Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/179

* COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 147 COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. COLLEGIATE EDUCATION FOR WO- MEN. A system of edueiilidii wliit-li uiif^iiuitcd in the United States, and may be said to liave sprung fi'oni the seminaries for young women. Althongli at first these were frequently eoncerned with somewhat superficial aoeomplishments, the trend was rapidly toward a sounder and broader scholarship. Their development, and later, that of the coeducational public high schools, led to the establishment of women's colleges and to the admission of women to colleges for men. In 1808 Mrs. Emma Willard (q.v. ) opened a school for joinig women at Jliddlebury, Vt. In 1819 she i-emoved by invitation to Waterford, X. Y., and ten years later founded the celebrated Troy Female Seminary. By earnest and effect- ive advocacy, notably by the publication of her Plan for Improving Female Education, she succeeded in getting the recognition and to some extent the aid of the State of Xew York in her efforts to give to women the same educational opportunities as to men. In 1819 Rev. Joseph Kmerson opened a female seminary at Byfleld, Mass., where such instruction ias given as is done in academies for men. One of his students, Miss Zilpah P. Grant, became in 1824 the first preceptress of Adams's Female Academy at Derry, N. H. In 1828 she became the principal of a seminary at Ipswich, Mass., associating with her her fellow pupil at Byfield and assist- ant at Deny, ilary Lyon (q.v.). It was the lat- ter's efforts, aided by the advice and plans of Miss Grant, that led to the foiuiding and endow- ment in 18.37 of Mount Holj'oke College (q.v.) at South Hadley, !Mass. This institution gave a three years' course nearly equivalent to that of the better colleges for men. Another prominent woman in the earlj' history of advanced educa- tion for women was ^liss Catherine E. Beecher (q.v.), who opened in 1827 a seminary for girls at Hartford, Conn., and in 1829 published an influential pamphlet on Suggestions Respecting the Improvement of Female Education. Later she turned her attention to the West, and through a national board and society did much for improving the facilities as well as for devel- oping a sentiment for the higher edvication of her sex. In 1821 ^Vesleyan Seminary and Fe- male College was founded at Kent's Hill, Maine, and in 1834 a similar institution was established at Granville, Ohio. Georgia Female Seminary at !Macon (now Wesleyan Female College) was chartered with collegiate powers in 1836, and in 1839 it was opened, offering a four years' course. Monticello Female Seminary, at Godfrey, 111., was opened in 1838 on the plan of colleges for men, and it soon gained great reputation and influence. Elmira College, at Elmira, N. Y., claims to be the first women's college in the United States, and probably in the world, to es- tablish the same standard as in colleges for men. It was founded in 1855 and offered a four years' course. Vassar College (q.v.) was opened in 1865 at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Wellesley College (q.v.) at Wellesley, Mass., and Smith College (q.v.) at Northampton, Mass., in 1875: and Biyn JIawr College at Bryn Mawr. Pa., in 1885. These four, with the Woman's College (q.v.), Baltimore, are to-day the wealthiest of the female colleges in the United States. In 1888 Mount Holyoke College established a full col- legiate department, and in 1893 the seminary was dropped. Wells College (q.v.) opened at Aurora, N. Y., in 1868 as a seminary, became a college in 1870, and in 1896 dropped the preparatory department. Besides these institu- tions, there were in 1898 139 institutions for women in the United States calling them- selves with more or less correctness colleges. Tins represents a decline in number as compared with the preceding fen years, but it lias been far more than made up by the increased attendance at the better women's colleges and the coeduca- tional institutions. The latter are discussed in the article on Coeducation. An additional class of schools offering higher instruction to women are the colleges affiliated with institutions for men. Of these the earliest to be established in the United States was Rad- cliffe College (q.v.), instruction in which is car- ried on by certain members of the Harvard faculty. It was founded by the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1879, and assumed its present name with power to grant degrees in 1894. Barnard College (q.v.), found- ed in 1889, and at first affiliated with Columbia as Radclifl'e is with Harvard, was made in 1900 an undergraduate college of the university, grad- uate work in that institution being thrown open to women. Brown University has a women's college that began ^ork in 1892. The College for Women of Western Reserve University, at Cleveland, Ohio, was established in 1888, and in connection with Tulane University at New Or- leans, La., there was opened in 1886 the H. Sophie Ncwcomb Memorial College for Women. Fjvelyn College, connected with Princeton Uni- versitv, was opened in 1887, but ceased to exist in 1897. The attitude of the universities of Europe to- A'ard the admission of women is described in the article on Coeducation. In Great Britain there are many women's colleges connected with the great universities. At Cambridge, Girton Col- lege was opened in 1869 and Newnham College in 1871. At Oxford, Somerville Hall and Lady Margaret Hall were opened in 1879, and Saint Hugh's Hall in 1886. At the XTniversity of Lon- don, University College and King's College have departments for women. Bedford College for Vomen was opened in 1849, and Royal Holloway College in 1886. There are also numerous local colleges affiliated with various universities in England and Wales. In Ireland, Queen's Col- lege, Belfast; Queen's College. Cork: and Queen's College, Galway, are aliiliated with the Royal University of Ireland. In Scotland, Uni- versity College at Dundee is a college for women affiliated with the universities of London, Saint Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. At Glasgow, Queen Margaret College was in 1892 affiliated with the universitj' at that place. On the Con- tinent, however, women's colleges have not been established. Private' training and 'finishing' schools suffice for those who do not enter the universities. In the various professions women find no chance for instruction to any extent in separate institutions except in the case of medi- cine. In the United States there were in 1898 seven medical schools for women. In London there is one, and Edinburgh has two; several are in Canada, and one at Saint Petersburg. The development of opportunities for the higher education of women has been actively promoted by a number of organizations, promi- nent among which are, in the United States, the