Background
Abby Leach was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of Marcus and Eliza Paris (Bourne) Leach. She was a descendant of Lawrence Leach who emigrated from England to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629.
Abby Leach was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of Marcus and Eliza Paris (Bourne) Leach. She was a descendant of Lawrence Leach who emigrated from England to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629.
At a time when opportunities for the higher education of women were limited, and when courses for advanced study were for them non-existent, Leach went to Cambridge and induced several professors at Harvard to give her private instruction. It is difficult to realize the courage and tact then required to overcome not only masculine and even feminine prejudices against such instruction, but also the many practical difficulties which impeded liberalminded men like William W. Goodwin and James B. Greenough in their desire to help her. Her own belief in the necessity of such work, inherited from her New England ancestors, joined to the ability and good sense that she displayed from the beginning, had its reward. Her example inspired other young women, and her residence in Cambridge (1879 - 1882) became the direct cause of the founding of Radcliffe College, then known popularly and somewhat derisively as "The Harvard Annex. " Later she obtained the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in Vassar College in 1885.
Leach was a teacher of Greek and Latin languages at Vassar College in 1883. She became associate professor in 1888 and in 1889 was elected professor and chief of the newly organized department of Greek, a post which she held until her death. A teacher of force and originality, with a personal bearing and address which won a large following, she made it an object of emulation among her students to be accepted as members of her beginners' course in Greek. This was one of the first of its kind to be introduced into an American college of high rank, since she was among the first to recognize the importance of maintaining the college study of Greek literature at a period when it was declining in the preparatory schools, and she carried her classes upward through the drama and into Plato and Aristotle.
Her own experience as a pioneer, and the wide acquaintance which she had formed among scholars, made her invaluable in aiding young women to satisfy their ambition for advanced work in graduate schools. Her influence thus extended far beyond her own field of Greek. Her services outside the college were numerous and notable.
She was president of the American Philological Association (1899 - 1900); member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; of the Council of the Archaeological Institute of America; of the Classical Association of England and Wales, and the Classical Association of the Middle States and Maryland; and president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (1899 - 1901). She was an occasional contributor to the American Journal of Philology and to the Classical Review; and to Lane Cooper's work on The Greek Genius and its Influence (1917) she contributed a chapter on "Fate and Free Will in Greek Literature. "
Leach was one of the first female students at Harvard University. She was influential to the establishment of the Radcliffe College, a women's liberal arts college. She became the first female president of the American Philological Association. In 1908 the Emperor of Japan presented her with a gold cup in recognition of her services to education.
Member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies
Member of the Council of the Archaeological Institute of America
Member of the Classical Association of England and Wales
Member of the Classical Association of the Middle States and Maryland
