Minerva dunham
Portrait of Minerva Harrison Dunham

Minerva Harrison Dunham

Other Name:
Minerva Warner Harrison; Minerva Harrison
Gender:
Female
Born:
February 10, 1821
Died:
July 6, 1851
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Brooklyn, NY
NJ
Marriage(s):
Edward Dunham (January 27, 1848)
Biographical Notes:
Minvera Harrison Dunham, daughter of Elihu and Miranda Warner Harrison of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born February 10, 1821. Her father, Elihu, had been born in the South Farms section of Litchfield in 1797, and passed away in Stamford, Connecticut in 1855. He was active in local and state government, as well as many organizations around town. During the course of his life he served as Town Clerk, State Representative, Justice of the Peace, Secretary of the Litchfield Female Academy, and Director of both the Phoenix Branch Bank and the Litchfield Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

In 1832 Minerva attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in her hometown of Litchfield. The school had been established in 1797, and was a pioneering institution of Female Education in America. The innovative ...
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Education
Years at LFA:
1832
Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
1832 Litchfield Female Academy Summer Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
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