Jessie Thatcher Bost Collection - Edmon Low Library

About the Collection

The Jessie Thatcher Bost Collection highlights the life and legacy of the first woman to graduate from Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (OAMC). Jessie Thatcher enrolled when the college opened in 1891 and earned her degree in 1897 as a member of its second graduating class. She later became the first female president of the Alumni Association and spent many years teaching in Oklahoma public schools, pausing only to raise her four children. Upon her retirement in 1946, President Henry G. Bennett honored her as "Oklahoma's first woman of education."

A strong advocate for the power of learning, she expressed her belief in the promise of education in her 1897 commencement address, "Dawning of the Twentieth Century," and throughout her teaching career in Stillwater, western Oklahoma, and the Cleveland schools. Her essays often explored women's roles, civic responsibility, and equal opportunity. Her son Armon Bost later recalled her outspoken support for women's suffrage and her determination to expand opportunities for women in public life.

The collection includes essays, class notebooks, photographs, and early OAMC memorabilia. These materials offer rare insight into student experiences during the college's earliest years, including coeducational coursework in agriculture, chemistry, and farm work. As some of the few surviving student materials from this period, the collection provides a valuable record of women's contributions to OAMC and the early development of higher education in Oklahoma.

Access the Physical Collection

Materials from this collection are available in Special Collections and University Archives. For assistance or to request archival materials, contact (405) 744-6311 or libscua@okstate.edu.