[6] An entry for Allyn in the 1905 Mount Holyoke yearbook reads:To grind Harriett is to "pursue things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme".

As an idol of the stage, Harriett is well known, Whether she is Jenkins the butler, John Perrybingle, or Captain Absolute, all lose their hearts to her—even members of the faculty succumb.

[4] In Canton, she also acted as director of the Chan Kwang School, and chairman of the China division of the administrative committee of the Young Women's Christian Association National Board.

[4] In 1928, she was offered the post of academic dean at Mount Holyoke College, accepting on the condition that an anthropology course be established.

[4] Allyn took a year's leave before taking up the position, studying at the Smithsonian, and as a fellow at Yale,[6] under anthropologist George Grant MacCurdy.

[4] In 1929, she joined British archeologist Dorothy Garrod's excavation team at Mount Carmel[4] as a representative of the American School of Prehistoric Research with Dr. Martha Hackett.

[3] In 1936, Allyn was the only US woman delegate to meetings of the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences in Oslo, Norway, selected by the State Department.