{{Short description|Canadian philanthropist and women's education activist}} {{Infobox person | name = Anne Molson | image = Mme John Molson, Montreal, QC, 1873.jpg | caption = Molson photographed in 1873. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1824|04|08}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1899|01|03|1824|04|08}} | occupation = Philanthropist, activist | known_for = Education activism; campaigning for the admission of women to McGill University | family = Molson family }}
'''Anne Molson''' (8 April 1824 – 3 January 1899) was a Canadian philanthropist and proponent of access to education, best known for her work in opening admissions to McGill University to women.
== Early life == A member of the prominent Anglophone Molson family, Molson was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1824, the third child of William Molson and Elizabeth Badgley.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Girard |first=Emilie |date=6 May 2022 |title=Anne Molson et la Montreal Ladies' Educational Association |trans-title=Anne Molson and the Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association |url=https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoiresdesmontrealais/anne-molson-et-la-montreal-ladies-educational-association |work=Centre d'histoire de Montréal}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Kalbfleisch |first=John |date=29 April 2001 |title=Anne Molson led women into a man's world |work=The Gazette |pages=18}}</ref> Molson's maternal grandfather was politician Francis Badgley, and her maternal uncle was William Badgley.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |title=Dictionary of Canadian biography. Vol. 12: 1891 to 1900 |date=1997 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=George Williams |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/molson_anne_12E.html |access-date= |edition= |place=Toronto |publisher=Univ. of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-3460-1 |editor2-last=Hayne |editor2-first=David Mackness |editor3-last=Halpenny |editor3-first=Francess G. |editor4-last=Cook |editor4-first=Ramsay}}</ref>
Although her father believed in higher education for young men, he did not consider it important for women.<ref name=":0" /> His daughters were subsequently educated by private tutors to a lower standard than their brother.<ref name=":0" /> Molson would grow to develop an interest in furthering access to learning, particularly for women, in the hopes her daughter Edith would receive a better education than Molson herself had received.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bradbury |first=Bettina |title=WIFE TO WIDOW: Lives, Laws, and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Montreal |date=2011 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-1951-0 |location=Vancouver |pages=59}}</ref>
== Marriage == On 9 June 1845, at the age of 21, Molson married her first cousin John Molson, son of John Molson Jr.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hanaway |first=Joseph |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/McGill_Medicine_Volume_2_1885_1936/kAYt6XdgxoUC |title=McGill Medicine, Volume 2, 1885-1936: The Second Half Century, 1885-1936 |last2=Cruess |first2=Richard L. |date=2006-01-19 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-7316-1 |pages=236–237 |language=en}}</ref> Molson's marriage settlement provided her a level of financial autonomy that was unusual for women of the time in Lower Canada.<ref name=":1" /> The couple would receive £300 a year from her father, of which Anne would control £50 independently; her property would also be considered hers, independent of her husband's authority.<ref name=":2" />
By 1852, the couple had five children together, of which three survived into adulthood.<ref name=":2" /> Following the death of John Molson Jr. in 1860, they inherited and moved into the historic country house, Belmont Hall, on Sherbrooke Street.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Sara Z. |title=University women: a history of women and higher education in Canada |date=2021 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-2280-0863-7 |series=Carleton library series |location=Montreal; Kingston; London; Chicago}}</ref>
== Education advocacy ==
=== Anne Molson Gold Medal === In 1864, Molson posed as a male friend to approach John William Dawson, principal of McGill University. She proposed the idea of providing an endowment to fund a gold medal, which would be awarded to the best student in physics and mathematics.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> When Dawson was receptive to the proposal, Anne revealed her identity to Dawson at the urging of her father, Molson, ensuring the award would ultimately be named after her.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Stanley Brice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zpxb |title=McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, Volume I, 1801-1895 |date=1980 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-7735-0353-3 |pages=202}}</ref> As of the 2020s, the award continues to be offered by McGill's Faculty of Science.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=McGill University |title=The Origins of Science at McGill |url=https://200.mcgill.ca/faculties/faculty-of-science/first-era-the-emergence-of-science-at-mcgill/ |access-date=2025-12-31 |website=McGill University |language=en-CA}}</ref>
=== Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association === At the time of Molson's endowment to McGill, the university did not admit women as students, but public pressure was mounting on the institution's leadership to amend this policy.<ref name=":4" /> Dawson and his wife, Margaret, visited the United Kingdom in 1870 and researched the work of the Ladies’ Educational Association of Edinburgh, which at the time was campaigning for women to gain access to higher education in Scotland.<ref name=":4" /> He returned to Quebec with a detailed proposal for founding a similar organisation in Montreal.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Eakins |first=Peter R. |last2=Sinnamon Eakins |first2=Jean |title=DAWSON, Sir JOHN WILLIAM |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dawson_john_william_12E.html?revision_id=34667 |access-date=2025-12-31 |website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref>
