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''That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace'' - Psalms 144:12
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Seminary , 1837 (Seminary charter, 1836) <br> Seminary and College, (Collegiate charter) 1888 <br> College, 1893
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Liberal Arts Women's College
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$530 million (November 2006)1
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200
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Joanne V Creighton
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2,100
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South Hadley
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MA
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USA
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2,000 acres (8 km&2), academic campus: 1000 acres (32 km&2)
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Lyon
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MoHo or MHC
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mtholyokeedu
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50 College Street, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 01075
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(413) 538-2000
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is a
Liberal Arts Women's College in
South Hadley ,
Massachusetts . Originally founded by
Mary Lyon as ''Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary '' on
8 November ,
1837 , it is the "first of the
Seven Sisters "
2 and is
The Oldest Continuing Institution Of Higher Education For Women in the
United States . In addition, according to the
United States Department Of Education , "Mount Holyoke’s significance is that it became a model for a multitude of other women’s colleges throughout the country."
3
Mount Holyoke is also part of the
Pioneer Valley 's
Five Colleges , along with
Amherst College ,
Smith College ,
Hampshire College , and the
University Of Massachusetts Amherst .
and
Connecticut River ]]
Mount Holyoke has a student population of 2,100. Students come from "48 states and nearly 70 countries. One in three students is an
International Citizen or
African American ,
Asian American ,
Latina ,
Native American , or
Multiracial . Thirty-three percent of incoming first-year students were in the top five percent of their high school classes".
4
Mount Holyoke has been part of the
SAT Optional Movement for undergraduate admission since 2001.
56
Mount Holyoke is a leader in producing
Fulbright scholars.
7 It also counts among its
Alumnae recipients of the Churchill, Datatel, Congress-Bundestag, Goldwater,
8 Rhodes ,
9 Gates Cambridge ,
10 and
Marshall scholarships and fellowships.
11 The most popular graduate schools attended by MHC alumnae are
Harvard ,
Yale ,
Columbia ,
Tufts ,
Penn ,
Stanford ,
Berkeley , and
Georgetown .
12 Students looking for work directly after graduation have "direct access to 1300+ corporations and organizations" such as
New York Metropolitan Opera ,
ESPN ,
MTV ,
NPR ,
Google ,
Microsoft ,
Teach For America ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Peace Corps ,
Harvard University (health/medicine)
Smithsonian ,
Boston Globe ,
Disney Publishers , and the National Economic Research Associates.
13
It is a member of the
Pioneer Valley 's
Five Colleges Consortium, the
Consortium Of Liberal Arts Colleges , the
Annapolis Group , and the
Oberlin Group . It was a part of the
The New College Plan . It is currently a part of
The Consortium On Financing Higher Education and ''The
Knowledge Corridor ''.
]]
]]
]]
]]
See Also: List of Mount Holyoke College people
Notable alumnae include:
Notable faculty include:
Notable presidents include:
The 1,000-acre (3.2 km&
2) campus was designed and landscaped between 1896 and 1922 by the landscape architecture firm of
Olmstead And Sons . Frederick Law Olmstead designed
Central Park in New York City and Congress Park in Saratoga Springs, New York (among other notable outdoor projects). In addition to the
Mount Holyoke College Botanic Garden , the grounds feature two lakes, a waterfall, tennis courts, stables and woodland riding trails, all surrounding Skinner Green (the grassy lawn in the center of campus). Skinner Green is framed by traditional ivy-covered, brownstone Neo-Gothic dormitories, Skinner Hall and the social hub, Blanchard Student Center. The campus is also home to the
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum which is part of the
Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield and the
Museums10 .
The Odyssey Bookshop (a fixture in
South Hadley for over 40 years), resides directly across from the campus in the college-owned Village Commons, which contains a collection of locally owned shops and eateries. A little further away (and accessible by the five college bus) lie the towns of
Amherst and
Northampton . The
Hampshire Mall and
Holyoke Mall also offer shopping and entertainment for students. The
Mount Holyoke Range State Park is also close to the campus.
''
The Mount Holyoke News '' is the independent
Student Newspaper for Mount Holyoke College. It was founded in 1917.
