Lucy Maynard Salmon was born on July 27, 1853 in Fulton, NY to George and Maria Clara Maynard Salmon. Her father was a prosperous tannery owner and her mother had been the first principal of Fulton Female Seminary. Salmon attended the Seminary's coeducational successor, Falley Seminary. In 1872 she entered the University of Michigan, a year after it had begun to admit women.

After receiving her A.B. in history in 1876, Salmon served as assistant principal and later principal of McGregor High School in Iowa. In 1882 she returned to Ann Arbor where she wrote her master's thesis, "A History of the Appointing Power of the President," which was published in the first volume of the American Historical Associations' Papers in 1886. After receiving her M.A. from the School of Political Science in 1883, Salmon taught history in Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. In 1886 she attended Bryn Mawr on a history fellowship where she studied under future United States president Woodrow Wilson. In 1887 Vassar College hired Salmon to establish its history department and serve as Associate Professor of History.

Salmon rejected the traditional method of teaching history. She encouraged scholarly independence. Her courses were designed less to convey historical facts than to train students in the process of historical investigations. She taught her students how to discriminate, judge and analyze sources and to produce independent work. Salmon's courses also emphasized the continuity and unity of history.

Unfortunately, Salmon found the Vassar library pitifully inadequate for her teaching methods. When Vassar President James Monroe Taylor answered her pleas for more books for the history department by insisting that the school "has absolutely no fund to draw upon" and that the few books that the library did possess were sufficient, in February 1896 at a reunion of former history students, Salmon founded the Vassar Alumnae Historical Association. The society met regularly until 1913.

In 1906, without her knowledge, the Committee on Faculty and Studies recommended dividing the History Department, giving Professor James Baldwin, whose teaching methods were more traditional, charge of the European History Department and Salmon charge of the American History Department. Not only did the proposition violate Salmon's belief in the unity of historical development, but it virtually displaced her as head of the History Department since Baldwin would have charge of thirteen courses and she only three. The committee justified its decision by stating that they wanted to "promote unity" in the department, and "to emphasize the fact side of history, rather than that of method work," which Salmon preferred. In a passionate letter to Taylor, Salmon fought for her position, justifying her teaching methods as characteristic of the "modern development of historical study" and insisting that "to arbitrarily divide a department is not to unify it at all, but to destroy it." Finally, Salmon refused to remain as head of either department if the committee's recommendation was executed. The History Department remained united and Salmon retained her position.

Salmon's influence extended well beyond Vassar, and she was one of the first and most influential women leaders in the historical field. In 1885 the American Historical Association admitted her, and in 1897 the Executive Committee invited Salmon to serve on the Association's Committee of Seven, responsible for recommending the nation's secondary school history curriculum and college entrance exams. In 1915 the Association's members elected her to their Executive Council.

In 1901 Salmon founded and presided over the Historical Association of the Middle States and Maryland, later called the Association of History Teachers of the United States and Maryland.

Salmon also served on the National College Equal Suffrage League and on the Executive Advisory Council of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. She led the suffrage movement at Vassar, despite the disapproval of the Trustees and of President Taylor, who believed that the school's mission should be education, not social reform. When the President prohibited Vassar suffragists from holding a meeting on campus, they took it to the adjacent graveyard. Although Salmon conceded to Taylor's request that she not attend the meeting, she gave the students her full support.

Salmon was also a strong critic of traditional college government. She criticized its authoritarian practice of permitting boards of trustees, most of whom had little experience in education, and the presidents they appointed, to exercise unrestricted and often arbitrary power over faculty and students.

The opportunity for Salmon to cultivate her democratic ideals occurred in 1914 when President Taylor resigned. While the trustees searched for a replacement, Salmon organized the faculty to secure greater decision-making power and sent the trustees a guideline for selecting the next president. Salmon used her enhanced influence to institute a plan whereby faculty members would welcome freshman to the college during a formal convocation and the week prior to the beginning of classes would be dedicated to introducing freshman to their new environment, practices that continue at Vassar and most other colleges today.

Taylor's successor, Henry Noble MacCracken and Salmon worked together to democratize and reorganize college government, and in 1923 proposed The Vassar College Statute of Instruction which became a model for college constitutions.

Salmon was also an active and influential Poughkeepsie citizen. Every year she attempted to purchase a ticket for the public dinner of the Chamber of Commerce and every year they denied her because she was a woman. She served as regent of the Poughkeepsie chapter of the Daughters of the American Republic, opening the first Poughkeepsie playground in 1909. Her success finally prompted the Chamber of Commerce to appoint her to a committee to "Clean up Poughkeepsie".

Salmon was a prolific writer, producing over a dozen books and over a hundred essays and lectures. Her Domestic Service, based on a series of questionnaires she created and distributed to domestic servants and their employers, was the first scholarly study of the subject. Most critics acclaimed the book as a fresh and vital contribution to the field, although some criticized it as unoriginal and unworthy of a historian. In 1923 Salmon published The Newspaper and the Historian and its companion The Newspaper and Authority. Salmon's last completed work, Why Is History Rewritten?, published posthumously in 1929.

Salmon's academic accomplishments and contributions did not go unrecognized. In 1912 she received an honorary Doctor of Human Letters from Colgate University, and in 1926 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Michigan. In February 1926, exactly 30 years after her founding of the Vassar Alumnae Historical Association, a group of alumnae and friends of Salmon established the Lucy Maynard Salmon Fund, which enabled her to continue her research until her death on February 14, 1927. The Fund continues to endow Vassar faculty research.

