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Born on December 11, 1876 in Moorhead, Minnesota, Ada Comstock was the eldest of three children; she was bright, vivacious, and very much a tomboy in her early childhood. Her father, a successful lawyer, recognized her capabilities and potential and set about to cultivate them by encouraging an early and sound education for his daughter.
Ada completed her high school education at the age of fifteen and then went on to college. In 1895 she transferred from the University of Minnesota to Smith College, where she completed her last two years of undergraduate study. As a Smith student, Ada often questioned the established rules and norms of college life. While a resident of Hubbard House, she was given a case of champagne which the housemother felt should be given away. Instead, in what was characteristically her spirit, she decided to store it in the water cooler to refresh her friends!
After graduating from Smith in 1897, Ada went on to a graduate program at Moorhead State Normal School where she became certified to teach. She then entered Columbia University for graduate work in English, History, and Education, and by 1899 was ready to return home to look for a job. In 1907, after teaching rhetoric at the University of Minnesota, she was appointed the University's first Dean of Women. In this capacity, she was instrumental in improving the quality of life for the women of the college, arguing persistently that a college was responsible for one's physical and intellectual well-being.
In 1912, Ada came to Smith as the first ever Dean of the College and to teach English. Particularly challenging to her was the opportunity to advise and teach young women in an all-female institution. One of the most important tenets of her educational philosophy was the inculcation in young women of self-respect, one aspect of which was knowing how to employ oneself. Ada believed very strongly throughout her entire life that a college education should inspire women to take a part in the shaping of the world.
In 1917, when the Presidency of Smith College became vacant, Ada was given the responsibility of its operation for approximately 6 months, but was neither given the title of acting President nor was she considered for the position. Despite Ada's significant and numerous contributions to the College, Smith was not ready for its first woman President.
Ada was an early member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, later called the American Association of University Women which she served as president. She was a founding member and one of the five American voting delegates to the first conference of the International Federation of University Women in London in 1920 and at the second in Paris in 1922. One of their objects was the forwarding of higher education for women in every country in the world. She was active in other areas in public life as well. In 1929 she was the only woman named by President Herbert Hoover to an eleven-person commission to study problems of law enforcement. She was a president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vice Chairman of the American Council of Institute of Pacific Relations and served on the National Committee for Planned Parenthood.
The chance to become the President of a women's college presented itself to Ada in 1923 when Radcliffe offered her the position of their first full-time President. Throughout most of her administration, Ada Comstock struggled with trying to maintain a balance between Radcliffe's association with Harvard and its establishment as an independent women's college. Under President Comstock, Radcliffe was able to launch a nationwide admission program, improve student housing, construct new classroom buildings and expand the graduate program. In short, Radcliffe's permanence was assured. In 1943, Ada felt her work at Radcliffe was complete. She had brought the institution to distinction and maturity, and it was now time to move on.
Her honors were numerous, fourteen honorary degrees were conferred on her, including Smith's L. H. D. in 1922. Each of the three institutions she had served, the University of Minnesota and Smith and Radcliffe Colleges have residence halls named for her.
At the age of sixty-seven, she stepped down from the Presidency and shortly after announced her marriage to Wallace Notestein, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University, a man she had known since her days at the University of Minnesota. Retirement for Ada was an extremely busy period in her life. She continued to be actively involved with the Board of Trustees of Smith College, worked on plans for the graduate center at Radcliffe, did extensive educational committee work, administered a two-career household, and traveled extensively with her husband. Mrs. Notestein died in December of 1973.
[Some of this information was taken from the Ada Comstock Scholars Program's History of Ada Comstock at
The Ada Louise Comstock Papers contain biographical materials, correspondence, employment histories, speeches and writings, information on her voluntary services and photographs that span Comstock's life and career as Dean of Smith College, President of Radcliffe College and retirement.
This collection is organized into five series:
The collection is open to research according to the regulations of the Smith College Archives.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the papers must be requested from the Archives. The Archives has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Ada Louise Comstock Papers, Box #, Smith College Archives.
Processed by Gayla B. Spaulding.
This section of the collection contains an index to the collection, awards and degrees, information on Ada's marriage, memorabilia and obituaries.
This section of the collection consists of correspondence, both professional and personal with several letters to and from Ada's closest friend, Mabel Dick Swan.
This section contains folders housing information pertaining to much of Ada's work, both professional and voluntary dating from 1912 to 1969.
The collection contains five folders of photographs dated from 1897 through 1967 with a few undated photos.
This section of the collections is further divided into three smaller sections - speeches, writings and publications including two large bound collections of speeches and writings.