CHANNING, Eva. Boston 17.5.1854 — Tryon, Polk County, North Carolina 23.3.1930. U.S. Suffragist, Student of Indology. Born in a wealthy Boston family, daughter of William Francis Channing and Susan Elizabeth Burdick. Studied at Boston University, graduated 1877. Then studied in Paris and Leipzig (with special permission) until 1882. Probably became a teacher in Boston. She was the first female member of both the American Oriental Society and the American Philological Association and acquainted with Whitney. She is described as a free spirit, adventurous and outspoken. Probably she was that “Eva Ch. of Boston, who visited California in summer 1908 [and] was a firm believer in national parks” (Merchant).

Publications: M.A. thesis Myth-Genesis explained by Comparative Mythology. Manuscript 1877.

– “On Negative Clauses in the Rigveda”, JAOS 13, 1889, PAOS for 1886, xcix-cii.

– Translated: Delbrück, Introduction to the Study of Language. 14+142 p. Lp. 1882 (with her preface, x-xii); Pestalozzi, Leonard and Gertrude. 10+181 p. Boston 1885.

– Review of Delbrück’s Einleitung. AJPh 5, 1884, 251f.

Sources: Works in the N.U.C.; S.G. Alter, William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language. Baltimore 2005, 312, note 68; C. Merchant, Earthcare. Women and the Environment. L. 1996, 133; S.L. Singer, Adventure Abroad. North American Women at German-Speaking Universities, 1868–1915. L. 2003, 56f.