Margaret Storrs Grierson was an archivist, philosophy professor, and the founder and first director of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College.
Background
Grierson was born in Denver, Colorado. Her father was railway executive Lucius Seymour Storrs and her mother was Mary Cooper Storrs, daughter of Job Adams Cooper, sixth Governor of the State of Colorado. Because of her father"s career, the family moved several times during Grierson"s childhood.
Education
She attended seven schools before entering Misses Masters" School, Dobbs Ferry, New New York She graduated in 1922 with a degree in English.
Career
In this capacity, she traveled extensively, in the United States and abroad, assembling manuscripts that document the history of women. Grierson taught philosophy at Smith College from 1930-1936. In 1940, she became the college archivist, and in 1942, she also became the executive secretary of the Friends of the Smith College Library.
In 1942, she became the first director of the Sophia Smith Collection at the college.
Until her retirement in 1965, Grierson simultaneously held the three positions. After her retirement, Grierson shifted her attention to family ancestry, focusing on the Cooper, Rankin, and Barnes families.
She was awarded the Smith College Medal in 1968. The Grierson Scholars program was launched in the late 1990s, partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.