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Jean M. Ward

Jean M. Ward is professor of communication, emerita, and cofounder of the Gender Studies Program at Lewis & Clark College, where she taught and held various administrative posts, 1964 to 2006. Born in Eugene, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. Research interests include the rhetoric of Pacific Northwest women and the history of Pacific Northwest colleges. With Elaine Maveety, she co-edited Pacific Northwest Women, 1815-1925: Lives, Memories, and Writings, and "Yours for Liberty": Selections from Abigail Scott Duniway’s Suffrage Newspaper. She provided a chapter on the life of Bethenia Owens-Adair for Eminent Astorians, edited Dr. Mary Anna Cooke Thompson's 1877-78 journal, and published "'The Noble Representative Woman from Oregon': Dr. Mary Anna Cooke Thompson," an article on Dr. Thompson's travel and participation in the 1877-78 National Woman Suffrage Association Convention. Her most recent article, titled "Lewis & Clark College: Oregon's 'Cinderella College,'" will appear in the spring 2018 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly. 

Author's Entries

  • Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915)

    Outspoken and often controversial, Abigail Scott Duniway is remembered as Oregon's "Mother of Equal Suffrage" and "the pioneer Woman Suffragist of the great Northwest." As lecturer, organizer, writer, and editor, Duniway devoted over forty years to the cause of women's rights. In Idaho Territory in 1896, Duniway celebrated victory for …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Bethenia Owens-Adair (1840-1926)

    Bethenia Owens-Adair overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become a social reformer and one of Oregon's first women doctors with a medical degree. Some Oregon women, such as Dr. Mary Thompson, called themselves "doctor" but had not attended medical school and did not possess degrees. A few others, such as …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Lewis & Clark College

    Lewis & Clark College, a private and academically selective liberal arts college in Portland, is recognized nationally for its excellence in undergraduate teaching, its contributions to the public good, its environmental and sustainability efforts, and its overseas study programs. In 2017, when the college celebrates its sesquicentennial year, its history …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Margaret Jewett Smith Bailey (1812-1882)

    Writing under the pen name Ruth Rover, Margaret Jewett Smith Bailey wrote one of the earliest works in Oregon, The Grains, or, Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, with Occasional Pictures of Oregon, Natural and Moral, published in 1854 by Carter & Austin in Portland. The book appeared …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Mary Anna Cooke Thompson (1825 - 1919)

    Controversial in her politics, yet honored in her lifetime as one of Oregon's pioneer doctors, Mary Anna Cooke Thompson practiced medicine in Portland for over forty years. Although she held no degree, Thompson began advertising in Portland newspapers in 1867 and was eventually known as "Portland's first woman physician." Mary …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Mary Priscilla Avery Sawtelle (1835-1894)

    Mary Sawtelle, one of the first women in Oregon to earn a medical degree, was born in New York in 1835, the daughter of Benjamin and Lucretia Avery. After the death of her father, a Methodist minister, her mother married John Stipp, a Primitive Baptist minister. In 1848, the family …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Minnie Myrtle Miller (Theresa Dyer) (1845-1882)

    Minnie Myrtle Miller, the "Poetess of the Coquille," was born Theresa Dyer in Brookville, Indiana, on May 2, 1845. She was the daughter of Aaron and Sarah A. Dyer, who journeyed with their children from Ohio to Oregon in 1859 and settled on a farm in Curry County, not far …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Tabitha Moffat Brown (1780-1858)

    Of the 158 names inscribed in the legislative chambers of the Oregon State Capitol, only six are women. One of those is Tabitha Moffat Brown, named by the 1987 Oregon legislature as "The Mother of Oregon." The legislature proclaimed that she “represents the distinctive pioneer heritage, and the charitable and …

    Oregon Encyclopedia