Born: 19 December 1836, United States
Died: 21 April 1920
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Minnesota Historical Society’s MNopedia, in line with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. It was written by Kathryn R. Goetz.
One of the first female professors in the United States, Maria Sanford was an English professor at the University of Minnesota for nearly thirty years. Her exceptional teaching, notable public lectures, and active community leadership led many to call her “the best-loved woman in Minnesota.”
Born in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1836, Maria Louise Sanford said that her love of learning started early. When she was fifteen, she asked her parents to let her use her dowry to go to the New Britain Normal School. She graduated with honors in 1855 and began teaching in a small school in Connecticut.
Over the next ten years, Sanford moved to larger schools and earned a reputation as a remarkable teacher. In 1867, she left Connecticut to teach at a school in Pennsylvania. There she campaigned for county superintendent of schools but lost by a narrow margin to her male opponent. In 1869, she was hired to replace Anna Hallowell to teach history at Swarthmore College. Sanford became one of the first female professors in the nation.
In 1880, Dr. William Watts Folwell, the president of the University of Minnesota, met Maria Sanford while looking for a female French professor. Sanford lacked an advanced degree and couldn’t speak any French, but Folwell thought that she was a remarkable teacher. Folwell hired her to teach English instead. He later claimed that bringing Sanford to the University was one of his proudest accomplishments.
Sanford began teaching rhetoric and oratory at the University of Minnesota in 1880. She was an energetic lecturer, and her classes were known for their impressive workload and devoted students. She held special “sunrise courses” for her best students, and she gave surprise exams and unexpected poetry recitations. She was deeply involved in the lives of her students, offering advice and support when she could. Sanford also opened her home near the University to students, taking in student boarders and offering to host student social events.
Sanford’s career as a public lecturer thrived while she was in Minnesota. She spoke to civic groups, teachers colleges, farmer’s organizations, and others throughout the state and across the nation. She gave lectures four or five nights per week on poetry, art, social issues, and politics. Sanford depended on her income from public lecturing, especially after an investment in the 1880s left her 30,000 dollars in debt. Some at the university frowned on Sanford’s career on the lecture circuit. It was clear, however, that Sanford’s public lectures had generated goodwill toward the university throughout the state.
In 1909, at the age of seventy-two, Sanford retired. She had seen the student body grow from 300 when she arrived at the university to 4,800 students when she retired. That year’s graduating class adopted her as a member, and she was asked to speak at commencement that spring. Her commencement speech urged students to appreciate the value of their education and serve their state well.
Although she had retired, many joked that Sanford didn’t notice. She continued her public speaking career and made cross-country trips to deliver speeches all over the nation. Sanford also campaigned for environmental preservation, healthcare, temperance, and education. She was a director of Northwestern Hospital and founded the Minneapolis Improvement League. In her seventies she began to support women’s suffrage. In 1920, she was chosen to speak at the state celebration of the passage of the nineteenth amendment.
In her eighties, Sanford traveled the country giving patriotic lectures during World War I. She died on April 21, 1920, in Washington, D.C., while on a speaking tour. The university held a memorial convocation in her honor, and news of her death made the front page of the Minneapolis Tribune.
Sanford was honored across the state of Minnesota. In 1910, the university named the first dormitory for female students Sanford Hall, and several schools in the state were named for her. In 1958, Sanford was chosen to be one of two Minnesotans represented in Statuary Hall. A statue of Sanford was donated by the state and stands in Washington, D.C., today.