Portrait of Otelia Cromwell

WGSS is proud to host a newly commissioned portrait of Otelia Cromwell in room 309 of W.L. Harkness.

Now on view in WLH Room 309

Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972) was born and raised in Washington, D.C. After graduating from high school, Otelia taught in the D.C. public schools while taking college courses at Howard University. In 1897 she transferred to Smith College. She graduated with a B.A. in 1900, becoming the College’s first African American graduate. In 1910, she earned her M.A. in English from Columbia University. In 1926, Otelia Cromwell became the first African American woman to earn a Yale Ph.D., and the fourth African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in this country. Her dissertation, Thomas Heywood, Dramatist: A Study in Elizabethan Drama of Everyday Life, was published by the Yale University Press in 1928. In 1930, after the Miner Normal School became a four-year college, she was appointed professor of the Division of English Language and Literature. Upon retiring in 1944, Otelia Cromwell began what was to be her major scholarly work, The Life of Lucretia Mott (Harvard University Press, 1958).

About the Artist, Jennifer Packer
Jennifer Packer lives and works in New York. She received her B.F.A. from the Tyler University School of Art at Temple University in 2007 and her M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Art in 2012. Before becoming an assistant professor of painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, she was artist in residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem and a visual arts fellow at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. She received a Rema Hort Mann Grant in 2013. Her work has appeared in more than a dozen solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Europe and is housed in multiple collections.

About the Yale Women Faculty Forum
The Yale Women Faculty Forum (WFF) was established in 2001 as an outgrowth of a conference during Yale’s Tercentennial year to highlight the presence of women at the University and the accomplishments of Yale alumnae. We are a university-wide organization of women that fosters gender equity and diversity through policy initiatives, research, and innovative programs. In January 2014 the WFF commissioned the portrait of the first seven women to earn Yale Ph.D.s in 1894. This remarkable portrait, located in the nave of Sterling Library, is highlighted during the Yale tour and noticed by many. We are now proud to have commissioned this portrait of Otelia Cromwell, the first African American woman to earn a Yale Ph.D. Her life as a scholar and educator will be an inspiration for many young scholars today.