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Sophie Drinker

American musicologist (1888–1967)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ1725009 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sophie Lewis Drinker (née Hutchinson; August 24, 1888 – September 6, 1967) was an American musicologist and feminist. She published several books on the role of women in the history of music and colonial America. The Sophie Drinker Institute, established in Bremen, Germany, in 2001 as an independent research facility specializing in women's musicological studies and gender research, was named in her honor.

Early life and education

She was born Sophie Lewis Hutchinson on 24 August 1888, in Haverford, Pennsylvania, to Sydney Pemberton Hutchinson and Amy Lewis. As a child, Drinker had piano lessons and developed an interest in music. She attended St. Timothy's School in Maryland. After her graduation in 1906, Drinker was accepted to Bryn Mawr College, but did not attend.

Drinker was awarded an honorary doctorate from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts in 1949. She served for a time as a guest lecturer at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and received an honorary degree in 1967.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sophie Drinker” as american musicologist (1888–1967). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1888, 1967, 2001, 1906—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Sophie, Drinker and American can be independently traced.
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Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american musicologist (1888–1967). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1725009. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1967, 2001 and 1906.

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This entry incorporates text from “Sophie Drinker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.