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Florence Alden Gragg

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Florence Alden Gragg
Florence Alden Gragg, from the 1929 yearbook of Smith College
BornNovember 2, 1877
Roxbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJanuary 13, 1965 (age 87)
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)College professor, classics scholar, philologist
PartnerAmy Louise Barbour

Florence Alden Gragg (November 2, 1877 – January 13, 1965) was an American classics scholar and college professor. She taught Latin and Greek at Smith College from 1909 to 1943.

Early life and education

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Gragg was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the daughter of Isaac Paul Gragg and Eldora Olive Waite Gragg.[1] Her mother was a student of Mary Baker Eddy and closely involved with the founding of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.[2] Her sister Elisabeth F. Norwood was also prominent in Christian Science.[3]

Gragg attended Boston Girls' Latin School, and graduated from Radcliffe College. She pursued further studies at Bryn Mawr College and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She earned a master's degree from Radcliffe in 1906, and a Ph.D. in 1908, both in classical studies.[4] She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[5]

Career

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Gragg taught school in New Hampshire and New York after college. In 1909 she began teaching Latin and Greek at Smith College.[6] She participated in campus productions of Greek dramas, including Euripides' The Iphigenia at Aulis in 1912.[7] She became a full professor in 1917,[8] and retired in 1943.[9] She was named to the Radcliffe College Board of Trustees in 1939.[5]

Publications

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  • A Study of the Greek Epigram before 300 B.C. (1910)[10]
  • "Two Schoolmasters of the Renaissance" (1919)[11]
  • "The Inauguration of President Neilson at Smith College" (1919)[12]
  • Latin Writings of the Italian Humanists (1927, translator)[13]
  • Paolo Giovio, An Italian Portrait Gallery (1935, translator)
  • The Commentaries of Pius II (1937–1957, translator)[14][15]

Personal life

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Gragg lived with her partner and colleague Amy Louise Barbour; she also had a house in Cohasset and a farm in Hudson, Massachusetts. Gragg and Barbour traveled in Italy and Greece together, and in 1933 drove across the United States together after visiting Gragg's sister in Los Angeles.[16] Barbour died in 1950, and Gragg died in 1965, at the age of 87, in Brookline, Massachusetts.[17]

References

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  1. ^ "Florence Gragg, Former Smith Professor, Dies". The Morning Union. 1965-01-15. p. 18. Archived from the original on 2025-06-10. Retrieved 2025-06-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Eldora Gragg: Called to Serve". Longyear Museum. 1964-12-01. Archived from the original on 2025-02-12. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  3. ^ "Ending of Slavery is Called Our Tast; Christian Science Directors Declare a Freed World Must Be the Goal". The New York Times. 1942-06-09. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  4. ^ "Women of History: Florence Alden Gragg". Mary Baker Eddy Library. 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  5. ^ a b "Professor Named Radcliffe Trustee; Miss Florence Gragg Educated at Cambridge College". The Morning Union. 1939-10-27. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-06-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Smith College (1929). Class of 1929. College Archives Smith College Libraries. Smith College. p. 25.
  7. ^ "Smith Students Shine in Euripides" 'Iphigenia at Aulis'" The New York Times (June 2, 1912): 73.
  8. ^ "Resignation of Burton Accepted". The Morning Union. 1917-02-17. p. 13. Archived from the original on 2025-06-10. Retrieved 2025-06-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Faculty Members Retire at Smith; Florence A. Gragg and Amelia Tyler Relinquish Duties at College". The Republican. 1943-05-22. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-06-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Gragg, Florence Alden (1910). A Study of the Greek Epigram Before 300 B. C. American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  11. ^ Gragg, Florence A. (1919). "Two Schoolmasters of the Renaissance". The Classical Journal. 14 (4): 211–223. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3288104.
  12. ^ Gragg, Florence Alden (1919). "The Inauguration of President Neilson at Smith College". The Phi Beta Kappa Key. 3 (10): 460–462. ISSN 2373-0331. JSTOR 42913370.
  13. ^ Florence Alden Gragg (1927). Latin writings of the italian humanists. Internet Archive. Charles Scribners Sons.
  14. ^ "The Commentaries of Pius II; translation by Florence Alden Gragg, with historical introduction and notes by Leona C. Gabel v.43". HathiTrust. hdl:2027/inu.32000001360900. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  15. ^ Bruun, Geoffrey (1959-04-05). "A Pontiff's Own Story; Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Pius II. An Abridgment. Translated by Florence A. Gragg from the Latin. Edited by Leona C. Gabel. Illustrated. 381 pp. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $6". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  16. ^ Boylan, Talia (2024-10-25). "Amy Barbour: Biography as Scholarly Self-Fashioning". New England Classical Journal. 51 (2): 6–30. doi:10.52284/necj.51.2.article.boylan. ISSN 2692-5869.
  17. ^ "Miss Gragg, Former Smith Greek Expert". The Boston Globe. 1965-01-14. p. 32. Retrieved 2025-06-10 – via Newspapers.com.
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