Dixie Lee Bryant
Born(1862-01-07)January 7, 1862
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedNovember 18, 1949(1949-11-18) (aged 87)
Asheville, North Carolina
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationColumbia Female Institute, Columbia, Tennessee
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Bavarian University in Erlangen
Scientific career
InstitutionsState Normal Industrial College
Theses

Dixie Lee Bryant (1862–1949) was a geologist and educator.

Dixie Lee Bryant was born on January 7, 1862, in Louisville, Kentucky.[1][2] After her family moved to Columbia, Tennessee in 1886, she enrolled in the Columbia Female Institute. Despite her desire to access a full college education, no Southern universities would admit her as a woman to their science programs.[1] In 1887 she applied, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. She graduated in 1891 with a Bachelor of Science.[1][3] She submitted a thesis on the tide water region of the Charles River and was the first student (of any gender) to receive a Bachelor of Science in MIT's Course XII Geology department—now called Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.[4][2][5]

She taught natural science at the State Normal School at Plymouth, New Hampshire following her graduation prior to being hired to teach at the North Carolina State Normal Industrial School in Greensboro, in 1892.[6] There, she taught botany, geology and chemistry, as well as tutoring many of the early students who entered the university with little prior education in the sciences.[1][7] She led the science department until 1901, and presented at regional conferences on teaching technique and curriculum development.[1][8][9] Described by former students as "A vigorous, wide-awake,well trained young woman,"[10] Bryant was also attributed as establishing the first chemical laboratory for use by women in the state of North Carolina.[1][11] Bryant also worked as a faculty for the 1894 Summer School for Teachers and Students held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she taught physical geography and botany.[1] In 1897, she and four other women were the first to enroll in the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.[12] Bryant enrolled for graduate work.[9]

In 1901 Bryant took a leave of absence in 1901 to continue her studies abroad. Early in the year she moved to Madison, Wisconsin to study petrography with Charles R. Van Hise.[2] In the fall of 1901 she moved to Germany to pursue graduate studies. She studied microscopic petrography with Harry Rosenbusch at the University of Heidelberg from 1901 to 1902. She then moved to the Bavarian University in Erlangen, where she studied physics, geology (with Hans Lenk), and botany.[2][13] She graduated with her PhD in geology in 1904, the first woman to receive a PhD in geology at that university.[1][14]

Upon her return to State Normal in 1904 she was the first faculty member to hold a PhD.[1] Her credentials did not result in any change in her salary or status and as a result she left the institution in 1905 to teach in public schools in Chicago.[1] For the remainder of her career, Bryant taught in Chicago secondary schools, specifically Hyde Park and Schurz, until 1931 at which point she retired to Asheville, North Carolina.[5][15] She died in 1949.[1][16]

Publications

  • Bryant, Dixie Lee (1905). "Beiträge zur Petrographie Spitzbergens" (Document). Erlangen: Erlangen University.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lawrimore, Erin (2015-08-31). "Dixie Lee Bryant (b. 1862)". Encyclopedia of UNCG History. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Shrock, Robert Rakes (1982). Geology at M.I.T., 1865–1965: a history of the first hundred years of geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2, 2. Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press. pp. 396–399. ISBN 978-0-262-19211-8. OCLC 769160197.
  3. ↑ "Bachelors of Science List Swelled by Addition of 102 Names Graduation Day at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. President Walker Congratulates the Young Scientists". Boston Globe. 1891-06-03. p. 2.
  4. ↑ "Dixie Lee Bryant, Trailblazer for Women in Science". mit.edu.
  5. 1 2 Bever, Marilynn Arsey. "The women of M.I.T., 1871–1941 : who they were, what they achieved". Retrieved 2020-01-19. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ Dean, Pamela (1991). "Learning to Be New Women: Campus Culture at the North Carolina Normal and Industrial College". The North Carolina Historical Review. 68 (3): 289 – via JSTOR.
  7. ↑ State Normal and Industrial School (Greensboro, N. C. ) (1893). The Annual Catalogue. University of North Carolina at Greensboro Walter Clinton Jackson Library. Greensboro (N.C.): State Normal and Industrial School.
  8. ↑ "North Carolina Teachers' Association". Journal of Education. 40 (4): 79. 1894-07-19. doi:10.1177/002205749404000404. ISSN 0022-0574. S2CID 220815767.
  9. 1 2 Hall Coates, Gladys (1975). "The Coming of Women to the University of North Carolina". In Coates, Albert (ed.). By her own bootstraps : a saga of women in North Carolina. Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield. [Chapel Hill, N.C. : s.n.] p. 45.
  10. ↑ Alumnae News of the North Carolina College for Women. University Libraries The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Greensboro, N.C. : Alumnae Association of the North Carolina College for Women. 1922.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. ↑ "Bryant, Dixie Lee | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  12. ↑ Singer, Sandra L (2003). Adventures abroad: North American women at German-speaking universities, 1868–1915. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-313-09686-0. OCLC 542338506.
  13. ↑ State Normal Magazine. University Libraries The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Greensboro, N.C. : State Normal and Industrial College. 1904.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ↑ "Bavaria Takes Step Forward" (PDF). The Pickney Dispatch. 1904-08-18. p. 6.
  15. ↑ Chicago (Ill.). Board of Education. Proceedings. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chicago.
  16. ↑ "Dr. Dixie Lee Bryant Dies in Asheville, N.C.". Alumnae News. University Libraries The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Greensboro, N.C. : Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. 1950. p. 4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. ↑ Bryant, Dixie Lee (1905). Beitrage zur Petrographie Spitzbergens (Thesis) (in German). OCLC 843335091.
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