In vino veritas
Eva could not have chosen a worse time to be caught “drinking wine.” The SGA was turning her transgression into a case to be prosecuted. Apart from Eva’s mother and (probably) Mamie Gwinn, who were the other guests at the dinner party she held that night? Who stayed in her rooms afterward?
In Upward Panic, a book of reminiscences she never published, Eva described Mamie Gwinn (now Mrs. Alfred Hodder) with the greatest admiration: “Among these learned people I was an outsider, but Mrs. Hodder used to allow me to listen in, and her own charm and wit created a sort of higher heaven of attainment which made Bryn Mawr remarkable.”[1]
Late in life, did Eva still harbor feelings for the former Miss Gwinn? Eva also remembered the beautiful, brilliant Lucy Martin Donnelly, whom she had known since her freshman year: “Near her one finds again the virtues we so ardently cultivated... only grown, blossomed, perfected; justifying attainments which have passed, and also our own enthusiasm of long ago. ... Lucy Donnelly is all this, but she is more: because she is not dated. In the world of today she is as easily at home as the youngest; only she makes them seem old-fashioned and dull.”[2]
How did Eva react when she realized that the SGA was using alcohol as a cover for the crime they really suspected her of: the Seven Sisters variety of the love that dared not speak its name?[3] Their suspicions were correct. The culprit was a faculty member, but not Miss Gwinn. Eva Palmer had been sleeping with Miss Donnelly.
We do not know when their affair began. Eva’s later writings suggest that it was a serious romance—serious enough that Eva considered tying herself to Bryn Mawr “for the rest of [her] life.”[4] When Eva arrived on campus in the fall of 1896, Lucy was already an instructor. She had received her bachelor’s in Greek and Latin from Bryn Mawr in 1893 and had continued her studies in Greek and English at Oxford, Leipzig, and Paris.[5] In the 1896 and 1897 college programs, she is listed as a “Reader in English.”[6] By all accounts, she was a popular instructor.[7]
On April 15, 1898 (the semester after the Incident), Lucy was abruptly suspended, without pay, from her teaching position.[8] The suspension was entered into the Trustee minutes without comment. In the documents we examined, we found no other instance where any leave of absence or pay change was recorded without an explanation. The lack of one suggests that something was amiss.
Suspension without pay was a major blow. Lucy’s career and public reputation as a scholar depended on her employment at Bryn Mawr. Without an official cause for her sudden departure, her teaching prospects would be ruined. What message would Lucy’s sacking have sent to the Bryn Mawr student body, especially the career-minded members of the SGA? Is this really what the SGA has wanted?
Fortunately, Lucy had the means to pivot. Her father, a patent lawyer, could well afford her expenses.[9] But Lucy may not have had the right social network to maneuver effectively. Well aware of the campus politics involving her immediate supervisor (her friend Mamie Gwinn), Lucy waited it out.
Lucy’s misconduct with Eva might have been her downfall if it had not been eclipsed by ensuing scandals that year—Thomas’s misconduct with Garrett and Gwinn’s with Hodder. Did Gwinn, at her breaking point, eventually threaten to leave both Thomas and the college? Gwinn’s departure would have decimated the English Department, one of Bryn Mawr’s crown jewels.
Thomas must have been persuaded that the English Department needed Lucy Donnelly for continuity’s sake. Lucy was back by the fall of 1899, listed again as a reader in English.[10] A year later, Lucy may have still worried that her position was precarious. One detail stands out. Helen Thomas’s health had sharply declined. But in the summer of 1901, Helen traveled to England with Lucy Donnelly, most likely so that Helen could introduce Lucy to prospective employers abroad. Helen, who had been chafing under her older sister’s rule, grew so ill during this period that she spent much of their trip in bed. All this suggests that Helen was going above and beyond in order to help Lucy stabilize her career.
The strategy worked. In 1902, Lucy and Helen both demanded a raise. In 1903, when the spring semester ended, Lucy was granted a new three-year contract, with an annual salary increase of $100.[11] Helen left teaching to marry. In 1904, Gwinn left Thomas, her friends, and Bryn Mawr behind.
Eva, for her part, became collateral damage. It was her celebrity status, in the end, that had painted a target on her back.
Notes
[1] Palmer, Upward Panic, 25.
[2] Palmer, Upward Panic, 25–26.
[3] Ever since Oscar Wilde faced trail for gross indecency in 1895, the phrase has referred to homosexuality. It originates in the final line of Two Loves, a poem written by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, and published in the Oxford Chameleon in 1894.
[4] Palmer, Upward Panic, 27.
[5] Bryn Mawr College Program 1895 (Philadelphia: Sherman, 1895), 41, https://archive.org/details/brynmawrprogram1899bryn/page/n45/. See also Lucy Martin Donnelly, student record, Bryn Mawr College Archives.
[6] Bryn Mawr College Program 1896, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Ferris, 1896), 9, https://archive.org/details/brynmawrprogram1899bryn/page/n271/mode/2up?view=theater; Bryn Mawr College Program 1897 (Philadelphia: Sherman, 1897), 11, https://archive.org/details/brynmawrprogram1899bryn/page/n399/mode/2up?view=theater.
[7] Lucy Donnelly’s retirement book (held in the Bryn Mawr College Archives) contains glowing tributes from former students.
[8] Bryn Mawr Trustee Minutes, 69.
[9] John J. Stephens, The Donnelly Family (1939), no. 133, https://archive.org/details/donnellyfamilyjo00step/page/n3/mode/2up.
[10] Bryn Mawr College Program: Academic Year 1899–1900 (Philadelphia: Sherman, 1899), 11, https://archive.org/details/brynmawrprogram1902bryn/page/n19/mode/2up?g=1900-01.
[11] Bryn Mawr Trustee Minutes, 81.