Ada Jane Harvey (1890–1980)

Ada Jane Harvey was the first world languages professor at Arkansas State Teachers College (ASTC), now the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), in Conway (Faulkner County) and was head of the Foreign Languages Department there for nearly four decades. She pioneered experiential language learning and internationalism in Arkansan higher education, particularly for women, in the early to mid-twentieth century.

Ada Jane Harvey was born on February 27, 1890, to Robert Harvey and Leah Carothers Harvey in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was raised alongside three brothers. Harvey earned a BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, in 1911, an MA from the University of Chicago in 1924, and a PhD from New York University in 1932; she completed additional coursework at the University of Paris (La Sorbonne), Institut de Phonétique (now ILPGA, also in Paris, France), the National University of Mexico, and the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru.

Harvey worked as a high school French and Spanish instructor in Santa Fe for three years and then as a high school principal in Lordsburg, New Mexico, for two years before moving to Arkansas to teach French and Spanish at Little Rock High School in fall 1912. In 1918, Harvey met fellow teacher Constance Mitchell, who taught high school English in Little Rock (Pulaski County) before joining ASTC’s faculty in 1919. Harvey and Mitchell became life partners. At Mitchell’s suggestion, Dr. Burr Walter Torreyson offered Harvey a position in 1921 to develop and teach ASTC’s first French and Spanish courses.

For $3,000, Harvey and Mitchell purchased a house together, located at 703 Donaghey Avenue, where they resided for over fifty years. They also owned and drove a car together, which they named Nicolette, as early as 1921.

Harvey taught French, Spanish, German, and Latin courses, and she served as sponsor for the French and Spanish clubs and Alpha Sigma Tau, the university’s sorority with the highest level of academic achievement. Examples of Harvey’s experiential curriculum include Le Camp Français; a reenactment of the Running of the Bulls; public musical, theater, and dance performances by students in French and Spanish; banquets with culturally authentic food; and interdisciplinary approaches to teaching for development of transnational intercultural competencies.

During the Great Depression, economic hardship made study abroad experiences inaccessible to most Arkansan students. Camp Français offered an immersive French summer camp in Arkansas instead, where women could receive course credit. The camp was held at the newly completed cabins at Petit Jean State Park in 1935. Former student and camp attendee Anna Loe Russell recalled that Harvey taught classes in the living room of her cabin and that students spoke French at all times—in class, on walks, while swimming, and during meals. Spanish Club members enjoyed experiential learning opportunities she facilitated as well, with the May 4, 1923, edition of The Normal Echo (now The Echo) describing one such event: “One of the cleverest and most entertaining stunts of the year was the Spanish Bull Fight…carried out in detail exactly as in Spain, except that only two bulls were killed while in Spain six are killed.”

Between 1930 and 1934, Harvey submitted handwritten designs, descriptions, and proposals for dozens of new courses, which became models of instruction for her colleagues. Harvey integrated popular culture in courses (such as Latin 430: Appreciation of Virgil and French 338: Nineteenth-Century French Realists), creating living learning communities beyond rote memorization and traditional lectures. Harvey accompanied French students on trips to New Orleans and Spanish students on visits to local Mexican restaurants. She designed and facilitated ASTC students’ first study abroad group trip, to Mexico City in 1944; while there, she recruited the university’s first known international students, who matriculated in 1945.

Harvey was an active participant in numerous professional, academic, and humanitarian organizations, including the Modern Languages Association, American Association of French Teachers, and Pan-American Student League. With her guidance, ASTC Spanish Club students voted to join the Pan American Union, for “the promotion of peace, commerce, and friendship between the republics of the American continent by fostering constructive cooperation among them,” in 1944. For the 1943–44 academic year, Harvey was elected president of the state chapter of PEO International (Philanthropic Educational Organization), a women’s association whose mission is to increase women’s access to educational opportunities through scholarships and enrichment programming. She hosted the state convention for the organization on ASTC’s campus in spring 1944, inviting female students to speak alongside experienced educators.

She was also highly active for decades in the Conway chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which works to advance academic pursuits for women. Harvey served as president at the state level in 1946, focusing on women’s civic engagement through voting drives and ballot machine audits, as well as book drives for schools in Korea. Harvey was honored for her contributions to Conway’s AAUW branch with a jointly named fellowship with Mitchell.

In support of Mitchell’s work as the university’s head librarian, Harvey founded the Faculty Wives Club at ASTC, where “they would buy books for their library, the club women would read them first, then they were placed in the UCA library. This was the first fiction in the library…because the school budget didn’t include fiction.”

Harvey retired from ASTC in 1955. She died on March 13, 1980, and shares a family burial plot with Mitchell, who died in 1976, at the Historic Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway. Harvey’s legacy continues through the Harvey-Mitchell/First Presbyterian Church Scholarship available to UCA students.

For additional information:
American Association of University Women (Conway Branch) Collection, M21-01. University of Central Arkansas Archives and Special Collections, Conway, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://uca.edu/archives/m21-01-american-association-of-university-women-conway-branch/ (accessed February 11, 2026).

Arkansas State Normal School. The Scroll (Conway, AR). https://uca.edu/archives/the-scroll/ (accessed February 11, 2026).

“A.T.C. Spanish Club Has Thrilling Bull Fight.” The Normal Echo (Conway, AR), May 4, 1923.

Central Arkansas Library System. “For Constance and Ada: Snail Methods of Queer Archival Praxis.” Legacies & Lunch, YouTube, June 4, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62GgfUCI2qI&t=1226s (accessed February 11, 2026). [see Related Web Video in sidebar]

Dr. Ada Jane Harvey & Constance Mitchell Collection, M89-28. University of Central Arkansas Archives and Special Collections, Conway, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://uca.edu/archives/m89-28-ada-jane-harvey-collection/ (accessed February 11, 2026).

“Dr. Ada Jane Harvey Conducts PEO Session.” The Echo (Conway, AR), April 14, 1944

“Faculty Club Adds Books to Library.” The Echo, February 18, 1944.

“French Banquet Is Gay Affair / Seventy French-Speaking Students and Visitors Enjoy Seventh Annual Affair.” The Echo (Conway, AR), April 18, 1930.

“French Club Meeting Is Held in Mac Hall.” The Echo, January 14, 1944.

“More than 450 Students from Nine States and Mexico Enroll Here First Semester.” The Echo, September 21, 1945.

Official Records of the University of Central Arkansas Collection, M99-01. University of Central Arkansas Archives and Special Collections, Conway, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://uca.edu/archives/m99-01-official-records-of-the-university-of-central-arkansas-collection/ (accessed February 11, 2026).

“Sketch of Dr. Harvey Appears in P.E.O. Record for February.” The Echo, February 2, 1944.

“Spanish Club Joins Pan-American Union.” The Echo, February 2, 1944.

“Spanish Club Visits Mexican Restaurant.” The Echo, December 6, 1946.

“Urge Students to Aid Pan-American Amity.” New York Times, December 20, 1931. https://www.nytimes.com/1931/12/20/archives/urge-students-to-aid-panamerican-amity-speakers-at-meeting-of-newly.html (accessed February 11, 2026).

Shelbea Gentry
University of Central Arkansas

K. Adele Okoli
University of Central Arkansas