Laura Scales

Laura Woolsey Lord Scales (November 13, 1879 – June 12, 1990) was an American educator and college dean.

Laura Scales
A white woman with her hair side-parted and braided over the crown
Laura W. L. Scales, from the 1925 Smith College yearbook
BornNovember 13, 1879
DiedJune 12, 1990
Occupation(s)College dean, educator
Known forDean of Students, Smith College, 1922 to 1944

Biography

Scales was the daughter of John King Lord (1848–1926),[1] a historian who served as acting president of Dartmouth College in 1892 and 1893;[2] her two brothers became a professor of anatomy and a publisher.[1] She graduated from Smith College in 1901 and in 1908 married Robert Leighton Scales (1880–1912), a lawyer and former English instructor at Dartmouth who coauthored the debate book Argumentation and Debate.[3] In 1913, after Scales' death, she became an instructor at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts,[4][5] before resigning in 1920 to become dean of women at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.[6] She then returned to Smith, where she served as dean of students for 22 years (1922–1944).[7] In order to create a sense of community spirit, Scales instituted a policy that all students live on the campus.[7]

Scales died in 1990 aged 110 years and 211 days, one of the oldest people in the world at the time. The Massachusetts legislature issued a resolution in honor of her 110th birthday in 1989.[8] Her papers are archived at Smith College.[7]

Awards and honors

Smith gave Scales an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 1931, and Dartmouth College awarded her an honorary doctorate in literature eight years later.[6] In 1936, Smith College named a newly built dormitory the Laura Scales House;[9][7] notable residents have included Gloria Steinem.[10]

Selected publications
  • Scales, Laura Woolsey Lord (1922). Boys of the Ages, their dreams and their crafts. [With illustrations.]. Boston: Ginn & Co. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
  • Scales, Laura W. L. (September 1917). "The Museum's Part in the Making of Americans". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 12 (9): 191–193. doi:10.2307/3253390. JSTOR 3253390.
  • Scales, Laura W. L. (April 1922). "Shall We Fear the Large College?". Educational Review. 63: 299–306.

References
  1. "Lord family". Dartmouth Library. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  2. "John King Lord (1848–1926), Class of 1868, Acting President of Dartmouth College (1892–1893)". Hood Museum of Art. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  3. "Scales–Lord". The Dartmouth. Vol. 30, no. 5. October 9, 1908. p. 52.
  4. "Resignations of Mr. Huger Elliott and Mrs. Robert L. Scales". Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. 18 (108): 37. 1920. ISSN 0899-0344. JSTOR 4169749.
  5. Curran, Emily (1995). "Discovering the History of Museum Education". The Journal of Museum Education. 20 (2): 5–6. doi:10.1080/10598650.1995.11510290. ISSN 1059-8650. JSTOR 40479021.
  6. "Laura Lord Scale, Retired Dean, 110". The New York Times. June 16, 1990. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  7. "Laura Woolsey Lord Scales Papers". Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections. Smith College Archives. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  8. "Oldest 'Smithie' turns 110". United Press International. November 14, 1989. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  9. "Student Life - Res Life - Smith Houses - East Quad - Scales House". Smith College. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  10. "Voices of Feminism Oral History Project – Sept. 28 and 30, 2007". Archives of Women's Political Communication. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
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