Mary Electa Adams (1823—1898) was a Canadian educator and an advocate for women’s education in New Brunswick and Ontario. She obtained a degree in the Liberal Arts and taught as a teacher in Cobourg and Toronto. In 1854 she moved to Sackville, New Brunswick as a senior administrator at the Wesleyan Academy. While she was reconciled to the fact that most women would spend their lives as wives and mothers she believed that their education should be more than just ornamental in nature and should be as rigorous as what was taught to men. In 1861 she became the first principal at the Wesleyan Female College in Hamilton and over the seven years she was there, helped the institution establish a secure financial footing. She took a few years off due to family issues but returned to a scholastic role in 1872 when she opened her own school in Cobourg called the Brookhurst Academy. Her final role was as principal of the Ontario Ladies’ College in Whitby. She retired in 1892 at the age of 70. She was a women of great intellect and was a painter and a poet in her spare time. Her legacy was a passion for education that she wanted to pass on to her students. In 2004 the Canadian government designated her as a Person of National Historic Significance. (Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Canada’s Early Women Writers: Simon Fraser University)