Lena Lillian Hill Severence papers

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: 2790

Scope and content

Letters to Lena Hill Severence, plus two pamphlets and a mimeographed item. Letters concern her efforts to secure pension legislation for teachers in New York State. Correspondents include New York State Normal School officials Myron T. Scudder, William J. Milne, and Isaac B. Poucher; university presidents Andrew D. White, Jacob Gould Schurman, James B. Angell, David Starr Jordan, and Charles W. Eliot; lawyer and politician Elihu Root; New York State legislator Jesse S. Phillips; and New York State Superintendent of Public Instruction Charles R. Skinner.

Dates

1903-1916.

Creator

Severence, Lena Lillian Hill, 1856-1944. (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Lena Lillian Hill Severence was born in North Hero, Vermont. She worked as a teacher and received a B.S. in Science and Letters from Cornell University in 1879. She was a founder of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (later the American Association of University Women) in the Buffalo area and chaired its Education Committee during the time of the pension bill fight mentioned in the letters. In this position she worked closely with Mrs. Andrew Dickson White, who accompanied her on a trip to Albany to fight for pension legislation for teachers in New York State. In 1910 this campaign succeeded with the passage of the first teachers' pension bill. She maintained an interest in education and in international relations, and contributed to the American School of Oriental Research.