"The Four-Fold Line of Mathers" +One: Hannah Mather Crocker in Words, Deeds, and the Archival Record

Richard, Increase, Cotton, Samuel, and Hannah. The last of Samuel Mather's children, Hannah, born in 1752, lived in the shadow of her Mather forebears. An advocate for women's intellectual equality, she established a women-only Masonic-equivalent lodge in post-Revolutionary Boston, raised a large family, and authored several treatises published after the death of her husband, Capt. Joseph Crocker.

Her many pseudonyms attest to her varied interests and priorities; these include: Prudencia, Increase Mather Jr. of the Inner Temple, and H. Mather Crocker. This talk will explore Hannah's life with particular attention to her investment in her paternal male line's place in history . . . and her own.

Make plans now to join us for our third annual Cotton Mather Lecture, presented by Dr. Alea Henle and sponsored by New England’s Hidden Histories, a digital project of the Congregational Library & Archives.

Email any questions to programs@14beacon.org.

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Alea Henle is a librarian and historian who serves as Head of Access and Borrow and Associate Librarian at Miami University (Ohio). She has presented on historical and library topics for numerous organizations and currently serves as Chair of the American Library Association's Library History Round Table. The talk draws in part from research for her book, Rescued from Oblivion: Historical Cultures in the Early United States (UMass Press, 2020).