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Professor Maria Louise Sanford in Minneapolis, 1918.
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, Sanford 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.
Maria 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 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 many 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. However, it was clear Sanford's public lectures had generated goodwill toward the University throughout the state.
In 1909, at the age of seventy-two, Maria 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 the University's 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 speak 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 she began traveling the country giving patriotic lectures during World War I. She died 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.
Maria 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, Maria 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.
Goetz, Kathryn. "Sanford, Maria (1836–1920)." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/person/sanford-maria-1836-1920?width=75%25&height=75%25&title=Statue%20of%20Maria%20Sanford%20by%20Evelyn%20Raymond%2C%20to%20be%20placed%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Captiol%2C%20Washington%20D.C.%20%7C%20%3Ca%20href%3D%22/multimedia/statue-maria-sanford-evelyn-raymond-be-placed-us-captiol-washington-dc%22%3EDetails%3C/a%3E&inline=true (accessed January 17, 2020).
© Minnesota Historical Society
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
First published: February 11, 2013
Last modified: June 8, 2015
Clifford, Geraldine Jonçich, "'Best loved'...and Besieged: Maria Louise Sanford, 1836." In Lone Voyagers: Academic Women in Coeducational Universities, 1870–1937, edited by Geraldine Jonçich Clifford, 49–83. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1989.
Schofield, Geraldine Bryan and Susan Margot Smith, "Maria Louise Sanford: Minnesota's Heroine." In Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays, edited by Barbara Stuhler and Gretchen Kreuter, 77–93. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998.
Whitney, Helen. Maria Sanford. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1922.
A/+S224
Maria L. Sanford papers, 1851–1920
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Papers, mostly correspondence of Maria L. Sanford, also including newspaper clippings on Sanford and pamphlets advertising her lectures to civic and cultural organizations.
Maria Louisa [sic] Sanford papers, 1869–1922
University Archives, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/uarc00976.xml
Description: Collection contains correspondence, speeches and memorial texts, as well as two books used by Sanford in University courses.
Collection uarc 965
William Watts Folwell papers
Description: Contains correspondence from Sanford, including her 1880 application for position at the University of Minnesota.
Storrs, Caryl B. "Maria L. Sanford, Who Will be Eighty Years Old, Next Tuesday, Has Taught for More Than Half a Century." Minneapolis Tribune, December 17, 1916.
"Maria Sanford Death Mourned by Entire State." Minneapolis Tribune, April 22, 1920.
Lind, Melva. "Progress Toward Statue of Maria Sanford Told." St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 19, 1958.
Folwell, William. "Maria Sanford, Apostle of Culture and Patriotism." in A History of Minnesota. Vol. 4. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1969), 459–465. First published in 1930 by Minnesota Historical Society Press.
The Architect of the Capitol. Maria Sanford Statue.
http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/national-statuary-hall-collection/maria-sanford
Minnesota Historical Society, Placeography. Maria Sanford House.
http://placeography.org/index.php/Maria_Sanford_House%2C_1050_13th_Avenue_Southeast%2C_Minneapolis%2C_Minnesota
Women in Minnesota: Weaving the Web of Society in the North Star State
Farmers' Institutes, 1880s–1920s
Women on the World War I Home Front
In 1880, Maria Sanford accepts Dr. William Watts Folwell's offer to join the faculty at the University of Minnesota and begins a thirty-year career as a professor in the English department.
Maria Louise Sanford is born on December 19 in Saybrook, Connecticut.
Sanford graduates, with honors, from New Britain Normal School and begins teaching school in Connecticut.
Sanford leaves Connecticut to teach in Parkersville, Pennsylvania.
Sanford is hired to teach history at Swarthmore College and is made a professor the next year.
William Watts Folwell, first president of the University of Minnesota, meets Sanford in Chautauqua, New York and hires her to teach rhetoric and oratory in the English department at the University.
Sanford retires and gives the University commencement address, the first woman to deliver a commencement address at a major University.
Sanford dies in Washington D.C. at age eighty-three, April 21.
In honor of the state centennial, a statue of Maria Sanford is donated by the state of Minnesota to reside in Statuary Hall in Washington D.C.
Made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008. Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.
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