Before They Were Students

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) was an acclaimed novelist and short story writer from South Berwick, Maine. Sarah received much of her education from her family’s library and the medical rounds she attended with her father, Dr. Theodore H. Jewett, Class of 1834, who taught at the College from 1867 to 1869 and acted as President of the Medical School of Maine at Bowdoin from 1877 to 1878. Sarah's continued acclaim, including the publication of Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), led to the College awarding her an honorary degree in 1901, the first woman to receive such recognition at Bowdoin. The College granted twenty-three honorary degrees to women before coeducation began in 1971.

Sarah Orne Jewett in Graduation Regalia, circa 1901