[Martha Carey]. American educator, born in Baltimore; daughter of James Carey Thomas, M.D., and of Mary Whitall, of Philadelphia. She was graduated with honor at Cornell University, New York, in 1877; studied Greek with Dr. Gildersleeve of Johns Hopkins University (1877–78), but was not admitted to the university classrooms; passed three years of classical study in Leipsic, where degrees were refused to women, but in 1882 obtained Ph.D. at Zurich, with highest honor, being the first woman to obtain that distinction there; studied the next year at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France in Paris; Dean of the Faculty and professor of English at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, in 1885; president of that institution in 1894, retaining her professional duties.
