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Nellie Neilson | |
|---|---|
 Nellie Neilson, from the 1924 Mount Holyoke College yearbook | |
| Born | (1873-04-05)April 5, 1873 |
| Died | May 26, 1947(1947-05-26) (aged 74) |
| Nationality | American |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College |
| Thesis | Economic Conditions on the Manors of Ramsey Abbey (1899) |
| Academic advisors | Charles McLean Andrews Frederic William Maitland Paul Vinogradoff |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Sub-discipline | Rural Medieval England |
| Institutions | Mount Holyoke College |
Nellie Neilson (April 5, 1873 – May 26, 1947) was an Americanhistorian. She was the first female president of the American Historical Association and the first woman to have an article published in theAmerican Historical Review.[1]
Neilson was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania to William George Neilson (a metallurgical engineer) and Mary Louise Neilson. She attendedBryn Mawr College, from which she received anA.B. in 1893, anA.M. in 1894, and aPh.D. in 1899. She studied underCharles McLean Andrews at Bryn Mawr, and spent a year of her Ph.D. studies inEngland, where she studied underFrederic Maitland andPaul Vinogradoff. Neilson would later credit Andrews with encouraging her to study history rather than English literature.
She taught atAgnes Irwin School in Philadelphia from 1897 to 1900, and lectured at Bryn Mawr from 1900 to 1902. In 1902 she moved toMount Holyoke College as an instructor in history, and in 1904 was appointed professor of European history there. She rose to the rank of full professor in 1905, and stayed in that position until retiring from teaching in 1939. Neilson graduated from Bryn Mawr – and later worked at Holyoke – with fellow medievalistBertha Putnam.
In 1926 she was elected a fellow of theMedieval Academy of America, the first woman so elected; and in 1943 she served as the president of theAmerican Historical Association, the first woman to do so.
She died in 1947 inSouth Hadley, Massachusetts. She is interred atWest Laurel Hill Cemetery inBala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
Neilson's first major work was her doctoral dissertation,Economic Conditions on the Manors of Ramsey Abbey, in which she investigated the economic affairs of the lands held byRamsey Abbey in the Middle Ages. She continued to be primarily concerned with the development of rural medieval England thereafter. She edited three surveys of the lands owned by English monasteries, focusing particularly on the economic and social conditions surrounding them. In addition, she wrote some volumes for nonspecialists and some works on medieval legal systems.
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