Mount Holyoke College.

The first official publication of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was a catalogue issued in 1837 containing information about trustees, teachers, terms of admission, the course of study, the schedule for the year, Family Accommodations, and the Moral and Religious Influence at the school. Subsequent catalogues (with periodic updates) trace the growth of the institution and provide detailed information about the academic program and residential life for students at the College. These publications have been supplemented by courses of instruction booklets,, catalogues for summer sessions held during World War II, course evaluations, and handbooks providing guidance for new students as well as teachers and administrators serving as academic advisers. Class schedules were first issued in 1893 showing meeting times and locations and instructors of individual courses. Beginning in 1845, Mount Holyoke administrators compiled registers and directories listing names and addresses of teachers and students. Weekly calendars first issued in November 1905 initially listed events at the College. In 1983, these lists began including more detailed information about lectures, special programs, renovations to buildings, and other subjects of interest to members of the Mount Holyoke community.

From the guide to the Catalogs, Registers, and Directories RG 10., 1837-2010, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, was Principal of the school from 1837 until her death in 1849. Her successors as Principal were Mary C. Whitman (1849-1850), Mary W. Chapin (1850-1865), Sophia D. Stoddard (Acting Principal, 1865-1867), and Helen M. French (1867-1872). In 1888, Elizabeth Blanchard, who had served as Principal since 1883, was named Acting President when Mount Holyoke's charter was changed to allow the school to grant degrees. Mary A. Brigham was elected President in 1889, but died in a railway accident on the way to assume her duties. Louise F. Cowles was Acting President until Elizabeth Storrs Mead became the first non-alumna President of the College in 1890. Her successor, Mary Emma Woolley, was elected President in 1900, took office in 1901, and served until 1937. In a controversial appointment, Roswell Gray Ham then became Mount Holyoke's first male President. His successor, Richard Glenn Gettell, was President until his resignation in 1968. Academic Dean and history professor Meribeth E. Cameron, who had served as Acting President when Presidents Ham and Gettell were on leave in 1954 and 1966, filled that office once again until David B. Truman became President in 1978. His successors as President have been Elizabeth T. Kennan (1978-1995) and Joanne V. Creighton (1996-present). History professor Joseph J. Ellis was Acting President for the spring semester in 1984 when President Kennan was on sabbatical, English professor Peter Berek served as Interim President from June-December 1985, and psychology and education professor Beverly D. Tatum was Acting President for the spring semester in 2002 when President Creighton was on sabbatical.

From the guide to the Principals and Presidents Reports RG 4. 1., 1867-1985, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, was Principal of the school from 1837 until her death in 1849. Her successors as Principal were Mary C. Whitman (1849-1850), Mary W. Chapin (1850-1865), Sophia D. Stoddard (Acting Principal, 1865-1867), and Helen M. French (1867-1872). In 1888, Elizabeth Blanchard, who had served as Principal since 1883, was named Acting President when Mount Holyoke's charter was changed to allow the school to grant degrees. Mary A. Brigham was elected President in 1889, but died in a railway accident on the way to assume her duties. Louise F. Cowles was Acting President until Elizabeth Storrs Mead became the first non-alumna President of the College in 1890. Her successor, Mary Emma Woolley, was elected President in 1900, took office in 1901, and served until 1937. In a controversial appointment, Roswell Gray Ham then became Mount Holyoke's first male President. His successor, Richard Glenn Gettell, was President until his resignation in 1968. Academic Dean and history professor Meribeth E. Cameron, who had served as Acting President when Presidents Ham and Gettell were on leave in 1954 and 1966, filled that office once again until David B. Truman became President in 1978. His successors as President have been Elizabeth T. Kennan (1978-1995) and Joanne V. Creighton (1996-present). History professor Joseph J. Ellis was Acting President for the spring semester in 1984 when President Kennan was on sabbatical, English professor Peter Berek served as Interim President from June-December 1995, and psychology and education professor Beverly D. Tatum was Acting President for the spring semester in 2002 when President Creighton was on sabbatical. Lynn Pasquerella, a 1980 graduate of Mount Holyoke, became President of the College on July 1, 2010.

