In celebration of Women\u2019s History Month, Pittsburgh Seminary remembers its first female graduate, Dr. Lee Anna Starr (1853-1937). Dr. Starr graduated in 1893 from the Allegheny Theological School, an antecedent institution of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She was ordained in the Methodist Protestant Church in 1895 and became an accomplished pastor, a leader in the Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Union, a biblical scholar, and an author.<\/p>\n
According to Lyman Edwin Davis, Dr. Starr served \u201cwith notable efficiency in the pastoral office\u201d at College Church (Adrian, Mich.) and Avalon Park Church (Chicago, Ill.). She also made a name for herself as a lecturer in favor of temperance, even being imprisoned for her role in the movement in 1873-74.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnna Starr was a Greek scholar interested in the place of women in history, both in Old Testament times, and the Christian era,\u201d Arthur K. White wrote. \u201cShe believed that Christian women were being denied their rightful privileges in the church because of a misunderstanding of scriptural injunctions seemingly directed against her liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n