Martha Foote Crow

Martha Emily Foote Crow (1854 - January 1, 1924) was an educator and writer.

she played an important role in the development of higher education for women in the United States.

Martha Foote Crowe was born to Reverend John B. and Mary Pendexter (Stilphen) in Sackets Harbor, New York. .

She earned a Ph.B. in 1876 and Ph.M. in 1878, and finally a Ph.D. in English literature in 1886, all at Syracuse University.

In 1885, she married John M. Crow, an archaeologist. John She joined the faculty of Iowa College (now Grinnell College) in 1884, and became "Lady Principal" of the college (1884-1891) and preceptress (1884-1888) of the academy that operated under the college's auspices. While at Iowa College, she participated in the work of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, coordinating an international survey of women's higher education. She also served as the Association's President from 1893-1895.

Upon her husband's death from tuberculosis in 1891, Crow left Grinnell to become assistant professor of English literature at the University of Chicago. In 1900, she became dean of women at Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, she participated in the formation of an association of deans of women, organizing the 1903 Conference of Deans of Women of the Middle West.

On January 1, 1924, Martha Foote Crow died in Chicago, Illinois.

Alpha Phi
In 1872, while studying at Syracuse University, Crowe was one of the founding members of the sorority Alpha Phi.

In 1996, Alpha Phi published a biography of Crow.

Publications

 * Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles (1896)
 * The World Above (1905)
 * Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1907)
 * Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Biography (1913)
 * The American Country Girl (1915)
 * Lafayette (1916)
 * Christ in the Poetry of Today (1917)