:
Mount Holyoke offers a number of special programs. It has a dual-degree program in
Engineering which allows students to earn a B.A. from Mount Holyoke and a B.S. from the
California Institute Of Technology , the Thayer School of Engineering,
Dartmouth College , or
UMass . Students interested in
Public Health can earn a B.A. from Mount Holyoke and an M.S. from the School of Public Health at the
University Of Massachusetts Amherst the year after graduating from Mount Holyoke. It also offers the ''Frances Perkins Program'' for
Non-traditional Students and has a number of programs for
International Student s, including exchange students from its sister school,
Women's Christian College in
Chennai ,
Tamil Nadu ,
India .
In addition to classes at the college, Mount Holyoke students may also enroll in courses at
Amherst College ,
Hampshire College ,
Smith College , and
University Of Massachusetts Amherst through the
Five Colleges Consortium.
Mount Holyoke offers a number of
College Athletics programs and is a member of NERC (the
New England Rowing Conference ) and of NEWMAC (the
New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference ). Mount Holyoke is also home to a professional golf course, ''The Orchards'', which served as host to the
U.S. Women's Open Championship in 2004.
14
:
Early proponents of education for women were
Sarah Pierce (
Litchfield Female Academy , 1792);
Catharine Beecher (
Hartford Female Seminary , 1823);
Zilpah P. Grant Banister (
Ipswich Female Seminary , 1828); and
Mary Lyon . Lyon was involved in the development of both Hartford Female Seminary and Ipswich Female Seminary. She was also involved in the creation of ''Wheaton Female Seminary'' (now
Wheaton College, Massachusetts ) in 1834.
It was chartered as a ,
1837 . Lyon founded ''Mount Holyoke Female Seminary'' after
Mount Holyoke , a nearby peak on the Mt. Holyoke Range. The mountain itself was named after
Elizur Holyoke , who is also the (indirect) namesake for the city,
Holyoke, Massachusetts . Harwarth, Maline, and DeBra note that, "Mount Holyoke’s significance is that it became a model for a multitude of other women’s colleges throughout the country."
15 Both
Vassar College and
Wellesley College were patterned after Mount Holyoke.
16
Lyon was an educational innovator who created a highly rigorous environment of higher education for women which was unusual for the early 19th century. Lyon mandated a 16 hour day for students at ''Mount Holyoke Female Seminary,'' which began at 5 a.m. and ended at 9:15 p.m. In addition, "the books used by the students were the same as used at men's colleges".
17. Lyon was also an innovator in science education for women, requiring:
:seven courses in the sciences and mathematics for graduation, a requirement unheard of at other female seminaries. She introduced women to "a new and unusual way" to learn science—laboratory experiments which they performed themselves. She organized field trips on which students collected rocks, plants, and specimens for lab work, and inspected geological formations and recently discovered dinosaur tracks.
18
Lyon, an early believer in the importance of daily exercise for women, required her students 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".
19
From its founding in 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary "had no religious affiliation". However, "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".
20 Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was the sister school to
Andover Seminary . Some Andover graduates looked to marry students from the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before becoming missionaries because the
American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions (ABCFM) required its missionaries to be married before starting their missions. By
1859 , there were more than 60 missionary alumnae; by
1887 , the school's alumnae comprised one fifth of all female American missionaries for the ABCFM; and by the end of the century, 248 of its alumnae had entered the mission field.
21
:
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary received its collegiate charter in
1888 and became Mount Holyoke Seminary and College. It became Mount Holyoke College in
1893 . Mount Holyoke's chapter of
Phi Beta Kappa was established in
1905 .
In the early
1970s , Mount Holyoke engaged in a lengthy debate under the presidency of
David Truman over the issue of coeducation. On
06 November 1971 , "after reviewing an exhaustive study on coeducation, the board of trustees decided unanimously that Mount Holyoke should remain a women's college, and a group of faculty was charged with recommending curricular changes that would support the decision."
22
On February 28, 1987, a
United States Postage Stamp featuring Mary Lyon was issued in honor of ''The Sesquicentennial'' (Mount Holyoke's 150th anniversary).
23
The Intercollegiate Poetry Contest, Awards, grants '''The
Glascock Prize ''' to the winner of this annual event (which has taken place at Mount Holyoke since 1924). The "invitation-only competition is sponsored by the English department at Mount Holyoke and counts many well-known poets, including
Sylvia Plath and
James Merrill , among its past winners".
24
takes place once every four years, around
01 April faculty members create a show which
Parodies themselves and their students.
25
(also known as ''J-Show'') refers to a show created by Juniors (and a few professors) who parody life at Mount Holyoke. A common feature is a sketch mocking the president and dean of the college, along with well-known professors.
