author
Henry M. (Henry Miller) Pierce
1831–1902
Best remembered for an 1867 commencement address at Rutgers Female College, this 19th-century writer spoke warmly and forcefully about the value of women’s education. His surviving work offers a small but revealing window into debates about learning, equality, and social progress in his era.
1 Audiobook
Address to the First Graduating Class of Rutgers Female College
by Henry M. (Henry Miller) Pierce
About the author
A minister and educator active in the 19th century, Henry M. Pierce is most clearly documented today through Address to the First Graduating Class of Rutgers Female College, delivered in New York on June 2, 1867. The published text identifies him as LL.D. and president of the college, placing him at the center of a notable moment in the history of women’s higher education.
That address is the main reason his name still circulates in digital libraries. In it, he argues seriously for women’s intellectual development and treats education as a matter of character, duty, and equal human worth. Even in a brief surviving work, he comes across as a speaker interested in both moral conviction and public progress.
Biographical details beyond that are limited in the sources readily available online, but library records and memorial listings place his lifespan from 1831 to 1902. For modern readers, his importance lies less in a large body of books than in this one preserved speech, which captures an important cultural turning point and the voice of a man willing to champion women’s learning in public.