Julia Sears

Julia Ann Sears (March 19, 1839 – 1929 or 1930) was a pioneering academic and suffragist, achieving a milestone early in her career as she became the first woman to head a public college in the United States, in 1872. The school was Mankato Normal School, now Minnesota State University, Mankato, which named a residence hall after Sears in 2008. Sears was an active suffragist in Tennessee.

Family and early life The Sears family lineage begins with Richard Sares, who arrived in Yarmouth, Massachusetts in around 1630. The Sears family also includes Edmond Sears, who composed the poem and later Christmas carol "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" in 1849. Most of the notable members of the Sears family had an educational or religious backgrounds. Julia was the second youngest of six siblings: Thankful Snow, Emily, Sarah R., Betsey Thomas, and Amanda. Her mother had another daughter, who died in 1832. Julia had no uncles or brothers. As children, Julia and her sisters underwent religious training by Methodist ministers, at month-long summer camps. In her later years, Sears recalled pretending to be a teacher when playing with friends.

Education Julia Sears attended a common school in East Dennis, from age five to age fifteen. At this point in history, this kind of achievement was not well documented or communicated well. For the next 50–80 years, there are documents of other women believed to be the first female presidents of a U.S. public college.

Peabody Normal School Sears then took a post as professor of and head of the mathematics department at Peabody Normal School (now Peabody College of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tennessee. In Nashville, she worked tirelessly as an advocate of women's rights and in particular the right to vote. She remained at Peabody until her retirement in 1907, and a portrait of her, painted in 1904, hangs today in the university.

Retirement and death She retired to Fairhaven, Massachusetts. At her death in 1929, the Peabody campus newspaper said, "Her precision, her accuracy, her fairness, her brilliant demonstrations, and, above all, her ability to inspire the ambition of all those she taught became famous incidents of her instruction at Peabody." This quote was inscribed on the wall of a newly constructed residence hall that was named in her honor at Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2015, and is a reminder of her impact on the community.