26
is a reference to the pairing of juniors and firsties (or first years) who are paired up to take part in organized—and unorganized—events together.
or "Dis-O," is the most closely guarded secret at Mount Holyoke. Generally, first-years are kept in the dark about it until it actually takes place.
refers to sophomores who secretly leave gifts for their chosen firsties or transfer students, usually during
October of each year.
is held on the day closest to
8 November (the date of the opening of Mount Holyoke in 1837). It was begun by
Elizabeth Storrs Mead in 1891. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hatlas/traditions/founders.htm
begins with the sound of ringing bells from Abbey Chapel on a beautiful autumn morning secretly chosen by the President of the College and all classes are canceled for the day and many students hike to the summit of nearby
Mount Holyoke .
27
was originally called Milk & Crackers, but is now referred to as Milk & Cookies.
28 It refers to a nightly snack provided by dormitory dining halls. M&Cs also refer to a popular student ''a cappella'' group, ''M&Cs (Milk and Cookies)''
29
is an event which takes place prior to
Commencement in which canoes are decorated with lanterns are paddled by seniors singing Mount Holyoke songs. They are joined by fellow graduating seniors on shore.
is held in Abbey Chapel; the medieval German ode to Academe, "Gaudeamus Igitur" is sung by berobed Seniors and Faculty during the procession. Following convocation, Faculty line the path to Mary Lyon's grave. Seniors walk through this throng, to the grave (to place a wreath). As they pass by their professors, the Faculty members applaud the Seniors—thereby acknowledging them for the first time as scholars and colleagues.
takes place the day before
Commencement . Graduating seniors wear white and carry laurel garlands, in a parade to Mary Lyon's grave. They are escorted by approximately 3,000 alumnae, also in white, who thereby welcome them into the Alumnae Association. Once at Mary Lyon's grave, the garland is wound around the cast-iron fence, and the Mimi Farina song "Bread and Roses" is sung by all in attendance. White is a tribute to those who fought for women's suffrage.
30
Mount Holyoke is referenced in works of theater, film, and popular culture.
Pulitzer Prize - winning playwright
Wendy Wasserstein 's
1977 play, ''
Uncommon Women And Others '', is based upon Wasserstein's experiences at Mount Holyoke of the early
1970s . The play explores the lives of the fictional characters Carter, Holly, Kate, Leilah, Rita, Muffet, Samantha, and Susie.
Two well-known films referenced Mount Holyoke of the
1960s . The protagonist of the
1987 film ''
Dirty Dancing '', Frances "Baby" Houseman (Grey) was named after Mount Holyoke graduate
Frances Perkins . "Baby" is the socially conscious member of her family, who is planning to attend Mount Holyoke in the fall of
1963 to study economics and then to enter the
Peace Corps . The
1978 film, ''
National Lampoon's Animal House '' satirizes a common practice up until the mid-
1970s , when women attending
Seven Sister Colleges were connected with or to students at
Ivy League schools. The film, which takes place in
1962 , shows fraternity brothers from Delta house of the fictional
Faber College (based on
Dartmouth College ) taking a road trip to the fictional
Emily Dickinson College (either Mount Holyoke College or
Smith College ).
31
One of the most famous references to Mount Holyoke College in of ''The Simpsons.'' Having won local and state spelling bees,
Lisa Simpson advances to the national finals. However, the moderator, concerned about the contest’s low television ratings, offers Lisa free tuition ('and a hot plate') at the Seven Sisters college of her choice if she will allow a more popular contestant (who happens to be a boy) to win. Lisa refuses, but has a dream in which students from each of the Seven Sisters appear to her."
32
:
Additional characters in popular culture include ''Donna'', from the television series, ''
Judging Amy '', ''Judy Maxwell'', from the film, ''
What's Up, Doc? '', ''Brooke'', from ''
The L Word '', Season 4, and ''Catherine'', the serial bride in the
Film Noir release, ''
Black Widow (1987 Film) .''
- Creighton, Joanne V. '' A Tradition of Their Own: Or, If a Woman Can Now Be President of Harvard, Why Do We Still Need Women’s Colleges? .''
- 33
- Harwarth, Irene B. " A Closer Look at Women's Colleges ." National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 1999.
- ---, Mindi Maline and Elizabeth DeBra. " Women's Colleges in the United States: History, Issues, and Challenges : Executive Summary." U.S. Department Of Education National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning.
- Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz . '' Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s ,'' Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).
- 34
