Mount Allison graduates had their moment to cross the stage at Convocation Hall and receive their degrees earlier this month, but 150 years ago this weekend, another graduate earned her degree and achieved a historic first.
On May 25th, 1875, Grace Annie Lockhart became the first woman in the British Empire to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Born in Saint John, Lockhart came to Mount Allison as a 16-year-old, attending the Ladies College and first completing her Mistress of Liberal Arts degree. Then a year later, she completed her Bachelor of Science degree, and made history.
CHMA sat down with Mount Allison archivist David Mawhinney to hear more about Lockhart’s story.
Lockhart came to Mount Allison during a time when women were highly controlled and segregated at the university.
“Any time that they would have left the building to go on a processed walk, they would have been chaperoned by faculty or other women from the community,” says Mawhinney. “Men were not allowed to see them.”
On the other hand, says Mawhinney, the academic program available to women at Mount Allison was created by Mary Electa Adams, a woman who had the “drive and desire to ensure that women were educated at the same level as men.” Adams had attended Victoria College in Ontario and been denied the opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree.
“The thing that is sort of nice to think about is that she lived long enough to know that she had set that process in place,” says Mawhinney, “and would have been able to read about one of the students that came after her actually receiving that degree.”
Before Grace Annie Lockhart could graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree, the powers that be at Mount Allison had to make the decision to grant degrees to women. Mawhinney says there are some theories about why Mount Allison took that step when it did, setting the stage for a historic first.
“It was small. It was nimble,” says Mawhinney of Mount Allison at the time. The class that Lockhart graduated with had eight graduates. “So in that time period, I think that there would have been a lot of cross pollination,” says Mawhinney.
Then there’s the principal of the Ladies College at the time, James R. Inch, who later became president of Mount Allison, who “had the belief that women were as intelligent as men,” says Mawhinney. “He had a mixture of his own children, daughters and sons, and he believed that they both should get the same education, regardless of what their gender was.”
The change to allow women to pursue a Bachelor’s degree was announced in Lingley Hall in 1872, says Mawhinney. “I have this very romantic idea of Grace Annie Lockhart actually sitting there,” he says. “Maybe he inspired her to be that person that wanted to get that degree.”
The celebration of the 150th anniversary of Grace Annie Lockhart’s history graduation involved a number of special activities during this year’s Convocation weekend. And there’s also another special project underway, says Mawhinney, an effort to have Canada Post recognize Lockhart with a stamp. While the process was not complete in time for the 150th anniversary, Mawhinney hopes to see Lockhart’s achievement as the first woman to receive a bachelor’s degree in the British Empire honoured in future. “I do think it’s warranted,” says Mawhinney. “She embodies the dreams of generations of women who had been denied that opportunity.”
