Susie May Ames
Susie May Ames (January 10, 1888 – July 30, 1969) was a twentieth century American historian, educator, and author. She conducted research on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the colonial period.
Early life and education
Susie May Ames was born in
Career
Early teaching
After she graduated from Randolph-Macon, Ames taught in public schools. She began teaching at Crewe High School in
Graduate education
Teaching at the high school level was highest level commonly open to women in the early twentieth century. Ames, however, had ambitions to teach at higher levels, and began graduate coursework in English in summer 1915 at the University of Chicago.[1] She also took history courses through the University of California in 1923. In the fall of 1923, Ames was appointed as an instructor in history at Randolph-Macon Women's College, where she taught for the rest of her career.[1]
After joining the faculty, she continued graduate studies, received a
Ames earned her
Research and teaching
Ames' work in the early 1940s reflected the anxieties of World War II. She worked on an investigation of Edmund Scarburgh, one of Accomack County's early chief magistrates, who was known for his aggression.[1] Scarburgh's aggressive behaviors led to Jamestown authorities merging Northampton and Accomack Counties in 1670 and then to separate them two and a half years later after Scarburgh's death.[3] Ames wrote about this issue in "The Reunion of Two Virginia Counties" in the Journal of Southern History.[3] In the 1950s, issues of civil rights inspired her to examine federal policy towards the Eastern Shore in the Civil War.[4] In 1944, she was appointed to the Virginia World War II History Commission, to help the state document the conflict.[1]
Her best-known work was her edited volume County Court Records of Accomack-Northampton, Virginia, 1632-1640. ---m published in 1954 by the
Ames was a member of numerous professional associations, contributed and reviewed for many journals. Unfortunately, like many other female academics in the South, she was often barred from the meetings of these associations. Consequently, many of her ideas were first presented to women's clubs and in other, less formal spaces. She with her colleagues at Columbia, but had little contact with other historians at colleges and universities in Virginia, which were generally less open to female scholars than northern universities.[1]
Later life
Throughout her teaching career, Ames had been caring for her aging mother. Like many female scholars of that era, Ames never married.[1] She took a leave of absence after twenty-five years of teaching in 1948-1949 because of her mother's ill health, and when she retired in 1955, moved back to Pungoteague to care for her now elderly mother.[1]
Ames continued her scholarly work after her retirement, editing a second volume of Eastern Shore records covering 1640–1645, which was published by the Virginia Historical Society in 1973.[1] Earl Gregg Swem commissioned Ames to write Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699 in 1957.[1] Ames also published "The Bear and the Cub": The Site of the First English Theatrical Performance in America in 1965.[1]
Ames was also active in her community, as She was the founder and president of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society, as well as other patriotic societies, women's and garden clubs, and the Pungoteague Methodist Church.[1]
Susie M. Ames died on July 20, 1969, at the Hermitage in Onancock, Accomack County. She was buried in the cemetery of Saint George's Episcopal Church near Pungoteague.
Selected works
- County Court Records of Accomack-Northampton, Virginia, 1632-1640. ---m, 1954
- Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699, 1957
- "The Bear and the Cub": The Site of the First English Theatrical Performance in America, 1965
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Kukla, Jon; Looney, J. Jefferson. "Susie May Ames (1888-1969)". Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Library of Virginia. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
- ^ Ames, Susie M (1931). "A Typical Virginia Business Man of the Revolutionary Era: Nathaniel Littleton Savage and His Account Book". Journal of Economic and Business History. 3: 407.
- ^ JSTOR 2192093.
- ^ Ames, Susie (1961). "Federal Policy Toward the Eastern Shore of Virginia in 1861"". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 69: 432–459.
- ^ Breen, T.H.; Innes, Stephen (1980). "Myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxvi.