In 2021, I authored the following biography as a processing assistant at the University of Chicago’s Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. This biography is published as part of the Guide to the Edith Foster Flint Papers 1871-1964. While my contribution remains uncredited and the copyright is held by the University of Chicago Library, I am sharing this text in my blog series, UChicago Archives, with the hope of avoiding any institutional repercussions.

Edith Burnham Foster was born on May 13, 1873 in Chicago as the second daughter of Dr. Richard Norman Foster and Annie Halsted Foster. Her father, Richard Norman Foster, was an obstetrician. Her older sister, Marion Foster Washburne (d. 1944) was a magazine editor and author of several books.

After attending the Brown Grammar School and the West Division High School, Edith Foster entered the University of Chicago’s second class, graduating with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1897. Following her graduation, she became an Assistant in English at the University. From 1898-1900, she was promoted as Associate.

In 1899, she married Nott William Flint (1869-1906), an alumnus of the University (1898) and a faculty member of the English Department (1902-1906). Their two sons, Richard and Halsted, were born in 1902 and 1904, respectively. On February 22, 1906, Nott William Flint died as a consequence of a brain tumor. Later, Halsted Flint died of diphtheria as a young child in 1911. Richard Foster Flint (d. 1976) graduated from the University of Chicago and taught geology at Yale University for several decades.

Edith Foster Flint on the University of Chicago Campus, 1911 ||| University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06115, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

First affiliated with the University’s Extension Department, Edith Foster Flint continued her teaching in the Department of English as Instructor of English. She became an Assistant Professor in 1909, an Associate Professor in 1914, and full Professor in 1923, a post she held until her retirement in 1938. From 1931 to 1938, she directed English Composition in the College. Among her students who would later gain fame are the novelist Elizabeth Madox Roberts (d. 1941), the poet George Dillon (d. 1968), the author John Gunther (d. 1970), and the poet and novelist Glenway Wescott (d. 1987). Many of her students became scholars of English and held faculty positions in universities and colleges across the United States.

Edith Foster Flint held several administrative positions at the University of Chicago. She was Head of Kelly Hall (1898-1900), Dean in the College of Arts, Literature and Science (1918-1926), the Chairperson of Women’s University Council (1925-1932), and elected twice President of the Chicago chapter of the American Association of University Women (ca. 1929).

Women’s University Council, which Edith Foster Flint presided over from 1925-1932, had replaced the former office of Dean of Women in order to meet the needs of the growing number of the University’s women students. The Council was composed of fifteen or more members from the women faculty.

Edith Foster Flint died in a car accident on February 22, 1948 in Santa Barbara, California, and was buried in Chicago’s Oakwood Cemetery. She was remembered as an excellent speaker and splendid teacher with a warm and rich personality. The breadth and extent of her reading, especially her knowledge and memory of verse, ancient through modern, impressed students and colleagues alike. In 1963, the east unit of the New Women’s Dormitory (also known as Woodward Court at 5828 Woodlawn Avenue) was named “Flint House” in honor of Edith Foster Flint. With the demolition of Woodward Court in 2002, the name “Flint House” was transferred to a section of Max Palevsky Residential Commons.