Helen Dickinson

DICKINSON, Helen Adell Snyder. b. Port Elmsley, Ontario, Canada, 5 December 1875; d. Tucson, Arizona, 25 August 1957. Her given name was Helena, but she is usually known as Helen. She attended high school at Perth, and college at Smiths Falls, both in Ontario; then Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (MA, 1895); and the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where she was the first woman student to be admitted to the Department of Philosophy (PhD summa cum Laude, 1901). Her thesis was entitled ‘Thoreau’s Philosophy of Life, with special consideration of the influence of Hindoo philosophy’ (n.p., 1902). She was Dean of Women, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and taught art history at...