Edna Virginia Moffett

Moffett was born in Richmond, Virginia,^[1] the daughter of John Guthrie Moffett and Virginia Ellen Austin Moffett.^[2] Her father, a Confederate States Army veteran of the American Civil War, died in 1884. She graduated from Vassar College in 1897, with Lucy Maynard Salmon as her mentor.^[3][4] She earned a master's degree in 1901,^[5] and a Ph.D. in 1907,^[6] both from Cornell University,^[7] where she held a President White Fellowship.^[4][8] Her master's thesis was titled "François Baudouin, an early advocate of tolerance."^[9] She pursued further studies in France and Germany, at the University of Besancon in 1905 and 1906, and at the University of Heidelberg from 1912 to 1913.^[3]

Moffett taught at Virginia Normal College from 1897 to 1900.^[1] She was a history professor at Wellesley College from 1902 until she retired with emerita status in 1938.^[10][11] She created a new course in medieval history,^[3] and chaired the history department at Wellesley.^[12] She took summer research trips to England, Spain, and France during her career.^[3] She contributed articles to the Dictionary of American Biography,^[13] and was director of the Virginia chapter of Association of Collegiate Alumnae.^[14]

Moffett moved back to Richmond when she retired.^[3] She spoke at a Kappa Delta Pi banquet in 1939.^[13] In 1941, she taught an adult study course in church history at a Presbyterian church in Richmond.^[15] In 1948, Wellesley College began an institute on medieval history, and honored Moffett at the launch of the program.^[16]

• A Grant of Spanish Mining Rights in 1521 (1927)^[17]
• A Lost Diploma of Otto III (1931)^[18]
• "The Diary of a Private on the First Expedition to Crown Point" (1932)^[19]
• "A Bulla of Otto III in America" (1934)^[20]
• "Wellesley North and South" (1948)^[21]

Moffett was under a conservatorship for several years^[22] before she died in 1962, at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts,^[23] at the age of 92.^[24] Wellesley's Edna V. Moffett Fellowship supports graduate students in history.^[25]