Annie Peck, denied admission to Brown in 1874, became an intrepid middle-aged mountain-climber. Credit: Christine Dunlap Farnham Archives

‘Disturbing’ women: Online Pembroke Center gallery features activists’ stories

Disturbances, an exhibit of materials from the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archives at Brown, recognizes women who dared to question the status quo, from a 19th-century abolitionist to modern-day feminist scholars.
By TAB staff  |  October 7, 2008  |  Email to a friend

Annie Smith Peck applied for admission to Brown in 1874, almost two decades before President E. Benjamin Andrews began the bold experiment of admitting women. Denied at Brown, she instead graduated from the University of Michigan and later taught classics at Purdue and Smith.

Even more atypical for her time was Peck’s hobby: in her middle age she took up mountain climbing, and at 59 she raised a “Votes for Women” banner on a 21,000-foot Andes peak in Peru. She made her last climb at age 82.

Mary Woolley, class of 1894, president of Mt. Holyoke College from 1901 to 1937.: Mary Woolley, class of 1894, president of Mt. Holyoke College from 1901 to 1937. Peck is just one woman pioneer whose story was on display last March and April. Drawing on materials in the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archives at Brown, the show was sponsored by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women and co-sponsored by the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the Friends of the Library.

Now, selections from the exhibit, Disturbances, are viewable in an online gallery. The exhibit recognizes “courageous women scholars and activists who, through their writings and their actions, dared to disturb the status quo. Disturbances may take place around conference tables as well as on the streets.”

Christine Dunlap Farnham ’48, for whom the collection is named, was a Pembroke alumna and founding board member of the Pembroke Associates.