Philadelphia High School for Girls

Last updated

Philadelphia High School for Girls
Philly HS for Girls.jpg
Address
Philadelphia High School for Girls
1400 West Olney Avenue

,
19141

United States
Coordinates 40°02′18″N75°08′46″W / 40.038342°N 75.146066°W / 40.038342; -75.146066
Information
Former names
  • Girls' Normal School (1848–1854)
  • Girls' High School of Philadelphia (1854–1860)
  • Girls' High and Normal School (1860–1893)
Type Public college preparatory magnet school
MottoVincit qui se vincit
(He conquers who conquers himself)
Established1848;176 years ago (1848)
School district School District of Philadelphia
PrincipalLisa M. Mesi
Staff46.00 (FTE) [1]
Grades 912
Enrollment894 (2022–23) [1]
Student to teacher ratio19.43 [1]
Color(s)   White and Yellow
MascotGazelle
Website girlshs.philasd.org

The Philadelphia High School for Girls, also known as Girls' High, is a public college preparatory magnet high school for girls in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contents

Established in 1848, it was one of the first public schools for women. It is a magnet school in the School District of Philadelphia with a competitive admissions process. Vincit qui se vincit (she conquers who conquers herself) is the school's motto. The school is located at Broad Street and Olney Avenue in the Logan section of Philadelphia.

History

Girls Normal School, Sergeant St. above 9th, 1853 Girls Normal School Sergeant Street above Ninth Philadelphia PA (1853).jpg
Girls Normal School, Sergeant St. above 9th, 1853
Girls High School, 17th and Spring Garden Sts., 1876 Girls High School Cor Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets Philadelphia PA (1876).jpg
Girls High School, 17th and Spring Garden Sts., 1876
New Girls Normal School, 13th and Spring Garden Sts., 1893 New Girls Normal School NW Cor Thirteenth and Spring Garden Streets Philadelphia PA (1893).jpg
New Girls Normal School, 13th and Spring Garden Sts., 1893
The previous Girls' High campus, now Julia R. Masterman School, which housed the school from 1933 to 1958 Masterman School Philly.JPG
The previous Girls' High campus, now Julia R. Masterman School, which housed the school from 1933 to 1958

In 1848, the Girls' Normal School was established as the first secondary public school for women in Pennsylvania. It was also the first municipally supported teachers' school in the U.S. The first instructional session was held on February 1, 1848. By June 1848, there were 149 enrolled students, an incredibly large enrollment for a school at that time. The school continued to grow, forcing a move in 1854 to Sergeant Street between 9th and 10th Streets.

In April 1854, the name of the school was changed to the Girls' High School of Philadelphia. By June 1860, 65 graduates had received diplomas bearing the Girls' High School name. In 1860, the name of the school was again changed to The Girls' High and Normal School to better define the "design of the institution" as a school for an education confined to academic subjects and for future teachers.

In October 1876, a new school which "for convenience and comfort will probably have no superior" was constructed at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets. At the time it was surpassed in size only by Girard College and the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1893, the High School and Normal School were separated into two distinct institutions. It was at this time that the institution became known as the Philadelphia High School for Girls. The school offered three parallel courses: a general course of three years with a possible postgraduate year, a classical course of four years, and a business course of three years. In 1898, a Latin-Scientific course "was designed to prepare students for the Women's Medical College, Cornell University, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Barnard, or such courses in the University of Pennsylvania as were open to women."

In the early 1930s, the school survived attempts to merge it with William Penn High School. Alumnae, faculty and friends of the school dedicated themselves to its preservation.

In 1933, a new school was erected at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets to replace the one which had stood on the site since 1876. This historic building, now the site of Julia R. Masterman School, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

In May 1976, Vice Principal Dr. Florence Snite sued Katherine Day for libel because she had organized a demonstration protesting the administration's policy which barred lesbian alumnae from attending the prom. [2]

In 1958, the school again outgrew its location and moved to its current site at Broad Street and Olney Avenue. Located down the street at Ogontz and Olney Avenue is Central High School, which, until 1983, was an all-male school. Prior to Central turning co-educational, the two schools had a partnership.

Traditions

School song

The school song has two parts. Alma Mater was written by Grade Gordon (1906) with music by F. Edna Davis (1906). Fidelitas was written by Emily Loman in June 1915. [3]

School seals

Notable alumnae

Controversy

Hafsah Abdur-Rahman, a Muslim student, was denied a diploma on stage by the school principal after performing the Griddy dance during the graduation ceremony on June 9, 2023. [11]

Notable faculty

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daughters of the American Revolution</span> Nonprofit organization

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-profit group, the organization promotes education and patriotism. Its membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the American Revolution era who aided the revolution and its subsequent war. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and have a birth certificate indicating that their gender is female. DAR has over 190,000 current members in the United States and other countries. The organization's motto is "God, Home, and Country".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radcliffe College</span> Womens college in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1878–1999)

Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard College. The college was named for the early Harvard benefactor Anne Mowlson and was one of the Seven Sisters colleges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notre Dame of Maryland University</span> Private university in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Notre Dame of Maryland University is a private Catholic university in Baltimore, Maryland. NDMU offers certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs for women and men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany Academy for Girls</span> Private, college-prep, day school in Albany, New York, United States

