Adelia Field Johnston

{{Infobox person | name = Adelia Field Johnston | image = AdeliaFieldJohnston1912.png | alt = An old white woman, seated, wearing academic robes and a mortar board cap | caption = Adelia Field Johnston, from a 1912 publication | other_names = | birth_name = Adelia Antoinette Field | birth_date = February 5, 1837 | birth_place = Lafayette, Ohio, US | death_date = July 22, 1910 | death_place = Oberlin, Ohio, US | occupation = Educator, college administrator | years_active = | known_for = Dean of Women at Oberlin College, 1870-1900; first female faculty member at Oberlin College | notable_works = | spouse(s) = | relatives = }}

'''Adelia Antoinette Field Johnston''' (February 5, 1837 – July 22, 1910) was an American educator and college administrator. She was the first female faculty member at Oberlin College, where she taught history, and the school's Dean of Women from 1870 to 1900.

== Early life == Adelia Antoinette Field was born in Lafayette, Ohio, the daughter of Leonard Field and Margaret Gridley Field.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Keeler|first=Harriet L.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100773737|title=The life of Adelia A. Field Johnston ...|date=1912|publisher=Korner & Wood|location=Cleveland}}</ref> At age 13, she taught school for three weeks, while the assigned adult teacher was ill with measles.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=April 1933|title=Men and Women of Oberlin's Hundred Years|url=https://archive.org/details/oberlinalumnimag1933ober_h7u3/page/208/mode/1up|journal=Oberlin Alumni Magazine|pages=208|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> She attended Geauga Seminary and then Oberlin College. She graduated from Oberlin's literary course in 1856. In widowhood in the 1860s, she pursued further studies in Latin and in German, including an extended study trip to Germany. She later received an honorary master's degree from Hillsdale College, and in 1906 an honorary doctor of laws degree from Western Reserve University.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Tenney|first=Henry M.|date=October 1910|title=Adelia A. Field Johnston, A. M., LL.D.|url=https://archive.org/details/oberlinalumnimag1910ober_e1f9/page/2/mode/1up|journal=Oberlin Alumni Magazine|volume=7|pages=1–8|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

== Career == Field taught in Mossy Creek, Tennessee before she married in 1859, and she taught with her husband in Orwell, Ohio. She was principal at schools in Ohio and Rhode Island.<ref name=":1" />

Johnston served as principal and dean of the Women's Department of Oberlin College from 1870 to 1900,<ref>{{Cite news|date=1900-03-09|title=Gift for New Gymnasium at Oberlin|pages=7|work=New-York Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73045450/gift-for-new-gymnasium-at-oberlin/|access-date=2021-03-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and became the college's first female faculty member in 1878, when she began teaching history courses. She was appointed Professor of Medieval History in 1890.<ref name=":1" />

Johnston was also active in the town of Oberlin, Ohio, holding art exhibitions, supporting a natural history club, and cleaning up unsightly lots in the town as a founder of the Oberlin Village Improvement Society.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Root|first=Azariah S.|date=October 1910|title=Mrs. Johnston and the Village|url=https://archive.org/details/oberlinalumnimag1910ober_e1f9/page/8/mode/1up|journal=Oberlin Alumni Magazine|volume=7|pages=9–14|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Murphy|first=Patricia|date=October 23, 2007|title=An Extraordinary Oberlinian: Adelia A. Field Johnston, 1837-1910|url=http://www.loraincounty.com/education/feature.shtml?f=11021|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Lorain County}}</ref> She traveled to Norway, Spain, Egypt and Algeria,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Warner|first=Lucien C.|date=October 1910|title=Some Characteristics of Mrs. Johnston|url=https://archive.org/details/oberlinalumnimag1910ober_e1f9/page/15/mode/1up|journal=Oberlin Alumni Magazine|volume=7|pages=15–17|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and gave a lectures about her travels,<ref>{{Cite news|date=1909-11-16|title=Traveler Will Talk to Women|pages=12|work=The Dayton Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73040155/traveler-will-talk-to-women/|access-date=2021-03-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1892-11-29|title=Spain and the Spaniards|pages=4|work=The Sandusky Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73042365/spain-and-the-spaniards/|access-date=2021-03-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> including a lecture on Norway at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johnston|first=Adelia A. F.|date=1894|title=Norway and the Midnight Sun|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=orhAAQAAMAAJ&q=Adelia+Johnston&pg=PA555|journal=The Congress of Women Held in the Woman's Building, World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893|pages=565}}</ref> She wrote a novel, ''Two Sides of a Shield: A Story of the Civil War'' (1911).<ref name=":0" />

== Personal life and legacy == Adelia Field married fellow Oberlin alumnus James Mix Johnston in 1859; he died in 1862. Adelia A. Field Johnston died in 1910, aged 73 years, at her home in Oberlin.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1910-07-23|title=Educator Met Thousands in Oberlin Life|pages=1|work=The Chronicle-Telegram|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73039593/educator-met-thousands-in-oberlin-life/|access-date=2021-03-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Harriet Louise Keeler wrote a biography of Johnston, published in 1912.<ref name=":0" />

Oberlin College has a professorship named for Johnston, and a travel fellowship for Oberlin alumni.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1949-04-14|title=Oberlin Names Award Winners|pages=31|work=The Newark Advocate|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73040283/oberlin-names-award-winners/|access-date=2021-03-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Adelia Antoinette Field Johnston}} * [https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/OYTT-images/AdeliaJohnston.html Mrs. Adelia A. Field Johnston], from the Electronic Oberlin Group's Oberlin Through History website * [http://americanfeminisms.org/singular-charm-and-superb-character-the-life-of-adelia-antoinette-field-johnston/ “Singular Charm and Superb Character”: The Life of Adelia Antoinette Field Johnston], a project at Digital Feminisms * [http://www.oberlinlibstaff.com/omeka203/collections/show/3 Clarence Ward Art Library Exhibit] about Adelia Field Johnston * A [https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_OH010093?destination=edan-search/catalog_of_america%3Fpage%3D34%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dtopic%253A%2522Education%2522 1903 portrait of Adelia Field Johnston], painted by Caroline Nettleton Thurber and owned by Oberlin College, in the Smithsonian's Catalog of American Portraits

* {{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Adelia Field}} Category:1837 births Category:1910 deaths Category:Oberlin College alumni Category:Oberlin College faculty Category:People from Lafayette, Oregon Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century