Emily Howland
Emily Howland
- Born: November 20, 1827 in Sherwood, NY
- Died: June 29, 1929 in Sherwood, NY
- Buried in Howland Cemetery in Ledyard, NY
- Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021
Dedicated teacher of those formerly enslaved. World’s first female bank director. Ardent suffragist.
Emily Howland, who believed that education was the key to equality, devoted much of her life to teaching formerly enslaved people to read and write. She received the first honorary doctorate granted by the State University of New York for her efforts in education – and that was before women could even attend college with men. She then went on to found or support more than fifty schools for freed African Americans.
Emily organized women’s rights lectures and meetings with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, gave speeches to convention crowds and to members of Congress, and even took tea with Queen Victoria.
Oh, did we mention she was also the first female bank director in the world? Yes, the world. From what we can tell about this brave woman, Emily did not waste a single day of her 102 years.
“Let us not look back that we may rest in what has been done for us, but only to be urged to more faithfulness ourselves, that our cause may not suffer loss nor fall behind its record in the past.”
— Emily Howland
Learn more about Emily Howland
Emily’s legacy lives on at her family’s store-turned-museum in Aurora, NY. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad and a community meeting point, the Howland Stone Store Museum now houses some unique artifacts. Some of the most interesting include the only known Underground Railroad “ticket” to exist, a series of women’s suffrage posters, and a piece of Susan B. Anthony’s birthday cake from 1898!
