The year, 1834, was a turning point for Mary Lyon. She decided to leave Ipswich Female Seminary, where she was assistant principal, and focus all of her time and efforts on founding an institution of higher education for women. For the next three years, she crusaded tirelessly for funds and support. It was not the best time to ask people for donations--the United States was in a severe economic depression. But Mary Lyon persisted. She wrote circulars and ads announcing the plan for the school, raised money, persuaded prominent men to back her enterprise, developed a curriculum, visited schools and talked to educators as far away as Detroit, chose the school's location, supervised the design and construction of a building, brought equipment, hired teachers, and selected students. She endured ridicule from those who felt her ambitious undertaking would be "wasted" on women. Her constant travels often left her in a state of exhaustion. Yet, Mary Lyon never doubted her belief that women deserved to have the same opportunities for higher education as their brothers.
The Founding of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
"Traveling the road from Boston to Connecticut often, Miss Lyon could scarce ride any ten miles of the route without being recognized by some fellow-traveller."
Mary Lyon's goals for Seminary
Mary Lyon's innovative goals for Mount Holyoke set the Seminary apart from other female seminaries of the period. They were:
- A curriculum equivalent to those at men's colleges.
- A minimum entrance age of 17.
- Low tuition to make education affordable to students from modest backgrounds. Mount Holyoke's was $60 a year.
- Rigorous entrance examinations to make sure students were adequately prepared.
- Permanence. A lack of funds forced many nineteenth-century female seminaries to close after a few years. A good number were proprietary, or owned by an individual, eager to make a profit. Some schools were so dependent upon the founder's popularity, that the institution collapsed after his or her death.
- Domestic work by students to keep operating expenses, and therefore, tuition, low.
- Independence. Mary Lyon sought no affiliations with a religious denomination or wealthy sponsor. Instead, she formed a board of trustees, a group of dedicated male supporters who donated their time to help Mount Holyoke thrive and succeed.
- A wide base of financial support. It was important to Mary Lyon that people from backgrounds like her own would feel that Mount Holyoke was a school for their daughters. She collected donations ranging from six cents to $1,000, as well as quilts and bedding from women's sewing circles and necessary items like stoves and furniture from trustees.
Green velvet bag. Mary Lyon traveled thousands of miles to raise funds, which she collected in this bag.
Mary Lyon's glasses and writing tablet. To raise funds for her school, Mary wrote hundreds of letters to prospective donors.
How was Mount Holyoke named?
What would Mary Lyon call the new seminary? A friend suggested "Pangynaskean," a Greek word meaning "all powers of women." Lyon decided "Mount Holyoke"--the name of a mountain near South Hadley, the town chosen for the Seminary's location--was a better choice.
Why did Mary Lyon call Mount Holyoke a "Seminary?"
In the nineteenth century, the words "seminary" and "college" were used to describe schools at a variety of levels. A college might give instruction either to university students, or to those of high school age and even younger. A seminary could be a preparatory school or offer a college education or graduate and professional training. Some historians believe Mary Lyon felt she would attract greater financial support using the name seminary rather than college for Mount Holyoke. The idea of a college for women was horrifying to many people in the 1830s.
Opening Day—November 8, 1837
In the fall of 1837, the schoolteacher from Buckland at last saw her dream fulfilled when the first 80 students arrived at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Many had traveled two or three days by stagecoach and carriage; all had passed difficult oral entrance examinations in English grammar, math, U.S. history, and geography. Following Mary Lyon's instructions, they each brought with them a Bible, an atlas, a dictionary, and two spoons.
The entering students--young women like Sarah Brigham, Abigail Moore, Persis Woods, and Hannah Bailey--felt privileged to have been given the opportunity to study at Mary Lyon's new institution. At the time, there were 120 colleges for men in the United States, but none for women. Harvard College, founded just 16 years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock, was already 201 years old; the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, in its 143rd year. With the opening of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, college-aged women could claim their own institution of higher education. One year later, places at Mount Holyoke were in such demand nearly 200 women applied for entrance; 90 were accepted.
"This will be an era in female education. The work will not stop with this institution."
The Original Seminary Building
The massive Seminary Building dominated the town of South Hadley, a peaceful village founded in 1757 along the Connecticut River. Forty rods from the Seminary stood the white-steepled village church where Mount Holyoke students and teachers attended Sunday services. Three miles to the south lay the busy Falls section, a manufacturing center. Located here were wool and paper mills, pearl button factories, and a tannery.
Situated on a ten-acre lot along the main road, the four-story Seminary Building (with basement) was 94 feet long and 50 feet wide. Eight chimneys rose from the hipped roof of slate, a material commonly used in New England. This one building housed every function of the school: dormitory, classrooms, gymnasium, library, teachers' residence, dining room, kitchen, bakery, laundry, heating plant, and business office.
The first building
In preindustrial America there were few models, other than prisons and mental asylums, for accommodating large numbers of people. At men's colleges, students typically lived in separate dormitories or in boarding houses. Mary Lyon, who had a hand in the design of the building, laid out its interior to resemble a house. She felt this arrangement would encourage a sense of family among her students and teachers, and allow for better discipline.
The front entrance opened into a central hall flanked by a series of public rooms: parlors, library, music room, sick room, and assembly hall. Mary Lyon's apartment, her first real home in 18 years, was also located here. A wide wooden staircase, the kind that graced many large nineteenth-century houses, led up to the second floor. This area contained classrooms, science laboratories, and some rooms for teachers and students. Dormitory rooms occupied the third and fourth floors. The basement housed the kitchens, laundry, and dining room.
