Celebrating Margaret Trumbull Corwin

Margaret Trumbull Corwin was a highly accomplished woman. She attended Bryn Mawr College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912, with a major in French and a minor in German. Corwin served for fifteen years as executive secretary at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. While in this position, she wrote a book on early Yale women graduates, Alumnae, Graduate School, Yale University, 1894–1920. Her book, written for the twenty-sixth anniversary and reunion of Yale’s first women graduates, celebrates their accomplishments. The book serves today as an important stepping stone in researching Yale women.

Corwin working at Yale University Press,  circa 1913–1918

Corwin while dean of Rutgers University's New Jersey College for Women in June 1955.

While working for Yale University Press following her Bryn Mawr graduation, Corwin took a leave of absence in 1916 to work as an executive secretary at the Connecticut Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense in Hartford. She traveled to France with the YMCA in 1919 and was stationed at the American Expeditionary Forces University. She was also actively involved with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the International Federation of University Women (IFUW).

Corwin was appointed dean of Rutgers University's New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass Residential College) in 1934, a position she held until her retirement in 1955. Her deanship, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of  Douglass College, were recognized by the awarding of an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Rutgers University in 1943.

Eleanor Roosevelt (left) with Corwin during her visit to the New Jersey College for Women, circa 1940s.

Corwin's entry in the program for the 50th reunion of the Bryn Mawr College Class of 1912, 1962.

Corwin was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University in 1934 and an honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Beaver College in 1947. Her contributions were valued and heavily influenced women’s education. Corwin’s entry in the 50th reunion program for the Bryn Mawr College Class of 1912, seen on the right, highlights some of these contributions and the world-travel opportunities she was awarded by her positions and organization invovlement.

Her obituary appeared in the New York Times, as well as in the Rutgers University newspaper The Daily Targum.