Anna Cheney Edwards was born on July 31, 1835, in Northampton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1859 and taught there until 1863. In 1863 she became principal of the Lake Erie Seminary in Plainsville, Ohio. She returned to Mount Holyoke in 1868 as a member of the faculty. She was the first associate principal of the Seminary from 1883 until 1888. She worked with the principal, Elizabeth Blanchard, to develop a strong curriculum and raise academic standards, so that Mount Holyoke could receive a Collegiate Charter. In 1888 their efforts proved successful. Edwards received a master's degree from the University of Vermont in 1888, and retired in 1892. She died on January 14, 1930, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.