Mount Holyoke College is a private women's liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of historically female colleges in the Northeastern United States. The college was founded in 1837 as the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary by Mary Lyon, a pioneer in education for women. Mount Holyoke is part of the Five College Consortium in Western Massachusetts.
Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation 935 feet (285 m), is the westernmost peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile (160 km) Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the namesake of nearby Mount Holyoke College. The mountain is located in the towns of Hadley and South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is known for its historic summit house, auto road, scenic vistas, and biodiversity. The mountain is crossed by the 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and numerous shorter trails. Mount Holyoke is the home of J.A. Skinner State Park which is accessible from Route 47 in Hadley, Massachusetts.
South Hadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Mary Mason Lyon was an American pioneer in women's education. She established the Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts, in 1834. She then established Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1837 and served as its first president for 12 years. Lyon's vision fused intellectual challenge and moral purpose. She valued socioeconomic diversity and endeavored to make the seminary affordable for students of modest means.
Elizur Holyoke of Springfield, Massachusetts was an English colonist, surveyor, scribe, soldier, the namesake of the mountain, Mount Holyoke, and indirectly, of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Abbie Park Ferguson was founder and president of Huguenot Seminary.
Mary W. Chapin (1820–1889) was an American educator who served as the third president of Mount Holyoke College from 1850 to 1852 and Principal from 1852 to 1865. She graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1841 and taught there for seven years before becoming Head.
Mary Phelps Cowles (Hall) Cummings was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century philanthropist. She was highly educated for her time and among her family, husbands and their friends were prominent figures of the day.
Sarah Ann Dickey was an American educator from Ohio who in 1875 founded Mount Hermon Female Seminary, a historically black institution of higher education for women in Clinton, Mississippi. She returned to the north to get a degree at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Afterward, she went back to Mississippi to work on education for African Americans. She became an ordained minister in 1896 in the United Brethren Church.
Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker was an American botanist and professor at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She was the second female doctoral graduate in botany at Syracuse University, which made her one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany from any U.S. university.
Marcia Anna Keith (1859–1950) was a physicist, teacher of physics to women, and a charter member of the American Physical Society since its founding in 1899.
Flora Belle Ludington was an American librarian and author. Ludington served as the head librarian for Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1938 until 1964.
Anna Cheney Edwards was a 19th-century American educator from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. She served as Associate Principal of Mount Holyoke Seminary, 1872–1888; and as Professor of Theism and Christian Evidences, 1888–1890.
George Clinton Ewing was an American salesman, wainwright, land agent, superintendent, assessor, selectman, state representative, and most notably one of the chief founders of Holyoke, Massachusetts; he is credited as having first brought the idea of building a dam and industrial city at Hadley Falls to investors in Boston, New York, Hartford, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1846.
Seraph Frissell was an American physician and medical writer who specialized in diseases of women and children. She was the first woman in Western Massachusetts to be admitted to any district medical society, and the fourth woman to be admitted a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Women were first admitted to medical societies in Massachusetts in 1884; but the Berkshire District Medical Society made Frissell an honorary member in 1877, and she attended its monthly meetings, receiving notices as a regular member.
Emily Gillmore Alden was an American author and educator. For forty years, Alden was a member of the faculty of Monticello Seminary, and for nearly fifty years, the poet of the school. Alden wrote the commencement day poems for Monticello every year since she entered the institution. Harriet Newell Haskell : a span of sunshine gold was published in 1908 and Poems by Emily Gillmore Alden was published in 1909.
Sarah A. Worden was an American painter of landscapes and portraits. She was also an art instructor in various schools and for several years, at Mount Holyoke College.
Eunice Caldwell Cowles was an American educator who influenced hundreds of women in the U.S. and abroad. She was the first associate of Mary Lyon in the opening of Mount Holyoke Seminary. She had previously graduated under Lyon and Zilpah Grant from Ipswich Seminary in 1829, where she was afterwards principal from 1844 to 1876. She also served as the first principal of Wheaton Seminary. She was also affiliated with the Christian Woman's Board of Missions (C.W.B.M.), having co-founded the Essex North Branch and serving as its president.
Miss Catherine Fiske's Young Ladies Seminary was a boarding and day school for young ladies, located in Keene, New Hampshire. Established in 1814, it achieved a national reputation. After the 1837 death of Catherine Fiske, the school's founder, the seminary continued to operate until the early 1840s. The property went through various changes but currently serves as the President's House at Keene State College.
