Queer Places:
University of Nebraska, 1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588, United States
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
Woodlawn Cemetery, 148 Brook St, Wellesley, MA 02482, United States
Laura Emma Lockwood (October 11, 1863 - November 30, 1956) was born on October 11, 1863, in Moores Hill, Dearborn County, Indiana, to Samuel Howard Lockwood
and Sarah Amanda Johnson Lockwood, growing up alongside her brother, the Reverend Edmund Janes Lockwood. By 1880, she was living in Moores Hill in Sparta
Township, Dearborn, Indiana, and uniquely spent time abroad residing in Lepton, Yorkshire, England, in 1881. She eventually pursued higher education,
emerging from the academic environment of the University of Nebraska and earning her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale University.
In 1899, Lockwood joined the English department faculty at Wellesley College, teaching under the leadership of pioneering scholar and poet
Katharine Lee Bates. By 1921, she was firmly established as a teacher and professor at Wellesley, where she
built her long-standing academic career. She became a celebrated literary scholar and editor best known for her monumental contributions to Milton studies,
most notably publishing the comprehensive Lexicon to the English Poetical Works of John Milton in 1907 alongside edited volumes of his selected essays. Her
work as a prominent woman scholar positioned her among a network of trailblazing academic women editing early modern literature.
Lockwood's life reflects the social patterns of educated, career-focused women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Living and
working within the insular academic community at Wellesley College alongside colleagues like Katharine Lee Bates and
Martha Hale Shackford, Lockwood participated in a culture where independent professional women frequently
formed primary domestic and professional partnerships with other women. These enduring, close relationships among academic women at women's colleges during
this era—frequently characterized historically as Boston marriages or Wellesley marriages—provided essential emotional, social, and domestic frameworks for
generations of pioneering female intellectuals, laying the groundwork for modern understandings of queer community and women's networks. Laura Emma
Lockwood passed away on November 30, 1956, in Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, at the age of 93, and was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellesley,
Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
References:
Other references:
- United States Federal Census and Vital Statistics: Records documenting her birth on October 11, 1863, in Moores Hill, Dearborn County, Indiana, her residence in Sparta Township, Dearborn, Indiana in 1880, her stay in Lepton, Yorkshire, England, in 1881, and her household details alongside her parents, Samuel Howard and Sarah Amanda Johnson Lockwood, and her brother, the Reverend Edmund Janes Lockwood.
- Yale University Registrar and Alumni Records: Documentation of her advanced graduate studies and the conferral of her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree.
- Wellesley College Faculty and Administrative Archives: Institutional records confirming her appointment to the English department faculty starting in 1899, her continuing tenure as a teacher and professor through 1921, and her professional association with colleagues such as Katharine Lee Bates and Martha Hale Shackford.
- Death, Probate, and Cemetery Records: Death registration indicating her passing on November 30, 1956, in Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, at the age of 93, and burial records from Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellesley, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
- Published Scholarly Works: Her literary publications, most notably the Lexicon to the English Poetical Works of John Milton, published in 1907, as well as her editions of Milton's selected essays.
- Historical and Biographical Studies on Women's Academia: Scholarship addressing late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women's colleges, faculty networks, and the social structures of professional women in academic communities often referred to as Wellesley or Boston marriages.
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