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There are no surviving photos that positively identify Emilie
Grace Briggs
(1867-1944), daughter of Charles Augustus Briggs and
Julia Valentine Briggs. (She is thought to be furthest or
2nd to the right in this newspaper drawing.) The first woman
to graduate from Union Theological Seminary (1897) just one
year after women were allowed to 'visit' classes, she devoted
her life to biblical exegesis and teaching, care for her father's
estate (including his unpublished works), and her ongoing
study of 'women as deacons.'
Although she was a Ph.D. student at Union and finished her
requirements, she never received her doctoral degree due to
her inability to get her dissertation published, a special
proviso made for her by the graduate faculty in 1913, two
months following her father's death. Briggs was additionally
the second woman elected to the Society for Biblical Literature
and Exegesis, in the same year as her graduation from Union.
She never married, and died in June, 1944. |
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 "Heretic's
Child"
Left
and Bottom: Several headlines from articles detailing Emilie
Grace Briggs's graduation from Union Seminary in 1897, copied from
leaflets in her mother's scrapbooks (one was kept for each child).
Briggs was not only the first woman to earn a degree from Union --
she was the first person to earn a B.D. degree the first year it was
awarded, and due to her high academic standing she was the first person
to walk across the stage in the procession and conferral of degrees
at that commencement. These articles were kept in a scrapbook by her
mother, Julia Valentine Briggs. There exists, though, no record of
her having received a diploma. Her alumna file, additionally, is scant.
Six other women attended classes with Emilie Grace Briggs, but no
record exists of their having finished their requirements or graduated.
Their names are also unknown. |
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