Anna Westman

(This series of Notable Faculty profiles was written in celebration Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's sesquicentennial in 2009.)

Anna Lovisa Westman was born Jan. 7, 1863, in S?by, J?nk?ping, Sweden. She was one of seven children. In 1868, her family immigrated to Chicago, later moving to the Illinois prairies.

Anna enrolled in Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's Preparatory Department, which acted like a high school, when she was 23, and two years later became a student at Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø. Westman elected to take the "scientific course," or major, an unusual choice for a woman of her time. While Westman's studies would have included courses in many scientific disciplines, she concentrated on mathematics, studying under popular professor Andrew Woods Williamson.

In 1891, her senior year, Westman was named principal of Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's Ladies' Hall, the home of Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's female students. There she would have had a function something like that of the director of a boarding house. Westman graduated from Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø in 1892; she was only the third woman to graduate from the college.

Upon her graduation, Westman was offered a position as instructor of mathematics, thus becoming thus becoming Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's first female faculty member. While teaching at Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø, Westman studied for her master's in English, also taking classes in Italian and philosophy, although there is no record of her completing another degree.

In 1894-1895, Westman studied at the University of Berlin. In 1896 she returned to Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø, where she taught English for a year. Then, at age 34, she left both Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø and academia and moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

Westman died on Aug. 1, 1910. A year after her death, a donor who wished to remain anonymous established the Anna Westman Stipend, to be awarded to a woman studying at Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø. The memorial fund honors Westman as a "friend and helper of young women struggling, like herself, to obtain a college education."

Information on Anna Westman is very scarce; most of the information included here comes from Ann Boaden's article "The Vocation of the Mind: Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø's First Three Women Graduates" (Part III), published in The Lutheran Journal.