Agnes Smith Lewis (PhD, LLD, DD, LittD) lived from 1843 to 1926. She and her sister, Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843–1920), were known as the Westminster Sisters. Both Semitic scholars, they together had studied more than twelve languages. They were pioneers in academic research, particularly in Syriac research. Each sister had married in the 1880’s, but both of their husbands passed away. In 1890, together they began the study of Syriac and Arabic. They traveled to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai in 1892 where they discovered the Sinaitic Palimpsest. The two sisters used their inheritance to endow Westminster College at Cambridge in 1899. For the sister’s extensive biblical and theological research, the University of St. Andrews, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Dublin all awarded them honorary doctorates—including the first theological doctorates ever awarded to any woman.