Mary A. Rolfe

Mary A. Rolfe, ca. 1900. (Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library)

Mary Annette Rolfe was born April 3, 1881, at Kankakee, Illinois. Her father, Charles W. Rolfe, was a professor and later head of the geology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana. The Rolfe family was actively involved in the YMCA and YWCA at the university.

In 1902 Mary Rolfe graduated from the University of Illinois-Urbana and went on to teach zoology at the university and then in area high schools. The 1910 US Census reports that Rolfe was a schoolteacher living with her parents and sisters in Champaign, Illinois. Rolfe earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University and received training in biblical work from Ganett Theological College.

Rolfe spent over a year in France near the close of World War I, leaving the United States on May 15, 1918. Her passport application indicated that she travelled to France as YWCA secretary to conduct “war work” and planned to stay indefinitely. She worked with the American Expeditionary Forces, YWCA, and Red Cross. While there, she worked with refugee children and the Signal Corps and supervised a nurses’ rest hut. She also worked in the home communication department for the Red Cross, attended surgeries, and, together with a team of stenographers, recorded the last letters of injured men to send home to their families after they died.

Upon return from France in 1919, Rolfe worked as a woman’s advisor at the University of Illinois YMCA. She also gave talks on her experiences in France. She briefly held a position as YWCA secretary at the University of Iowa.

Rolfe, then 40 years old, was hired as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park for summer 1921 when Isabel Bassett Wasson declined the position due to pregnancy. Rolfe was the second woman ranger hired at the park, but her position only lasted from June 13 to August 31. She earned $100 per month. Her responsibilities included giving three 30-minute lectures each day. She is mentioned by name in the 1921 National Park Service (NPS) director's annual report. No photos of her at Yellowstone have been found to date.

While at Yellowstone, Rolfe and other University of Illinois alumni formed the Yellowstone Park Illini Club. NPS assistant engineer D. R. Hull, normally stationed at Yosemite but at Yellowstone for the summer, served as club president while Rolfe was secretary-treasurer. The university alumni newsletter describes her as a “ranger and lecturer for the government on the geological history of the park.” The club had over a dozen regular members between park and concession staff and made numerous contacts with other alumni visiting the park.

Mary A. Rolfe, 1923. (Courtesy of Oregon State University)

Following her summer at Yellowstone, Rolfe became dean of women at Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), beginning in September 1921. By 1925 she was described as a “noted writer on architectural subjects.” She also continued to lecture about her experiences in France.

She returned to Illinois by 1927 but little else is known about her. The 1940 US Census records that she was living with her sister Martha Deette Rolfe in Champaign. Neither woman was working at that time but they both reported a source of income other than salary or wages.

Although Rolfe only worked for the NPS for a single season, her interest in national parks continued. She wrote "The National Park Movement," an article published in Journal of Education in 1928. She also published a two-volume set for children called Our National Parks. The books describe her as a “formerly government lecturer in geology at Yellowstone National Park.”

Rolfe appears to have spent the rest of her life in Illinois. It seems she never married or had children. She died in 1974 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Urbana, Illinois.

Sources:

“Armstrong is Featured for Indian Motifs.” (1925, July 7). The Rock Island Argus.

Brockman, C. Frank. (1978). “Park Naturalists and the Evolution of National Park Service Interpretation through World War II.” Journal of Forest History, pp. 24-43.

Department of the Interior. (1921). Report of the Director of the National Park Service Report to the Secretary of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1921. Government Printing Office.

“Mary A. Rolfe is Dean of Women.” (1921, September). O.A.C. Alumnus, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 3.

“O.A.C. Secures Miss Rolfe as Dean of Women.” (1921, September 11). The Oregon Daily Journal.

Smith, Diane Marie. (2004). “What One Knows One Loves Best”: A Brief Administrative History of Science Education in the National Parks, 1916-1925. Master’s thesis, Montana State University.

University of Illinois Alumni Association. (1918, October). “Military Illinae.” (1921, October). Alumni Quarterly and Fortnightly Notes, p. 32.University of Illinois Alumni Association.

University of Illinois Archives. (n.d.). Rolfe Family Papers. Accessed at https://archon.library.illinois.edu/?p=collections/controlcard&id=4694.

U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. (2014). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.

U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. (2012). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

“Woman Advisors for Students.” (1919, October 18). Champaign Daily Gazette.

"Yellowstone Park.” Alumni Quarterly and Fortnightly Notes, p. 25.

Explore More!

To learn more about women and the NPS Uniform, visit Dressing the Part: A Portfolio of Women’s History in the NPS.


This research was made possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation.