with administrators at many schools.<ref name=":1" /> Returning to [[Sherwood, New York]], after her father's death in 1881, she inherited $50,000 (${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|50000|1881}}}} in {{inflation-year|US}} dollars) and ran the Sherwood Select School until 1926 when it became a public school and was renamed the Emily Howland Elementary School by the state of New York.<ref name=":1" />

Howland was also active in women's [[suffrage]], peace, and [[Temperance movement|temperance]] movements and was a member of the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]].<ref name=":3" /> In 1858, she began organizing women's rights lectures and meetings with  [[Susan B. Anthony]] and [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]]. In 1878, she spoke at the 30th anniversary of the [[Seneca Falls Convention|Seneca Falls woman's rights convention]] and in 1894 the [[New York State Legislature|New York State legislature]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.howlandstonestore.org/Sherwood.pdf|title=NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET|publisher=United States Department of the Interior – National Park Service|access-date=28 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910101401/http://www.howlandstonestore.org/Sherwood.pdf|archive-date=10 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> When the suffrage movement split into two groups, the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]] and the [[American Woman Suffrage Association]], Howland did not take sides, but attended meetings of both groups.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mothersoffeminis00marg|title=Mothers of feminism : the story of Quaker women in America (c1986)|last=Bacon|first=Margaret Hope|publisher=Harper & Row|year=1989|isbn=0062500465|edition=1st paperback Harper & Row|location=San Francisco|oclc=21550452|url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1904, she spoke in front of Congress and attended the 1912 and 1913 suffrage parades in New York.<ref name=":4" /> She has been credited with persuading [[Ezra Cornell]] that, as a Quaker, he should make [[Cornell University]] a coeducational institution.<ref name=":3" />

In 1926 she received an honorary [[Litt.D.]] degree from the [[University of Albany|University of the State of NY, in Albany]], the first woman to have this honor conferred upon her from this institution.<ref name=":1" /> She was also the author of an historical sketch of early [[Quakers|Quaker]] history in [[Cayuga County, New York|Cayuga County, NY]]: ''[http://www.cayugacounty.us/portals/0/history/friends/index.html Historical Sketch of Friends in Cayuga County]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Odyssey of a Humanitarian: Emily Howland, 1827-1929 |author=Judith Colucci Breault|year=1981|publisher=Ayer Publishing|isbn=0-405-14076-2}}</ref>

Howland became one of the first female directors of a national bank in the [[United States]], at the First National Bank of Aurora in [[Aurora, Erie County, New York|Aurora, New York]], in 1890,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXEEAAAAYAAJ&q=emily++howland+woman+of+the+century&pg=PA398|title=Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Moulton, 1893)|isbn=9780722217139|access-date=March 10, 2018|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton|year=1893|publisher=Moulton }}</ref> serving until her death, at age 101.

==Legacy==
Her papers are held by several universities, including Cornell University,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM02681.html|title=Emily Howland Papers,1797-1938. Collection No.2681 (Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library)|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref> Haverford College,<ref name=":2" /> and Swarthmore College.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/ead/5066howl.xml|title=An Inventory of the Emily Howland Family Papers, 1763-1929 (Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College)|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref> A photo album containing family, friends, and colleagues, as well as souvenir images of notable abolitionists and famous figures during the 1860s and 1870s is jointly owned by the [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] and the [[Library of Congress]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2017.30|title=Photograph album owned by Emily Howland|website=National Museum of African American History and Culture|language=en|access-date=2019-03-27}}</ref> In 2021, she was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/womens-half-fame-michelle-obama-20210308.html |title=Michelle Obama, Mia Hamm chosen for Women's Hall of Fame |date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [[iarchive:worldofemilyhowl00brea|The World of Emily Howland: Odyssey of a Humanitarian]], by Judith Colucci Breault (1976)
* [http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/5066howl Emily Howland Family Papers] held at [https://www.swarthmore.edu/friends-historical-library Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College]
* [http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/sfhl-pa-115 Emily Howland family photographs] held at [https://www.swarthmore.edu/friends-historical-library Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College]
* [http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-1164 Emily Howland papers] held at [https://www.haverford.edu/library/quaker-special-collections Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections]
*Much of Emily Howland’s papers have been digitized and are available at the [http://inherownright.org/records/rg-5-066 In Her Own Right project]

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Howland, Emily}}
[[Category:1827 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American abolitionists]]
[[Category:American anti-war activists]]
[[Category:American women centenarians]]
[[Category:American Quakers]]
[[Category:American suffragists]]
[[Category:American temperance activists]]
[[Category:American women educators]]
[[Category:Educators from New York (state)]]
[[Category:People from Aurora, Cayuga County, New York]]
[[Category:People of Washington, D.C., in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Quaker abolitionists]]
[[Category:American women civil rights activists]]
[[Category:Women in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:National Woman Suffrage Association activists]]
[[Category:American Woman Suffrage Association activists]]