10 Facts About Hannah Lyman

Hannah Lyman was the first woman principal of Vassar College.

Hannah Willard Lyman was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1816.

Hannah Lyman's parents were Theodore Lyman and Susan Willard Whitney.

Hannah Lyman was a sister of Henry Lyman, the missionary, who, with his colleague, Samuel Munson, was murdered in Sumatra.

Hannah Lyman's martyrdom made a deep impression on her, as was evinced in the biography of him which she wrote years after.

Hannah Lyman began to teach at a very early age, filling subordinate positions successfully at Gorham Academy, Maine; in Massachusetts; and at Mrs Gray's Seminary for Ladies in Petersburg, Virginia.

Hannah Lyman's Christianity was of a definite orthodox type, pronounced and aggressive, though tempered by a naturally genial spirit, and catholic on principle toward those who differed from her on points she deemed unessential.

Hannah Lyman continued the school in Montreal until 1865, when, at the age of 49, she was summoned back to the US to aid in the organization and direction of Vassar, a college for women, whose aims were, in some respects, higher than those of any similar institution in the world.

Hannah Lyman was in the full maturity of her abilities, skills, and knowledge.

In 1880, a memorial in her honor was preserved in McGill University by the "Hannah Willard Lyman Fund", raised by subscriptions from her former pupils, and invested as a permanent endowment to furnish annually a scholarship or prizes in a college for women affiliated to the university, or in classes for the higher education of women.