A movement for the higher education of women began about 1820. The Rev. Joseph Emerson, principal of the Academy at Byfield, had become noted for his championship of the cause and had attracted to the Academy women like Zilpah Grant and Mary Lyon, whom he inspired with zeal for learning as a preparation for service. In 1820 Emma Willard's for Improving Women's Education) attracted the attention of Governor Clinton of New York, who secured the passage of two acts, one the incorporation of a proposed seminary at Water ford, and the other, "To give female academies a share of the literary fund," probably the first law passed by any legislature, expressly favor ing women's education. The seminary was opened in 1821, not at Waterford, but at Troy, N. Y., as the Troy Female Seminary, later known as the Emma Willard School.
In 1822 Catherine Beecher opened a semi nary at Hartford, Conn., in the upper room of a store. Beginning with 7 pupils, it soon grew to more than 150, and attracted students from all the States, but after 10 years was discon tinued on account of Miss Beecher's removal to Cincinnati. Her interest in education was thus transferred to the Middle West, where for a generation she helped to mold public opinion on the subject.
From 1830-39 several institutions for the edu cation of women were established, most of them in the South, the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, Ga., being authorized to grant degrees. In 1835 Wheaton Seminary in Norton, Mass., was founded by Judge Wheaton in memory of his daughter. His daughter-in-law, Mrs. Eliza Wheaton, instrumental in the founding of the school, lived until June 1905, its constant bene factor and a significant figure, as representing the last of the little group who. in the 30's, were laying the foundation of higher education for women.
Adviser and helper in the founding of this school was the woman who holds a foremost place among pioneers of higher education. Mary Lyon's reputation as student and teacher had al ready been won in the academies at Byfield, Am herst, Ashfield and Derry, and with Miss Grant in the seminary at Ipswich, but her chief work was in the founding of Mount Holyoke Seminary, Incorporated in 1836, and opened in 1837, in the town of South Hadley, Mass., the seminary realized the ideal for which the founder had been working for years, that of a permanent in stitution for women which should furnish °every advantage that the state of education in the country will allow.° The first curriculum, in cluding the natural sciences, higher mathematics, logic, moral philosophy, ancient and modern his tory, evidences of Christianity and Butler's
centric because he believed that women should be allowed to study grammar, geography, and composition. It marks an era in higher educa tion, in the establishment of a permanent en dowed institution, which should furnish to women, at moderate rates, as good educational opportunities as the colleges for men then of fered. Its founding is not less significant in its influence as the °mother of schools.° Among the institutions established on the same plan, with its graduates as principals and teachers, are the Western College at Oxford, Lake Erie College at Painesville, Ohio, and Mills College in California. Michigan Seminary at Kalama zoo and the Cherokee Seminary, in what is now Indian Territory, were also Mount Holyoke schools, while across the water they were founded in Persia by Fidelia Fisk; in Turkey at Marsovan and at Bitlis; in South Africa, where the Huguenot Seminary now Huguenot College, at Wellington, Cape Colony, is the most famous,• and in Spain, in the form of the International Institute of Madrid, founded at San Sebastian, by Alice Gordon Gulick. Miss Lyon's influence is seen also in the establishment of Wellesley College, for Mr. Durant was a friend and trustee of Mount Holyoke and included many of its features in his own institution.
The intervening period before the Civil War saw the rise of numerous schools for the edu cation of women, but only two of full col legiate rank to-day, Rockford College in Rock ford, Ill., opened as a seminary in 1849 and chartered as a college in 1892, and Elmira Col lege in Elmira, N. Y., founded in 1855 and authorized from the beginning to confer de grees. It is interesting to notice that most of these institutions were in the Southern States, a development cut short by the war. Within the last 30 years, three colleges for women of collegiate rank have been established in that section: Randolph-Macon College for Women at Lynchburg, Va. (1893), Agnes Scott Col lege at Decatur, Ga. (1889) and Sweet Briar at Sweet Briar, Va. (1906).
The last 35 years of the 19th century were marked by an advance movement in women's education such as the world had never before seen. During this period three types of insti tution were developed:— 1. The separate women's college.