Caroline Haven Ober papers, 1885-1929

Caroline Haven Ober was born in 1866 in Beverly, Massachusetts. Ober went to Wheaton Seminary before receiving her degree from the Massachusetts Normal School in 1884. After graduation, Ober began an extensive teaching career at many institutions such as Wheaton Seminary (1884-1886), a public school of Palisade, Nevada (1886-1887), instructor of Modern Languages at Bozeman Academy (1887-1888), and Regent and Vice-Director of the Argentine Normal School in Buenos Aires (1889-1893). When Ober returned to the United States from Argentina, she taught at the Trinidad High School in Colorado (1894-1895) and then a San Diego High School (1896-1897) before accepting a teaching position at the University of Washington in 1897.

At UW, Ober taught Romance Languages at UW from 1897-1903 until she created and was the head of the Department of Romance Languages and Literature. Within the Department of Romance Languages and Literature Ober continued to teach Spanish from 1903-1924. Aside from teaching, Professor Ober became interested in the Far East and in assisting foreign students. She made eight trips to China and Japan, the first being at the request of Seattle’s Chinese community to investigate China’s educational system. Ober was accused by the United States Immigration office of smuggling Chinese citizens into the US by registering them as students to obtain quick visas. Controversy aside, Ober did play a big part in assisting many Chinese students to study at UW, sometimes escaping violence or uprisings. Professor Ober found herself in one of those very rebellions when she was touring a school in Canton (Guangzhou) as the school grounds were shook by nearby bombing. For her efforts, she was invited to join the China Club of Seattle in 1918.

Outside of her career, Ober maintained multiple pen pals all around the world and collected the stamps. Caroline Haven Ober passed away in 1929 in Seattle.