Two students shared a room whose size—18 feet by 10 feet—was considered large by the standards of the day. An open Franklin stove, fed with sticks of wood the women carried from the basement, provided warmth; oil lamps and gas lights, the only illumination. Just like college students today, the Mount Holyoke women tried to make their spaces more homelike. They decorated their rooms with patterned carpets, curtains, tablecloths, daguerreotypes, drawings, banners, flags, and plants. Students changed rooms and roommates every month.
The building had no running water. Students hauled pails of water pumped from wells to their rooms for personal use. Privies, or outdoor toilets, were located in the back of the building. Given the number of stoves and lamps used by nearly 100 people, the threat of fire was a constant worry.
When did Mount Holyoke start using "College" in its name?
Mount Holyoke originally offered a three-year course of study. In 1861, it became a four-year institution. Although Mount Holyoke received a college charter from the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1888, it did not drop the name "Seminary" until 1893.
What was happening in U.S. history in the 1830s?
- The population of the U.S. is 12.8 million, and mostly rural.
- Andrew Jackson is re-elected U.S. president, and is succeeded by the eighth president, Martin Van Buren.
- Abraham Lincoln enters politics as a state legislator in Illinois.
- Frontiersman Davy Crockett is killed in the Battle of the Alamo.
- Texas wins independence from Mexico, and the Republic of Texas is declared.
- Seminole wars are fought in Florida.
- Arkansas and Michigan become the 25th and 26th states.
- "Underground railway" is organized by U.S. abolitionists to help slaves escape.
- An economic depression causes the price of cotton, the South's leading crop, to fall.
- Inventor Cyrus McCormick patents his reaping machine.
- First horse-drawn buses and trolleys appear in New York City.
- Inventor Samuel Morse exhibits his electric telegraph.
U.S. Postage Stamps associated with Mount Holyoke College
Emily Dickinson, class of 1849
Poet
1971 Commemorative; 8 cent U.S. postage stamp
Lucy Stone, class of 1839
Women's rights activist who dared to keep her birth name after marriage
1968, Prominent American series 1965-1979; 50 cent U.S. postage stamp
Frances Perkins, class of 1902
Secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, and initiator of such landmark programs as minimum wage, Social Security, and child labor laws
1980 Commemorative; 15 cent U.S. postage stamp
Mary Lyon
Founder of Mount Holyoke College and pioneer in women's education
1987 Great American series 1986-1993; 2 cent U.S. postage stamp
Dr. Virginia Apgar, class of 1929
Developer of the Apgar Score used to evaluate newborns, and first female department head and full professor at College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
1994 Definitive Stamp; 20 cent U.S. postage stamp
Frances Perkins, class of 1902
First day of issue, April 10, 1980; postcard with her photo and 15 cent U.S. postage stamp
Daily Life at Mount Holyoke
For the Mount Holyoke students and their teachers, the school day lasted more than 16 hours. Between 5 am--the required wake-up time--and bedtime at 9:15 pm, the Seminary was run on a strict schedule created by Mary Lyon. Every 15 minutes, bells rang to announce the next activity. Students were expected to obey some 70 different rules pertaining to conduct, health, protection of the building, safety, and contact with the outside world. For example, they had to whisper in halls and work rooms, sleep with doors slightly open, and sit in assigned seats at every activity. Rules at men's colleges were common, but, unlike Mount Holyoke's, were often not enforced.
"How I do wish the things at home would go like clockwork as they do here, so much is accomplished."
A Typical Day
Classes and Study Hall
Students memorized and recited their work, which was the learning style of the day. Mary Lyon quickly adapted new college teaching methods such as written compositions, lectures, and analysis of texts. The books used by the students were the same as used at men's colleges.
Sections
Each day teachers met with a small group of students to review their work and hear their recitations.
The books used by Mount Holyoke students were the same as used at men's colleges.
Domestic Work Circles
Students, working in five-person teams or "circles," performed every chore needed to keep the Seminary running smoothly. They cooked, baked, washed dishes, set tables, did the laundry, cleaned, delivered mail, and worked in the office. Mary Lyon, a model of efficiency, broke down the chores into steps. One circle, for example, rolled out pie crusts (as many as 38 at a time); another team filled the shell, still another baked the pies. Work assignments were rotated monthly.
Exercise
Mary Lyon believed in the benefits of exercise and fresh air, and was one of the country's earliest advocates of physical education classes for women. All students were required to walk one mile after breakfast. During New England's cold and snowy winters, she dropped the requirement to 45 minutes. Calisthenics--a form of exercises--were taught by teachers in unheated hallways until a storage area was cleared for a gymnasium. Domestic work often involved strenuous physical activity.
Meals
Butter dish owned by Mary Lyon.
Mary Lyon took great interest in planning the Seminary diet. She demanded quality meats and foodstuffs from her suppliers and even offered tips to student cooks on making a perfect pea soup or apple pie. Fruit such as oranges, grapes, and raisins were considered delicacies. Much to the dismay of some students, coffee and tea were banned from the Seminary.
Devotions
Cross made of Mary Lyon's hair. For many years at Mount Holyoke, prayer and Bible study were important elements of daily life.
Mary Lyon was a devout Christian. Although Mount Holyoke had no religious affiliation, students were required to attend church services, chapel talks, prayer meetings, and Bible study groups. Twice a day teachers and students spent time in private devotions. Every dorm room had two large lighted closets to give roommates privacy during their devotions.