Susie May Ames

Susie May Ames (January 10, 1888 – July 30, 1969) was a twentieth century American historian, educator, and author. She conducted research on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the colonial period.

Early life and education Susie May Ames was born in Pungoteague, Accomack County, Virginia, on January 10, 1888. She was the second child of Samuel William Ames, a businessman, and Sarah Anne Edmonds Mears Ames. Her early education took place in local schools. She matriculated at Randolph Macon Women's College (now Randolph College) and graduated in 1908. She was also interested in the Civil War on the Eastern Shore, and conducted interviews of local residents to collect memories of the war. Ames wrote about this issue in "The Reunion of Two Virginia Counties" in the Journal of Southern History. In 1944, she was appointed to the Virginia World War II History Commission, to help the state document the conflict.

Ames was a member of numerous professional associations, contributed and reviewed for many journals. Unfortunately, like many other female academics in the South, she was often barred from the meetings of these associations. Consequently, many of her ideas were first presented to women's clubs and in other, less formal spaces. She with her colleagues at Columbia, but had little contact with other historians at colleges and universities in Virginia, which were generally less open to female scholars than northern universities.

Later life Throughout her teaching career, Ames had been caring for her aging mother. Like many female scholars of that era, Ames never married. She took a leave of absence after twenty-five years of teaching in 1948-1949 because of her mother's ill health, and when she retired in 1955, moved back to Pungoteague to care for her now elderly mother.

Ames continued her scholarly work after her retirement, editing a second volume of Eastern Shore records covering 1640–1645, which was published by the Virginia Historical Society in 1973. Earl Gregg Swem commissioned Ames to write Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699 in 1957. Ames also published "The Bear and the Cub": The Site of the First English Theatrical Performance in America in 1965.

Ames was also active in her community, as She was the founder and president of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society, as well as other patriotic societies, women's and garden clubs, and the Pungoteague Methodist Church.

Susie M. Ames died on July 20, 1969, at the Hermitage in Onancock, Accomack County. She was buried in the cemetery of Saint George's Episcopal Church near Pungoteague.

Selected works County Court Records of Accomack-Northampton, Virginia, 1632-1640. ---m, 1954 Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699, 1957 "The Bear and the Cub": The Site of the First English Theatrical Performance in America, 1965