Alice Upton Pearmain

Alice Whittemore Upton Pearmain was born in East Jaffrey, July 5, 1863, daughter of Peter and Sarah Miller (Duncan) Upton. She was graduated at Wellesley College, B.A., 1883; M.A., 1890. On June 3,1886, she married Sumner Bass Pearmain of Boston. Active in educational and social work, she has served as president of the Boston Branch Association Collegiate Alumnae, 1894-1896; vice president, 1899-1901; president of the College Club, Boston, 1896-1898 and 1906-1907; chairman of House Committee, 1905-14; president of Boston Students Union, 1909-1912; secretary of Women's Municipal League of Boston, 1910-1915; and editor of its monthly bulletin. She was listed as a suffragist in Albert Nelson Marquis's "Who's who in New England" (1909).

She was president of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association and of the organizations connected with the college. In the World War period she was appointed chairman, Department of Education of the Massachusetts Council of National Defense in 1917.She was a member of the folllowing clubs: Chilton, College, Woman's City, Twentieth Century, and the Lyceum Club of London.

Alice was the mother of four children, William Robert, born March 17, 1888; Edward Paget, born May 23, 1889; John D., born March 12, 1891; and Margaret, born February 24, 1893.

Her oldest son, William Robert, was an activist, artist, and pupil of George de Forest Brush. William's papers, and many relating to the Pearmain family, are available online in the Archives of American Art.

Sources

Harvard College . Class, o. (1908). Records of the class, 1883-1908, s.n. (Retrieved on March 10, 2013)