After completing her studies at Pennington Seminary and Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy, she became a teacher and preceptress at Lawrence College, before receiving a Master of Arts degree from that institution in 1876.

Her main works included Nineteenth Century Authors of Great Britain and the United States, Study of the English Language, and Via Christi.

[2] In 1876, she was elected professor of English literature in Wellesley College, with leave of absence abroad for study, returning to her position in the following year.

At a meeting held at the close of the conference, a representative committee was appointed, and was given discretionary power to arrange the course of study and provide the method to pursue it.

Though but a little US$0.50 volume, it would be hard to find in any book three times its size an equal number of prayers, hymns, and striking appeals, written by the great historic representatives of the missionary spirit themselves."

One of the most attractive features of the volume is the set of selections from the period under review at the close of each chapter and the effectively arranged chronological tables."

The New York Tribune also reviewed the book, stating, Via Christi gives a bird's-eye view of the missionary efforts of the world from the time of Paul to the nineteenth century.

Contemporaneous events in the secular world are mentioned, with names of prominent people and places of the period, giving a perspective as satisfying as it is unusual.

"[1] She urged that a more prominent place should be given to missionary magazines in the family, and among the standard periodicals of the day; that they should be seen on the news stands, and on home tables, and that there should be earnest personal effort to increase their circulation.