On 10 May 1871, Montreal's English-speaking bourgeoisie formed the Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association during a meeting at Belmont Hall, selected due to its proximity to McGill's campus.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Ronish |first=Donna |date=1971-04-01 |title=The Montreal Ladies' Educational Association 1871-1885 |url=https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/mcgill_jrn_education/1971/v06n01/6819-24033-1-PB.pdf?nodisclaimer=1 |journal=McGill Journal of Education |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=78–83 |via=National Library of Canada Electronic Collection}}</ref> Molson was elected president and her husband, treasurer.<ref name=":0" /> The association countered McGill's inaccessibility to women by organising independent courses, taught by McGill faculty, that mirrored offerings at the university.<ref name=":2" /> One such instructor was Goldwin Smith.<ref name=":3" /> Molson enrolled her daughter, Edith, in courses by the association, and attended some herself.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Molson |first=Karen |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Molsons/p_BECQAAQBAJ |title=The Molsons: Their Lives and Times: 1780-2000 |date=2012-08-17 |publisher=Firefly Books |isbn=978-1-77088-080-1 |pages=1885–1886 |language=en}}</ref>
When Edith died suddenly at the age of 19 in September 1872, Molson's involvement with the association slowly declined until she resigned as president in December 1873.<ref name=":7" /> She was succeeded by her sister-in-law, Louise Goddard Molson.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FROTHINGHAM, LOUISA GODDARD (Molson) |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/frothingham_louisa_goddard_13E.html?revision_id=37434 |access-date=2025-12-31 |website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref> Anne Molson would continue to attend meetings occasionally afterwards, and the association would credit her early active leadership as almost entirely responsible for its "existence [and] prosperity".<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7" />
Dawson inquired as to whether Molson would be able to fund women's classes at McGill directly, though she declined; despite her degree of financial autonomy, most of the family's finances were still controlled by her husband.<ref name=":7" /> In 1884, Dawson's financial difficulties were resolved when Donald Alexander Smith donated $50,000 to fund the first two years of education for women at McGill.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /> This donation was both unexpected and unprompted.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Some analysts, including biographer Bettina Bradbury, have suggested that Molson may have played a role in influencing Smith's decision to make the donation, as she was a friend of Smith.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Women enrolled in classes at McGill that year, and the Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association wound down in 1885.<ref name=":6" />
== Other philanthropy == Molson was an active contributor to, and patron of, the Montreal Ladies’ Benevolent Society.<ref name=":2" /> She also served as honorary president of the Montreal Society of Decorative Art.<ref name=":1" />
== Death == Molson died suddenly in early 1899 while on vacation in Atlantic City, a few months before her 75th birthday.<ref name=":1" />
== Notable recipients of the Anne Molson Gold Medal ==
* 1890: Henry Marshall Tory, who went on to become the first president of the University of Alberta<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 April 1890 |title=Graduating Class |work=The Gazette |pages=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Corbett |first=Edward Annand |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Henry_Marshall_Tory/pftBAAAAIAAJ? |title=Henry Marshall Tory: Beloved Canadian |date=1954 |publisher=Ryerson Press |pages=39 |language=en}}</ref> * 1898: Harriet Brooks, eventually a nuclear physicist, was the first woman to receive the award<ref name=":4" /> * 1921: Anna McPherson, later the first female professor in the Department of Physics at McGill University<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Mcdevitt |first=Neale |date=2021-03-08 |title=Celebrating the women who inspire us |url=https://reporter.mcgill.ca/women-who-inspire/ |access-date=2025-12-31 |website=McGill Reporter |language=en-CA}}</ref> * 1925: Mary Laura Chalk Rowles, eventually the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics from McGill<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ainley |first=Marianne Gosztonyi |title=Creating complicated lives: women and science at English-Canadian universities, 1880-1980 |last2=Rayner-Canham |first2=Geoffrey |last3=Rayner-Canham |first3=Marelene |date=2012 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-7735-4066-8 |location=Montréal}}</ref> * 1941: Louis Siminovitch, molecular biologist and pioneer in human genetics<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Charles Whately |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Who_s_who_in_Canada/GXdmAAAAMAAJ |title=Who's who in Canada |last2=Greene |first2=Barnet M. |date=1991 |publisher=International Press |pages=797 |language=en}}</ref> * 1971: Jim Tilley, figure in business and later poet<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tilley |first=Jim |date=1 October 2025 |title=Jim Tilley: The Making of a Poet |url=https://www.themontrealreview.com/Articles/The_Making_of_a_Poet.php |access-date=2025-12-31 |website=www.themontrealreview.com}}</ref> * 1989: Victoria Kaspi, astrophysicist and McGill professor<ref name=":8" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:1824 births Category:1899 deaths Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Philanthropists from Quebec Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Molson family Category:20th-century Canadian women philanthropists Category:20th-century Canadian philanthropists Category:19th-century women philanthropists