Frances Webster

When the Iowa State Normal School formed in 1876, Frances Webster became the first female professor and the final member to join the faculty in the first year teaching in the building. While here for only two years, Webster contributed substantially to the foundation of the institution.

A recollection of her writing during the opening of the Iowa State Normal School was featured in “The Alumnus,” “I look back upon the work of the following two years as the hardest part of my ten years of teaching. We were pioneers breaking men and women who were students at that time of whom I have carried bright memories through all the succeeding years.”

Frances Webster was educated in New York before moving to Iowa and teaching geography and history at the Iowa State Normal School. 

“She brought new teaching methods that were very different from the read, memorize and recite methods practiced at the time,” a 2003 issue of “The Northern Iowan” said. “She was also the founding force in the first women's literary society on campus, the Alpha Society.”

With a salary of $800 a year, Webster formed the First Women’s Literary Society and the Alpha Society in 1877. She described herself as the mother of the Alpha Society, as this was the first Society of the Iowa State Normal School where she spent her time assisting girls within the organization. 

David Sands Wright, a member of the first faculty, described Webster as a “lady of fine presence and winning matter. Though younger in years than many of her pupils, she soon established herself in their hearts as a favorite instructor.”