Woman's College of Northwestern University

The Northwestern University Woman's College had its origins in two earlier institutions, the North Western Female College and the Evanston College for Ladies. The North Western Female College was founded in 1855 by the Reverend William P. Jones, its President from 1855 through 1862 and again from 1868 through 1871. It occupied a building on Chicago Avenue at Lake Street, and operated until 1871, when its charter was transferred to the Evanston College for Ladies. In 1869, some students of the Female College began to attend classes at Northwestern, following the University's decision to admit women students at the insistence of its newly elected President, Erastus O. Haven.

The Evanston College for Ladies was an outgrowth of the Ladies' Educational Association of Evanston, formed on September 25, 1868, with a vaguely defined objective of drawing on the resources of the University to improve educational opportunities for women. Shortly after the formation of the Association, it broached with President Jones of the Female College the possibility of bringing that institution into an official relationship with Northwestern. Jones, however, was not inclined to do so until the Association's plans asusmed more definite shape.

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