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First American Degrees in Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Walter Crosby Eells
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Extract

The widely used reference work, Famous First Facts, states without qualification that “the first Bachelor of Music degree was granted June 7, 1876 by Boston University, Boston, Mass., to Charles Henry Morse,” and refers for authority for this statement to the Fourth Annual Report of Boston University.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1961 , pp. 35 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 1961, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

Since the above article was accepted for publication, the writer of it has found that in 1835 the Legislature of the State of Kentucky granted a charter to “Van Doren's College for Young Ladies” at Lexington, Kentucky. This charter authorized the college to confer the three degrees of Mistress of Music, Mistress of Instruction, and Mistress of Polite Literature. This early college, which began as a “female seminary” in 1831, was short lived, closing before 1839. It has not been possible to find whether it actually conferred any Mistress of Music or other Mistress degrees between 1835 and the date it closed. No reference to such action is found in various histories of education in Kentucky nor in other sources that have been consulted. But 1825 may be accepted, until evidence of an earlier date is discovered, as the date of the first authorization of the degree of Mistress of Music for an institution of higher education in the United States.Google Scholar

1. Kane, Joseph N., Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in the United States . New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1950, p. 188.Google Scholar

2. Choate, Robert A., “Music Education,” in Blauch, Lloyd E. (editor) Education for the Professions. Washington: U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955, p. 146.Google Scholar

3. Neumeyer, Carl M., A History of the National Association of Schools of Music. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1955, p. 28. (Microfilm copy available in Library of Congress, or available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.)Google Scholar

4. U. S. Commissioner of Education, Annual Report, 1873, p. 717.Google Scholar

5. In connection with preparation of an extensive monograph, Academic Degrees, by Walter Crosby Eells and Harold A. Haswell, listing more than 2,400 degrees given by American colleges and universities, to be published by the U. S. Office of Education in 1960. This volume will list 90 different degrees in music reported as currently or formerly given by American colleges and universities.Google Scholar

6. Hall Johnson, Frances, Music Vale Seminary 1835–1876. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934. (Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut: Committee on Historical Publications), p. 11–12. Joseph N. Kane, in Famous First Facts (p. 304) erroneously gives the author of this monograph as Frances Johnson Hall. In addition to the statement regarding degree granting powers, Kane states that “the first degree was conferred about 1849,” a statement not found in Mrs. Johnson's monograph.Google Scholar

7. Personal letter from Fraser, Mowat G., Chief, Bureau of Higher and Adult Education, July 12, 1960.Google Scholar

8. Eells, Walter C., “Early Collegiate Degrees for Women,” Educational Record, 41:266–268, July 1960.Google Scholar

9. Nelson, Edward T., Alumni Record of the Ohio Wesleyan University 1842–1880. Delaware, Ohio: The University, 1880, p. 52–70.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 75.Google Scholar

11. Norton, Albert C., “Pioneers in Music Education,” Music Journal, 16: 22, March 1958.Google Scholar

12. General Alumni Catalogue of New York University, 1833–1905. New York: The University, 1906, p. 164.Google Scholar

13. Gilmary Shea, John, Memorial of the First Century of Georgetown College, D. C. Washington: The College (Published by P. F. Collier, New York), 1891, p. 164.Google Scholar

14. Personal letter, July 18, 1960.Google Scholar

15. Shea, , op. cit., p. 164.Google Scholar

16. President Andrew Jackson accepted an invitation from Georgetown University to attend its Commencement in 1829, but on account of illness was unable to attend. Whether he would have awarded degrees, had he attended, can only be conjectured. See James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789–1907. New York, 1907. 2 vols. Vol. 1, p. 65.Google Scholar