Sophie Chantal Hart Explained

Sophie Chantal Hart
Birth Date:August 20, 1868
Birth Place:Waltham, Massachusetts
Death Date:December 4, 1948
Death Place:Tucson, Arizona
Occupation:College professor

Sophie Chantal Hart (August 20, 1868 – December 4, 1948) was an American professor of English composition and head of the English department at Wellesley College from 1906 to 1936.

Early life

Hart was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eugene Hart and Ann McCormick Hart. She lived in San Francisco as a girl, after her widowed mother remarried. She earned a bachelor's degree at Harvard Annex (later Radcliffe College) in 1892, in the same small class as astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt.[1] She earned a master's degree at the University of Michigan in 1898.[2] [3] [4]

Career

Hart taught English Composition at Wellesley College from 1892 to 1937, and head of the English department from 1906 to 1936.[5] [6] She edited and annotated editions of Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine and The passing of Arthur (1903),[7] and Nicholas Rowe's The Fair Penitent and Jane Shore (1907).

During World War I, Hart led the college's successful fundraising effort to provide an ambulance for the Red Cross in Paris.[8] In addition to her studies in England, she took study and service trips to Russia,[9] China, India, Turkey, and Japan. She was feared in danger after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.[10] She knew Gandhi from her interest in the peace movement,[11] and was a friend to Wellesley alumnae Ying Mei Chun[12] and Mei-ling Soong.[13] [14] She retired from Wellesley in 1937; the following year, the school established a named chair and a lecture series in her honor.[3]

Hart participated in the women's suffrage movement in Boston, and while visiting in England. She was also active in the American Association of University Women, the Modern Language Association, the YWCA and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in the 1920s.[15] [16] [17] In 1933, Marjory Stoneman Douglas hosted her as a speaker at her studio in Florida.[18] In retirement, she was president of the Tucson branch of the National League of American Pen Women.[3]

Personal life

Hart became guardian of three Japanese women students in the 1910s, bringing them from Japan to the United States for schooling.[19] Hart retired to Tucson, Arizona, and died there in 1948, aged 80.[3] [20] [21]

Notes and References

  1. News: 1892-06-28. Harvard Annex Girls; Graduates of 1892 Get their Certificates. 10. The Boston Globe. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  2. News: 1931-03-07. College Women to Hold March Meeting. 21. The Montclair Times. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  3. News: 1948-12-05. Sophie C. Hart Taken in Death. 2. Arizona Daily Star. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  4. News: 1898-10-10. Wellesley College Notes. 5. The Sun. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  5. News: 1942-03-08. Hart Lecture to be Given Mar. 10. 24. Arizona Daily Star. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  6. News: January 26, 1940. Sorority to Mark Founders Day Tonight. 4. Tucson Daily Citizen. August 28, 2021. Newspapers.com.
  7. Book: Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson. Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine and The passing of Arthur;. 1903. New York [etc.]. 2027/mdp.39015005560258. HathiTrust.
  8. News: 1915-03-13. Gives Motor Ambulance. 5. The Boston Globe. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  9. News: 1916-03-26. A Lecture to Aid Wellesley. 8. The Kansas City Star. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  10. News: 1923-09-04. Anxiety Felt for Prominent Boston People Who Were In Japan. 11. The Boston Globe. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  11. News: 1925-09-24. Wellesley Girls Should See Boston. 3. The Boston Globe. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  12. Hart . Sophie C. . July 1919 . Wellesley Women in China . Wellesley Alumnae Quarterly . 3 . 4 . 293.
  13. News: 1889-03-23. Won the 'Old South Prize'. 3. The San Francisco Examiner. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  14. Book: DeLong, Thomas A.. Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Miss Emma Mills: China's First Lady and Her American Friend. 2007-02-28. McFarland. 978-0-7864-2980-6. 109. en.
  15. Web site: April 18, 1921. Letter from Sophie Chantal Hart to Margaret Brackenbury Crook. 2021-08-28. Jane Addams Digital Edition.
  16. News: 1931-03-11. Fiction Topic of Speaker at Club. 11. The Montclair Times. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  17. Web site: May 9, 1921. Letter from Sophie Chantal Hart to Jane Addams. 2021-08-28. Jane Addams Digital Edition.
  18. News: 1933-12-20. Professor Speaks of British Figures. 2. The Miami Herald. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  19. May 22, 1919. A Welcome at Wellesley. Bulletin of the Japan Society. 58. 175.
  20. News: 1948-12-06. Miss Sophie Hart. 7. Arizona Daily Star. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.
  21. News: 1949-01-20. Clubs to Honor Sophie Hart at Memorial Meet. 10. Arizona Daily Star. 2021-08-29. Newspapers.com.

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