Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the graduation of Elizabeth Gambrill Hook, the first woman to take all of her classes on campus and receive a four-year degree from the University of Maryland. Two women, Charlotte Vaux and Grace Bruce Holmes, had graduated earlier, Vaux with a two-year degree in agriculture in 1918 and Holmes finishing her four-year, bachelor of science degree in 1919 after transferring to UMD, but Hook deserves special recognition.
Elizabeth Hook matriculated at the Maryland State College of Agriculture, as the University of Maryland was then known, on September 14, 1916, indicating that she planned to pursue a career in “experimental work.” You can find more information about her undergraduate days and her career following graduation in a recent Terrapin Tales.
Upon her graduation on June 16, 1920, with a degree in entomology, she became a teacher. She married Franklin Day, who later became the superintendent of schools for Kent County, Maryland, in August 1921, and was very active in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Centreville.
When Elizabeth Hook Day passed away in 1950 at the age of 54, Dean of Women Adele Stamp prepared a brief obituary for the alumni magazine, recognizing her pioneering role at UMD. She included a quotation from the citation the co-eds presented to Mrs. Day at the 1937 May Day celebration when they honored her contribution to women’s education at Maryland:
“To Elizabeth Hook Day, the first woman graduate to enter the University from high school, and to spend four years on our campus we present this orchid, with grateful appreciation for opening the way for education of women. By her courage, friendliness, dignity, and ability she cleared the path for other women to follow. To her we pay honor and esteem, and time can never erase from our grateful memories the contribution she has made.”
Terrapin Tales 