The First Wooster Woman Professor and Founding Member of the Women’s Advisory Board

Annie B. Irish was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska in 1857. She lived abroad for three years with her family because her father Colonel O. H. Irish, who was a diplomat, received a job appointment as Consul General at Dresden, Saxony, Germany. Despite the whole family returning to Nebraska City in 1873, Irish felt unfulfilled and remained abroad in order to continue her academic career for two more years in Germany and France. It was during these years that Irish cultivated her skills in the German and French languages. Later, she also studied English at the University of Johns Hopkins as a special student since the institution did not enroll women for graduate degrees. Even though Irish enjoyed her time learning new knowledge, she had to find work so that she could support her family. Her income became especially important after her father died, which left her as the family’s sole bread winner. Before accepting her professorship at Wooster, Irish worked as the librarian and private secretary for Carl Schurz, the Secretary of the Interior. While in Washington D.C., Dr. Irish’s work included translating foreign correspondences, manuscripts, and books for Schurz. No doubt Irish’s years spent studying German and French prepared her well to exceed in such an esteemed position.  

In 1881, she was invited to give a lecture on German and French literature as a guest speaker to the Wooster campus. At a time when women professors were uncommon, her presence brought inspiration to the women students on campus as they saw a figure they could look up to. Irish became aware of how important it was for these young women to have role models around when Nelli Waterson, a class of 1883 Wooster student, approached her and expressed a strong need for a woman advisor on campus. Irish lamented with Waterson that there was no one on campus advising women students for “when they were doing unwise things” and who could “set them straight,” as she wrote in one of diary entries during her 10-day visit. President Taylor likewise saw the necessity of a woman mentor and offered Irish a position in Wooster’s German Department. At the age of 24, Irish became the University’s first female professor who was recognized as a faculty member. In 1882, she earned her PhD from the University of Wooster, making her the first woman to do so from the institution. Tragically, only five years later, Irish died from scarlet fever after returning home to care for her sister Mary Irish, who had also contracted the disease while studying in Wooster. 

Even though her time at Wooster was short, Dr. Irish created an important precedent for women leadership on campus. In 1883, Annie B.  Irish, faculty wives, and townswomen together founded the Women’s Advisory Board under its former name the “Women’s Educational Association.” The organization’s mission was to support women from different backgrounds succeed in their social and academic endeavors on Wooster’s campus. Indeed, the board’s first project – the construction of Hoover Cottage – demonstrated their commitment to this mission. With an increasing number of women commuting from town to get to classes, the Women’s Educational Association found it vital to give these women a central gathering place on campus with which they could call their own. Irish took advantage of public events by selling baked goods and drinks at Wooster’s commencement ceremony in Wooster in order to raise money for a women’s dormitory. Donations, such as from Fredrick Hoover, helped bring Hoover Cottage into fruition. Hoover Cottage marked one of Annie B. Irish’s activism in supporting women students at Wooster.  

Annie B. Irish as the first woman professor at the University of Wooster had become an important leader in the early stage of coeducation during the 19th Century. She broke the gender roles back in that time and supported women students in different levels so that they could succeed. Her legacy carries on despite the years pass by.