(Vassar Encyclopedia, by the Vassar Historian)

Lucy Maynard Salmon was born on July 27, 1853 in Fulton, NY to George and Maria Clara Maynard Salmon. Her father was a prosperous tannery owner and her mother had been the first principal of Fulton Female Seminary. Salmon attended the Seminary's coeducational successor, Falley Seminary. In 1872 she entered the University of Michigan, a year after it had begun to admit women.

After receiving her A.B. in history in 1876, Salmon served as assistant principal and later principal of McGregor High School in Iowa. In 1882 she returned to Ann Arbor where she wrote her master's thesis, "A History of the Appointing Power of the President," which was published in the first volume of the American Historical Associations' Papers in 1886. After receiving her M.A. from the School of Political Science in 1883, Salmon taught history in Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. In 1886 she attended Bryn Mawr on a history fellowship where she studied under future United States president Woodrow Wilson. In 1887 Vassar College hired Salmon to establish its history department and serve as Associate Professor of History.

Salmon rejected the traditional method of teaching history. She encouraged scholarly independence. Her courses were designed less to convey historical facts than to train students in the process of historical investigations. She taught her students how to discriminate, judge and analyze sources and to produce independent work. Salmon's courses also emphasized the continuity and unity of history.

Unfortunately, Salmon found the Vassar library pitifully inadequate for her teaching methods. When Vassar President James Monroe Taylor answered her pleas for more books for the history department by insisting that the school "has absolutely no fund to draw upon" and that the few books that the library did possess were sufficient, in February 1896 at a reunion of former history students, Salmon founded the Vassar Alumnae Historical Association. The society met regularly until 1913.

In 1906, without her knowledge, the Committee on Faculty and Studies recommended dividing the History Department, giving Professor James Baldwin, whose teaching methods were more traditional, charge of the European History Department and Salmon charge of the American History Department. Not only did the proposition violate Salmon's belief in the unity of historical development, but it virtually displaced her as head of the History Department since Baldwin would have charge of thirteen courses and she only three. The committee justified its decision by stating that they wanted to "promote unity" in the department, and "to emphasize the fact side of history, rather than that of method work," which Salmon preferred. In a passionate letter to Taylor, Salmon fought for her position, justifying her teaching methods as characteristic of the "modern development of historical study" and insisting that "to arbitrarily divide a department is not to unify it at all, but to destroy it." Finally, Salmon refused to remain as head of either department if the committee's recommendation was executed. The History Department remained united and Salmon retained her position.

Salmon's influence extended well beyond Vassar, and she was one of the first and most influential women leaders in the historical field. In 1885 the American Historical Association admitted her, and in 1897 the Executive Committee invited Salmon to serve on the Association's Committee of Seven, responsible for recommending the nation's secondary school history curriculum and college entrance exams. In 1915 the Association's members elected her to their Executive Council.

In 1901 Salmon founded and presided over the Historical Association of the Middle States and Maryland, later called the Association of History Teachers of the United States and Maryland.

Salmon also served on the National College Equal Suffrage League and on the Executive Advisory Council of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. She led the suffrage movement at Vassar, despite the disapproval of the Trustees and of President Taylor, who believed that the school's mission should be education, not social reform. When the President prohibited Vassar suffragists from holding a meeting on campus, they took it to the adjacent graveyard. Although Salmon conceded to Taylor's request that she not attend the meeting, she gave the students her full support.

Salmon was also a strong critic of traditional college government. She criticized its authoritarian practice of permitting boards of trustees, most of whom had little experience in education, and the presidents they appointed, to exercise unrestricted and often arbitrary power over faculty and students.

The opportunity for Salmon to cultivate her democratic ideals occurred in 1914 when President Taylor resigned. While the trustees searched for a replacement, Salmon organized the faculty to secure greater decision-making power and sent the trustees a guideline for selecting the next president. Salmon used her enhanced influence to institute a plan whereby faculty members would welcome freshman to the college during a formal convocation and the week prior to the beginning of classes would be dedicated to introducing freshman to their new environment, practices that continue at Vassar and most other colleges today.

Taylor's successor, Henry Noble MacCracken and Salmon worked together to democratize and reorganize college government, and in 1923 proposed The Vassar College Statute of Instruction which became a model for college constitutions.

Salmon was also an active and influential Poughkeepsie citizen. Every year she attempted to purchase a ticket for the public dinner of the Chamber of Commerce and every year they denied her because she was a woman. She served as regent of the Poughkeepsie chapter of the Daughters of the American Republic, opening the first Poughkeepsie playground in 1909. Her success finally prompted the Chamber of Commerce to appoint her to a committee to "Clean up Poughkeepsie".

Salmon was a prolific writer, producing over a dozen books and over a hundred essays and lectures. Her Domestic Service, based on a series of questionnaires she created and distributed to domestic servants and their employers, was the first scholarly study of the subject. Most critics acclaimed the book as a fresh and vital contribution to the field, although some criticized it as unoriginal and unworthy of a historian. In 1923 Salmon published The Newspaper and the Historian and its companion The Newspaper and Authority. Salmon's last completed work, Why Is History Rewritten?, published posthumously in 1929.

Salmon's academic accomplishments and contributions did not go unrecognized. In 1912 she received an honorary Doctor of Human Letters from Colgate University, and in 1926 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Michigan. In February 1926, exactly 30 years after her founding of the Vassar Alumnae Historical Association, a group of alumnae and friends of Salmon established the Lucy Maynard Salmon Fund, which enabled her to continue her research until her death on February 14, 1927. The Fund continues to endow Vassar faculty research.

(Vassar Encyclopedia, by the Vassar Historian)