Women's History Quiz Answers
What female student athlete in 2005 won Butler's first
NCAA championship in 73 years?
Victoria Mitchell, an Australian student, won the steeplechase, a
3,000 meter race with 28 barriers and 7 water jumps. As a child on
her family's ranch in Australia, Victoria became adept at catching
lizards as well as horseback riding; and she amused her fellow
Butler runners by running down and catching an opossum and a
squirrel on campus. She once jumped into the canal to capture a
snake that she had spotted. She was also known to sport pink hair
for at least part of her Butler tenure.
What former Butler student has driven in six
Indianapolis 500's?
Sarah Fisher became the youngest driver to complete an Indy Racing
League event in 1999, finishing as high as second place at
Homestead, Florida in 2001. She was the first woman to win the pole
position for a major league open-wheel race at the Kentucky
Speedway in 2002.
What Butler alumna became the first female general
minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in the U.S. and Canada
Sharon Watkins (Economics, '75) was elected and installed in 2005.
She was the daughter of a Christian Theological Seminary professor,
and grew up spending time on the Butler campus.
What woman founded the Teachers College of Indianapolis
in 1892? Her Teachers College later merged with Butler's Department
of Education to form our College of Education in
1930.
Eliza A. Blaker, an early advocate for kindergarten education, was
recruited to come to Indianapolis in 1882 to teach the children of
the social elite. She replied that she would come only if all
children were welcome in her classes. Her forward-thinking husband
gave up his job to come to Indianapolis with her. Blaker taught at
the private academy for a while, but then realized that she could
fill a greater need by training kindergarten teachers for the
region; and founded her own teacher training school. She was firm
about integrating her classes, racially and socially. A bequest she
made to Butler in memory of her husband still funds the purchase of
children's books for the library today. (See a display about her in
Jordan Hall, College of Education)
Who founded Butler's literary magazine, Manuscripts
(MSS) in 1933?
Allegra Stewart was the magazine's first faculty advisor. Stewart,
a 1921 Butler graduate with a doctorate from the University of
London, served her alma mater as a member of the English faculty
for over forty years, beginning at the Fairview campus and
continuing at Butler's present location until after her
retirement.
What sorority, founded in 1922, is the only sorority
ever founded at Butler University?
Sigma Gamma Rho was founded by seven young African American school
teachers who were earning educational degrees at a time when there
were not many African American students at Butler. There are over
400 chapters of the sorority today. Butler's Alpha chapter has been
inactive at times, but is currently revitalized. The last surviving
founder, Vivian White Marbury was one of the first female and first
black principals in Indianapolis, serving as principal of
Indianapolis Public School 87 for 39 years. She was a charter
member of the Butler Minority Alumni Council, which she helped
establish. Marbury died in 2000 at the age of 100. You can see a
stained glass panel honoring Sigma Gamma Rho just outside the tower
room at the south end of Atherton Union.
Who was the first documented black woman to graduate
from Butler (or any other Indiana college)?
Gertrude Amelia Mahorney graduated in 1887. She became an
Indianapolis schoolteacher.
Who was Butler University's first female president,
serving as interim president in 2000-2001?
Gwen Fountain first came to Butler as an economics lecturer. After
taking time off from her academic career, during which she
dedicated herself to teaching her hearing impaired son to speak,
she became a tenure track professor of economics and business
management at Butler in 1986. Over the years her positions included
coordinator of curriculum design and director of undergraduate
programs for the College of Business Administration, associate
provost of student learning, and dean of academic affairs. Fountain
left Butler in 2001 to accept apposition with the Indianapolis
Children's Museum.
Who was the first woman to complete the four year
classical curriculum, formerly chosen only by men, graduating in
1862?
Demia Butler was the daughter of Ovid Butler, founder of Butler
University. She married after graduation, but died only two years
later in 1867. Ovid Butler endowed the Demia Butler Chair in her
memory-the first faculty chair in the country created for a female
professor. A current student organization, Demia, is named in her
honor and exists to promote gender equality.
What former Butler faculty member who is thought to have
been the second female professor at any American University was
also the first Butler professor appointed to the Demia Butler
Chair, endowed by Ovid Butler in memory of his
daughter?
Catharine Merrill, whose lawyer father also served as an Indiana
legislator and Indiana's treasurer. He was a founder of the
Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Company, which Catharine ran for a few
years after his death. She served as a volunteer nurse for the
Union Army during the Civil War, and later wrote The Soldiers of
Indiana in the War for the Union, which was published anonymously
in 1866. While Merrill taught at Butler, a literary club was
founded in her name. Her portrait hangs just off the lobby in
Robertson Hall.