Ellen Smith, Records

Ellen Smith was born on Feb. 14, 1838, in Ohio. She attended the Orwell Academy prior to attending Hillsdale College in Michigan. In 1877, she became the first female faculty member at the University of Nebraska when Chancellor Edmund Fairfield offered her a teaching position. Smith taught Latin and Greek, served as principal of the prepatory school starting in 1882, and served as a librarian even while appointed as registrar for the university in 1884. Her obituary notes that she ended her official role as registrar in 1902 but continued in an advisory capacity until her death on Feb. 21, 1903. Smith lived at 1204 “U” Street, Lincoln, Nebraska, when she passed due to cancer. The university named a building located on campus, purchased in 1920, after Ellen Smith. In 1958, expansion caused the university to demolish the building. For more details on Ellen Smith, see Nebraska U (https://unlhistory.unl.edu/exhibits/show/beginnings-classics/faculty/ellen-smith).