From the guide to the Principals and Presidents Biographical Files RG 4. 2., ca. 1875-, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Members of he Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees are responsible for monitoring the overall welfare of the College by overseeing the institution's finances, admissions policies, curriculum, student life, development, and buildings and grounds. Board members also play a role in the selection of Presidents of the College as well as those who receive honorary degrees from Mount Holyoke. The Board was established in 1836 and consisted of several "benevolent gentlemen" who helped Mary Lyon plan a school for the higher education of women and would its own property and not be a for-profit venture. The original trustees were Joseph Avery, William Bowdoin, David Choate, Joseph Condit, Roswell Hawks, Edward Hitchcock, Heman Humphrey, Andrew W. Potter, Daniel Safford, John Todd, William Tyler, and Samuel Williston. The first woman trustee, Sarah Williston, was appointed to the Board in 1884. Mount Holyoke Principals and Presidents have also been members of the Board since that year. In 1892, in an effort to strengthen the cooperation between the Board and alumnae in planning for the growth and welfare of Mount Holyoke, the trustees invited alumnae of the College to nominate one individual annually to serve on the Board for a three-year term. The trustees changed this practice in 1899 by asking the Alumnae Association to submit names of three alumnae candidates to fill each vacancy on the Board. The practice of adding a Young Alumnae Trustee to the Board began in 1970. The trustees have diverse backgrounds and are primarily drawn from academia, human services, politics and government, and the corporate world. Notable individuals who have served on the Board include Virginia Apgar (Class of 1929), Germaine Bree, Barbara Cassani (Class of 1982), Mary Phylinda Dole (Class of 1886), A. Bartlett Giamatti, August Heckscher, Alice Stone Ilchman (Class of 1957), Henry Plimpton Kendall, Janet Brewster Murrow (Class of 1933), Frances Perkins (Class of 1902), Gloria Johnson Powell (Class of 1958), Joseph and William Skinner, and Henry A. Stimson.

From the guide to the Trustees Biographical Files RG 3. 2., ca. 1836-, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was established by educator Mary Lyon, who in 1832 began making plans for a school for the higher education of women that would own its own property and not be a for-profit venture. She enlisted the support of several clergymen and businessmen in and around Ipswich, Massachusetts, where she had been working as a teacher at Ipswich Female Seminary since 1828. Seven of these individuals - David Choate, Daniel Dana, Joseph Felt, George W. Heard, Edward Hitchcock, Asa Howland, and Theophilus Packard - formed a committee in September, 1834 that selected South Hadley, Massachusetts as the location for the school and worked to obtain a charter for the institution from the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that was granted on February 11, 1836. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened on November 7, 1837. The academic program expanded from three to four years in 1861/62 and students who completed the prescribed course of study received diplomas. In the late 1880s, in response to competition from degree-granting women's colleges, Mount Holyoke successfully petitioned the state legislature for a charter change that was granted on March 8, 1888. At that time, the name of the school changed to Mount Holyoke Seminary and College and the first degrees were awarded on June 27, 1889. The Seminary Program that did not lead to a degree was phased out and another change to the charter granted on January 31, 1893 marked the institution's transformation into Mount Holyoke College.

From the guide to the Origins and Governance Collection RG 2., 1834-present, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

The Mount Holyoke College War Collection brings together a wide range of materials that show how students, faculty, administrators, and alumnae of the College responded to various wars from the United States Civil War (1861-1865) to the Iraq War (2003-present). Most of the collection consists of records created by College departments, offices, and committees, including the Office of the President, the Appointment Bureau, the News Bureau, the Public Relations Office, and the Alumnae Association. The collection also includes newspaper articles, records of local, national, and international war-related committees, and materials received from alumnae and other donors.

From the guide to the Mount Holyoke College War Collection RG 30., 1860-present, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

The first administrator and teacher at Mount Holyoke was Mary Lyon, the founder of the school who was Principal from 1837 until her death in 1849 as well as a teacher in chemistry classes. Initially, she hired Eunice Caldwell as Associate Principal with Amanda A. Hodgman and Mary W. Smith as additional teachers. Lyon also relied on founding members of Mount Holyoke's Board of Trustees to assist her with managing the institution's finances and supervising the construction, furnishing, and maintenance of the Seminary Building where students and teachers lived and worked. She soon began hiring Mount Holyoke graduates as teachers at the school, a practice that continued for much of the nineteenth century. Teachers usually taught a variety of subjects and often supervised the domestic work system Lyon established whereby students did most of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry at the school (thus keeping the tuition rate low by eliminating the need for a paid staff). Men were hired to perform heavy manual labor and a Steward was responsible for the overall maintenance and upkeep of buildings and grounds. Trustees continued to act as Treasurers of Mount Holyoke until the early twentieth century. Other early staff members included a librarian (Mary O. Nutting, Class of 1852) and the Director of the Observatory (Elisabeth Bardwell, Class of 1866).

