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Margaret Taylor
Margaret Taylor was born October 19, 1901, in Cloquet, Minnesota. She graduated from Vassar College in 1923. (Her grandfather, James Munroe Taylor had been President of Vassar from 1896 to 1913.) Her M.A. and Ph.D. were from Yale. She taught high school Latin at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, the Day School in New Haven and in the high school in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and at Mt. Holyoke College. Barbara McCarthy whom she had known as a graduate student at Yale encouraged her to come to Wellesley to serve as a substitute in the Greek Department for the 1934-35 academic year. Miss Taylor joined the Latin Department in 1936. [Greek and Latin became a joint department in 1965.]
Margaret Taylor's research and publications centered around the intellectual history of the first century BC with an emphasis on primitivism and views of civilization as revealed in Lucretius and Virgil. Professor Mary Lefkowitz, in a memorial tribute, explained that "To Miss Taylor, Latin culture and literature had not died with the fall of Rome but rather had been transmuted in the works of later poets like Dante, or Milton, or Eliot. . . . She would often arrive in class with an armload of books, in several languages, to show how a phrase or idea had been recast by a later author, or to be sure that we understood precisely what specific monuments or landscapes looked like. Margaret Taylor was associated with the American Academy in Rome, often spending sabbaticals there. "Rome would be my headquarters," she said. "The library of the American Academy is excellent for my research, trips to classical sites, normally part of the program at the Academy, the contacts there, and the inexhaustible interest of Rome itself combine to make it for me almost the inevitable choice."
Margaret Taylor was named Helen J. Sanborn Professor in 1963. She retired from Wellesley in 1967. When Wellesley prepared to celebrate the centennial of its opening, a number of retired faculty collaborated on writing the history of the College. Margaret Taylor wrote the chapter on the founders and early presidents for Wellesley College, 1875-1975: A Century of Women. Margaret Taylor died in 1982. Written by Wilma Slaight
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Her
nominator stated that Margaret Taylor "was -- hands down -- the
best teacher I had at Wellesley (or anywhere). She taught a survey
course called "Interpretations of Man in Western Literature which
I took in 1952-53. At that time Miss Taylor was not a young woman.
However, her vigor and ability to connect with all students was
always evident. In spite of the antiquated title of the course,
as well as its focus on the western canon, both of which reflect
their era, Miss Taylor guided me and hundreds of other students
through the process of intellectual maturing. In bringing literature,
starting with Homer, to life, she taught us how to benefit from
the cultural wealth that would always be available to us. For me,
she personified the benefits of a liberal arts education."
Miss
Taylor continued her commitment to teaching Latin in the schools,
serving for a number of years as a member of the committee on Latin
examinations for the College Entrance Examination Board. She remained
an active member of the 
Faculty
shows, a quadrennial production written and presented to students
by members of the faculty, often included a skit in which Margaret
Taylor stood on her head. She did so at the last faculty show in
1960.
