Nellie Neilson

Nellie Neilson
Nellie Neilson, from the 1924 Mount Holyoke College yearbook
Born	(1873-04-05)April 5, 1873 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,U.S.
Died	May 26, 1947(1947-05-26)(aged 74) South Hadley, Massachusetts,U.S.
Nationality	American
Academic background
Alma mater	Bryn Mawr College
Thesis	Economic Conditions on the Manors of Ramsey Abbey(1899)
Academic advisors	Charles McLean Andrews Frederic William Maitland Paul Vinogradoff
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Rural Medieval England
Institutions	Mount Holyoke College

Nellie Neilson(April 5, 1873 – May 26, 1947) was an Americanhistorian.She was the first female president of the American Historical Association and the first woman to have an article published in theAmerican Historical Review.

Biography

Neilson was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvaniato William George Neilson (a metallurgical engineer) and Mary Louise Neilson. She attendedBryn Mawr College,from which she received anA.B.in 1893, anA.M.in 1894, and aPh.D.in 1899. She studied underCharles McLean Andrewsat Bryn Mawr, and spent a year of her Ph.D. studies inEngland,where she studied underFrederic MaitlandandPaul Vinogradoff.Neilson would later credit Andrews with encouraging her to study history rather than English literature.

She taught atAgnes Irwin Schoolin Philadelphia from 1897 to 1900, and lectured at Bryn Mawr from 1900 to 1902. In 1902 she moved toMount Holyoke Collegeas an instructor in history, and in 1904 was appointed professor of European history there. She rose to the rank of full professor in 1905, and stayed in that position until retiring from teaching in 1939. Neilson graduated from Bryn Mawr – and later worked at Holyoke – with fellow medievalistBertha Putnam.

In 1926 she was elected a fellow of theMedieval Academy of America,the first woman so elected; and in 1943 she served as the president of theAmerican Historical Association,the first woman to do so.

She died in 1947 inSouth Hadley, Massachusetts.She is interred atWest Laurel Hill CemeteryinBala Cynwyd,Pennsylvania.

Scholarly work

Neilson's first major work was her doctoral dissertation,Economic Conditions on the Manors of Ramsey Abbey,in which she investigated the economic affairs of the lands held byRamsey Abbeyin the Middle Ages. She continued to be primarily concerned with the development of rural medieval England thereafter. She edited three surveys of the lands owned by English monasteries, focusing particularly on the economic and social conditions surrounding them. In addition, she wrote some volumes for nonspecialists and some works on medieval legal systems.

Selected works

• Economic Conditions on the Manors of Ramsey Abbey(1899)
• Customary Rents(1910)
• Survey of the Honour of Denbigh(1914)
• The Terrier of Fleet Lincolnshire(1920)
• The Cartulary of Bilsington Kent(1927)
• Mediaeval Agrarian Economy(1936)

References

• Gras, N.S.B.; Lunt, William E.; Strayer, J.R. (1950). "Nellie Neilson (in Memoirs of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Mediaeval Academy)".Speculum.25(3): 417–418.doi:10.1017/s0038713400174597.S2CID225086820.
• Scanlon, Jennifer; Cosner, Shaaron (1996). "Neilson, Nellie".American Women Historians, 1700s–1900s: A Biographical Dictionary.Greenwood Press. p. 166.ISBN978-0-313-29664-2.
• Vaughan, Gerald (2000). "The Enigma of Mount Holyoke's Nellie Neilson".Historical Journal of Massachusetts.28:186–212.