Teachers began specializing in particular subjects in the late 1880s. Elizabeth Mead, President of Mount Holyoke from 1890-1900, required teachers to earn a Ph.D. in their respective fields and by 1896 faculty were organized into a formal group which held regular meetings and actively shaped the College's curriculum. The first male teachers, Asa Kinney (botany) and William Churchill Hammond (music), were hired in 1899. When Mount Holyoke began a graduate program in the 1890s, graduate students (including those from countries other than the United States) began working as teaching or laboratory assistants at the College. The first paid sabbaticals were granted to faculty in 1925. Mount Holyoke's faculty has steadily become increasingly diverse in response to changes in the curriculum and the College's affirmative action initiatives.

The College has created many staff positions to meet the growth and changing needs of the school. For example, the first Registrar, Caroline Boardman Greene (Class of 1889) was appointed in 1893 and Florence Purington (Class of 1886) became the first Dean of the College in 1907. When students began living in separate dormitories after the destruction of the Seminary Building by fire in 1896, house mothers were hired to oversee students' activities in each residence. Maids and other staff were hired in increasing numbers after the domestic work system ended in 1914. Other staff members have been appointed as needed, such as those who support the technological needs of faculty and staff as employees of Library, Information, and Technology Services.

From the guide to the Faculty and Staff Biographical Files RG 19., circa 1837-, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened on November 8, 1837 with 116 students. The first graduating class of three students received diplomas on August 23, 1838. Initially, homemaking, teaching and missionary work were the only occupations open to alumnae. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, increasing numbers of alumnae had entered professions such as social work, librarianship, journalism, medicine, and law. Notable alumnae include poet Emily Dickinson; women's rights advocate Lucy Stone; Olympia Brown, the first woman to become a full-time ordained minister; physician and anesthesiologist Virginia Apgar; playwrights Wendy Wasserstein and Suzan-Lori Parks; Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve as a member of the cabinet of a United States President; and Ella Grasso, the first women elected a state governor in her own right (not as the successor of her husband). A number of these women have been honored on United States postage stamps or with induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame. The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College has also recognized the achievements and contributions of alumnae with a variety of awards including the Alumnae Medal of Honor and the Mary Lyon Award.

Although Mount Holyoke was established as a non-denominational school, most students during the nineteenth century were affiliated with Protestant denominations and the student body was not geographically, racially or ethnically diverse until the mid-twentieth century. The first Native American students, Elinor S. and Mary H. Boudinot (also spelled Boudinott), attended Mount Holyoke in the 1840s and were the daughters of an assimilated Cherokee father. The first known African American student at Mount Holyoke was Hortense Parker, Class of 1883. The first students born outside the United States came to Mount Holyoke from Canada or the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) in the 1840s. The first student from Japan, Toshi Miyagawa enrolled in 1889 and the first students from China, Chi Nyok Wang and Ysu Tsit Law, graduated in 1916. Latina and Asian American women began attending Mount Holyoke in the 1930s. In 2010, Mount Holyoke enrolled students from 48 states and nearly 70 countries. On average, approximately one in every three undergraduates is an international citizen or an African American, Asian American, Latina, Native American, or multiracial student.

From the guide to the Students and Alumnae Profiles and Statistics Collection RG 23., 1882-present, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary on November 8, 1837 with one hundred and sixteen students. The first graduating class of three students received diplomas on August 23, 1838. During much of the nineteenth century, each entering student took placement examinations to determine her placement in a particular class. Students were initially organized into three classes (Junior, Middle, and Senior) and until the late 1880s all students followed a set curriculum which focused on the mastery of specific textbooks and laboratory work in the sciences. In the fall of 1861, the curriculum expanded to a four-year program with students organized in Junior, Junior Middle, Senior Middle, and Senior classes. These class designations underwent some changes throughout the years until the s terms Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior were adopted in 1890. In the fall of 1989, Freshmen became known as First Year students.

