State College Woman's Club

- Documenting the Role of Women in Local History -

Frances Washburn Atherton, the wife of George Washington Atherton, the fourth president of the Penn State College was born May 28, 1836 in Plympton, Massachusetts, a small New England community located outside of Plymouth. After attending district school training and normal school for training teachers at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, she began her teaching career at the age of 17 and obtained a position at the Bridgewater Normal School. Fanny, as she was know to those closest to her, taught for eight years in New Haven, Connecticut where she met Yale student George Washington Atherton.

The Athertons married on Christmas day of 1863 and moved to Albany, New York where he had obtained a position at the Albany Academy. They also lived in Annapolis, Maryland; at the University of Illinois; and for 13 years in New Brunswick, New Jersey at Rutgers College. In the fall of 1882, the Athertons relocated to a tiny central Pennsylvania community known as State College so that George W. Atherton could begin his tenure as President of the Pennsylvania State College.

After having lived in cultivated communities, Fanny Atherton moved to State College, with five children to educate, to an unequipped home and the task of coordinating innumerable college related events and receptions. Atherton was greatly devoted to her husband's mission of developing the young institution. One of her roles was to prepare meals for committee meetings held at the president's home. The Atherton's daughter, Helen Atherton Govier, recalled the rather primitive kitchen amenities and noted that during the cold winter months the water that splashed from the sink to the floor would immediately freeze.

Atherton made her own soap, washed the family's laundry, and prepared meals for guests. She completed these household chores with dignity and pride and took her role as the wife of the college's president very seriously. Atherton pasted newspaper clippings concerning household maintenance into her daily journals. One article, "Housewife's Scrapbook," states:

to the neat housewife few things are more discouraging than a rough, unsightly kitchen floor giving with an excess of candor wholly unappreciated, the ravages of heavy footprints, stains, or spots of grease, souvenirs of carelessness, or of accident liable to befall the most careful cook.

In addition to her tireless dedication to domestic affairs, Frances W. Atherton educated not only her children but also children of some college faculty. Mrs. Atherton converted the library at the president's home into a schoolroom, administered lessons, and supervised the chores of the children. She did all this while carrying out her own household duties. Eldest daughter Harriet Atherton Buckhout affectionately remembered receiving lessons from her mother while seated on the back stairs of the kitchen with the other children. Atherton's eagerness to provide the children with an education and her own desire to be aware of current events and read poetry and literature demonstrate her interest in intellectual activity.

In the mid-1890s, Atherton's love of learning and dedication to community well being merged in her interest to establish a Woman's Literary Club for State College. She wanted to improve the lives of State College women by providing them with an outlet for intellectual expression. At the gatherings of the club, the members presented papers and hosted guest speakers on literary and historical topics. Atherton herself created many of the programs for the meetings. The club contributed facilitated the establishment of the Home Economics department at the college in 1906. Mrs. Atherton's served as president of the club endured from 1894 until ill health increasingly took her away from active participation in 1906. The State College Woman's Club members appointed their honorary president.

Frances W. Atherton passed away July 8, 1913, but the spirit of her dedication to the development of the community of State College, particularly its women, was felt long after her death. In 1938, Penn State College's Atherton Hall, built as a dormitory for female students, opened and was named in her honor. Atherton Hall bears the name of Frances W. Atherton as a symbol of the excellence, service, and integrity for which all female Penn State Students should strive. Mrs. Atherton's daughter best characterized the memory and legacy of her mother at the dedication ceremony of the building by stating:

it is my earnest hope that the brave, sweet, unselfish, and sacrificing spirit of my mother…may in some manner fall as a mantel from her shoulders, to pervade and grace these halls and influence towards the highest aims in life every girl who is fortunate enough to live here during the years she is in college.