COLLEGIATE EDUCATION FOR WO MEN. A system of education originated in the United States, and may be said to have sprung from the seminaries for young, women. Although at first these were frequently concerned with somewhat superficial accomplishments. 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 young women at Middlebury, Vt. In 1819 she removed by invitation to Waterford, N. 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 I wproring tonal(' Education, she succeeded in getting the recognition and to some extent the aid of the State of New York in her efforts to give to women the same educational opportunities as to men. In 1819 Rev. Joseph Emerson opened a female seminary at Byfield, Mass., where such instruction was 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. Tn 1828 she became the principal of a seminary at Ipswich, Mass., associating with her her fellow pupil at Byfield and assist ant at Derry, Mary Lyon (q.v.). It was the lat ter's efforts, aided by the advice and plans of Miss Grant. that led to the founding and endow ment in 1837 of Mount Holyoke &liege (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 early history of advanced educa tion for women was Miss 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 education of her sex. In 1S21 Wesleyan Seminary and Fe male College was founded at Kent's I1i11, 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 1S39 it was opened, offering a four years' course. Monticello Female Seminary, at Godfrey, 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 185.5 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 Bryn Mawr 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 inn tbe United States. In I888 Mount Holyoke College established a full col legiate department, and in 1393 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. This represents a decline in number as compared with the preceding ten years, but it has 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 COEDI 'CATION.
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 1839, and at first affiliated with Columbia as Radcliffe 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 work 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 II. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for Women. Evelyn College, connected with Princeton Uni versity, was opened in 1887, but ceased to exist in 1S97.