In response to competition from degree-granting women's colleges established in the 1860s-1870s, Mount Holyoke's administrators petitioned the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a change in the school's charter. A new charter granted on March 8, 1888 changed the name of the institution to Mount Holyoke Seminary and College and allowed the school to award Bachelor's degrees, the first of which were presented at Commencement in 1889. With an additional charter change on January 31, 1893 the name of the school became Mount Holyoke College. From 1889-1902, Mount Holyoke presented Bachelor of Literature and Bachelor of Science degrees as well as Bachelor of Arts degrees. From 1889/1890-1898/1899, students followed a Classical, Literary, or Scientific course of study. There was also a Seminary program from 1888/89-1892/1893 which enabled students who had enrolled before 1888 to receive a diploma for their work. In 1889/1900, students began pursuing major work in specific disciplines and elective courses were introduced into the curriculum.

Mount Holyoke has also offered a wide variety of other programs for students. The option for pursuing graduate study became available in 1880/1881 when an Advanced Course for Mount Holyoke graduates was first offered and by 1923/1924 a program of graduate study for all qualified women was well-established. A course of study leading to a Master of Arts began in 1893/1894 and expanded in 1935/1936 to include a Master of Arts in Teaching program which was offered through 1975/1976. Helen C. Flint, Class of 1891 received the first M.A. degree awarded by the College in 1895. In 1966/1967, the graduate program was open to men as well as women and in 1968 Thomas Kelley became the first man to receive a degree (Master of Arts in Teaching) from the College. The Frances Perkins Program for women of non-traditional age who wish to complete the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree was established in 1980. Other special programs have included those for teachers wishing to improve their mastery of specific disciplines or for students from other countries who are interested in spending time at a college in the United States. Students enrolled in graduate or special programs have often received scholarships or fellowship from the College and worked as teaching assistants, interns, or residence hall staff while pursuing their studies.

From the guide to the Alumnae Biographical Files RG 27. 1, RG 27. 2, RG 27. 3., circa 1831-present, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

In an 1835 pamphlet outlining her plans for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Mary Lyon stated that one of the goals of the school would be to cultivate the missionary spirit among its pupils. Soon after the Seminary opened on November 8, 1837 alumnae began serving as missionaries in the United States and in other countries, where they opened and staffed influential schools, brought aid to orphans and others, and supported social reforms to improve the lives of girls and women. Alumnae were affiliated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), a Congregational Church organization founded in 1810, or with the missionary boards of other Protestant denominations. The first alumna missionary was Charlotte Bailey (1838), who worked with her husband, Aldin Grout, among the Zulus in South Africa. Other notable foreign missionaries during the nineteenth century were Fidelia Fiske (1842, Persia); Lyon's nieces Abigail Moore Burgess (1838, India) and Lucy Lyon Lord (1840, China); Charlotte and Mary Ely (1861, Armenia); Alice Gordon Gulick (1867, Spain); and Mary Otis Preston Spafford (1879, South Africa). Alumnae were also missionaries to the Cherokee and other Native Americans and to former African American slaves. Members of the Mount Holyoke community actively supported this work by raising funds for alumnae missionaries and establishing a number of organizations for students interested in missionary service, including the Student Volunteer Band and the College's chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association. Many missionaries and officials from mission boards also presented lectures and programs at Mount Holyoke.

The missionary service of alumnae continued in the twentieth century, exemplified by the work of Alice Browne Frame (1900) in China, Charlotte Allen Ward (1903) in Lebanon and Turkey, Ruth Parker White (1917) in India, Katharine Merrill (1917) in Japan, and Leila Childs Edling (1917) in Angola. Elsie Kimball (1909) and numerous other alumnae supported Near East Relief efforts in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia during and after World War I, while Grace Bacon (1918), Florence Brugger (1922), and many other Mount Holyoke women worked for the American Red Cross and other organizations during both world wars. Beginning in the 1960s, Gena Lee Reisner (1964) and other alumnae demonstrated the College's missionary spirit by joining the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and other initiatives designed to bring education and health care to those in need. Mount Holyoke students such as Sandra Nichols Ward (1965) engaged in this work as undergraduates by participating in Operation Crossroads Africa and similar programs.

From the guide to the Mount Holyoke College Missionaries Collection RG 29., circa 1841-present, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)