Papers of Bernice Brown Cronkhite, 1915-1970

Bernice Veazey Brown was born on July 23, 1893, in Calais, Maine. She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, attending the Peace Street School and Classical High School. After teaching for one year, she entered Radcliffe in 1912 and received her B.A. in 1916, her M.A. in 1918, and her Ph.D. in 1920, specializing in government and international law. In 1915 and again in 1916 she won the Baldwin Prize for essays on subjects pertaining to municipal government. From 1918 to 1920 she held a Carnegie Endowment International Law Fellowship, the first year at Yale and the second at Harvard. For the academic year 1920-1921, Miss Brown was awarded a fellowship by the Commission for Relief in Belgium for advanced study in Brussels. She also visited several other European countries, as well as the League of Nations, and used what she learned in reports and speeches, some included in this collection.

Upon her return to the United States, she was active in the School of Citizenship and Politics at Radcliffe. She became director of the Training School for Public Service, which was organized by the Women's Municipal League in October 1921 to train women for civil service posts newly open to them. Miss Brown was appointed Dean of Radcliffe College in 1923, when Ada Comstock became President. In 1934 she became Dean of the Radcliffe Graduate School, a post she held until 1959. She was also Vice-President of Radcliffe from 1923 to 1960.

On July 21, 1933, Bernice Veazey Brown married Leonard Wolsey Cronkhite.

As Graduate Dean, Mrs. Cronkhite worked hard to improve the status of women graduate students at Radcliffe. A major project was to provide a place where graduate women and visiting scholars could live and share the hours not spent in lectures and laboratories. Ground was broken in 1955, and the Graduate Center was opened in the fall of 1956. The refectory, Bernice Brown Cronkhite Hall, was opened in 1960.

In 1953, Mrs. Cronkhite was elected a trustee of Barnard College. She edited the Handbook for College Teachers (1950) and was co-author of Graduate Education for Women (1956). As a member of the U.S. Board of Foreign Scholarships, she went on a world tour in 1957, visiting Radcliffe alumnae and reporting on educational exchange programs in thirteen countries. In 1962 and 1963, she served on the Advisory Committee for the Mundelein College self-study project. She has been trustee of several schools and foundations and an active member of various professional and other organizations, as well as an elector for the Hall of Fame. She holds honorary degrees from Wheaton College, Brown University, Keuka College, Mundelein College, and Acadia University. Mrs. Cronkhite died in 1983.