Lilian Wyckoff Johnson 1904-1906

Lillian Wyckoff Johnson was born in 1864. Her family was active in education. Her father had started night classes for orphan boys who would roam the streets of Memphis. Her mother taught Sunday School and headed a group of twenty ladies who taught the poor to sew. At age 15, Lillian attended Wellesley and later received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. She returned to Memphis and joined the faculty of Clara Conway Institute. She taught history at Vassar for five years and then studied abroad at Sorbonne and Leipzig. In 1902 she became the first woman in the United States to get a doctorate from Cornell. She was president of Western College for two years, 1904-1906. She resigned from her position in 1906 due to poor health.