Albany Academy for Girls is an independent college-preparatory day school for girls in Albany, New York, United States, enrolling students from preschool to grade 12. Founded in 1814 by Ebenezer Foote as the Albany Female Academy, AAG is the oldest independent girls day school in the United States. It is located on the corners of Hackett Boulevard and Academy Road, across the street from its brother school The Albany Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapin School</span> Private, day, college-preparatory school in New York City

Chapin School is an all-girls independent day school on Manhattan's Upper East Side neighborhood in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fanny Jackson Coppin</span> American educator (1837–1913)

Fanny Jackson Coppin was an American educator, missionary and lifelong advocate for female higher education. One of the first Black alumnae of Oberlin College, she served as principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and became the first African American school superintendent in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Willard School</span> Private school in Troy, New York, US

Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women located in Troy, New York. Located on Mount Ida, it offers grades 9–12 and postgraduate coursework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logan, Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, United States

Logan is a neighborhood in the upper North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The majority of the neighborhood falls within the 19141 zip code, but some of it falls within 19140. The neighborhood is sometimes confused with the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia. Olney Avenue extends from both the Olney and Logan neighborhoods of the city. The Olney Transportation Center is located in Logan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Wright Sewall</span> American suffragist (1844–1920)

May Wright Sewall was an American reformer, who was known for her service to the causes of education, women's rights, and world peace. She was born in Greenfield, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Sewall served as chairman of the National Woman Suffrage Association's executive committee from 1882 to 1890, and was the organization's first recording secretary. She also served as president of the National Council of Women of the United States from 1897 to 1899, and president of the International Council of Women from 1899 to 1904. In addition, she helped organize the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and served as its first vice-president. Sewall was also an organizer of the World's Congress of Representative Women, which was held in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. U.S. President William McKinley appointed her as a U.S. representative of women to the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris.

Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción - Cebu, also known by its acronym CIC, is a private Catholic basic education institution operated by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul in Cebu City, Philippines. It began operation on May 30, 1880, in its Cebu City campus and originally was an all-girls school, making it the first school for girls in Cebu. It started to accept boys in 2010 making it co-educational.

Mary Maples Dunn was an American historian. She served as the eighth president of Smith College for ten years beginning in 1985. Dunn was also the director of the Schlesinger Library from 1995 to 2000. She was acting president of Radcliffe College when it merged with Harvard University, and she became the acting dean of the newly created Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study after the merger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Louisa Oberholtzer</span> American poet, activist, economist (1841–1930)

Sara Louisa Oberholtzer was an American poet, activist, and economist. Interested in the uplifting of humanity, she gave close attention to the introduction of school savings-banks into the public schools since 1889. She made an address on the subject in the first meeting of the Women's Council, in Washington, D.C. in February, 1891, which was printed in their "Transactions." Her address on school savings banks before the American Academy of Political and Social Science, in Philadelphia, in May, 1892, was printed in pamphlet form by the Academy. Her "How to Institute School Savings Banks," "A Plea for Economic Teaching " and other leaflet literature on the subject had broad circulation. She was widely instrumental in establishing school savings banks in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Sandwich Islands. She was also elected world's and national superintendent of that work for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which enlarged its channels. As W. C. T. U. World's Superintendent of School Savings Banks, Oberholtzer hoped to introduce this system in other countries beyond the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Still Anderson</span> American physician (1848–1919)

Caroline Still Anderson was an American physician, educator, and activist. She was a pioneering physician in the Philadelphia African-American community and one of the first Black women to become a physician in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Forten Purvis</span> American abolitionist (1810–1875)

Harriet Forten Purvis was an African-American abolitionist and first generation suffragist. With her mother and sisters, she formed the first biracial women's abolitionist group, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She hosted anti-slavery events at her home and with her husband Robert Purvis ran an Underground Railroad station. Robert and Harriet also founded the Gilbert Lyceum. She fought against segregation and for the right for blacks to vote after the Civil War.

The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating women such as Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Phillis Wheatley. The guidebook includes seven walks and introduces more than 200 Boston women.

Anna Martha Fullerton was an American physician and medical educator, born in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Gibbons Thomas</span> American politician (1869–1942)

Martha Gibbons Thomas was an American politician, suffragist, and dairy farmer from Chester County. She became one of the first women elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, belonging to a cohort of eight women representatives elected in 1922. Thomas won reelection in 1924. She did not seek a third term.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Girls HS". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  2. HQ75. P55x. Philadelphia Gay News. January 3, 1976 – March 25, 1978. Vol. 1. No. 1 – Vol. 2. No. 6. Special Collections Research Center in Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  3. "School Songs." Philadelphia High School for Girls.
  4. "Representative Vanessa Lowery Brown - PA House of Representatives". June 21, 2017. Archived from the original on June 21, 2017.
  5. "Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series - Minnie Kenney - A Champion with a Red Rose" (PDF). NSA. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  6. Writer, Wilford Shamlin III Tribune Staff. "Education official stresses the logic of diversity". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  7. Coleman, Lauren deLisa. "How The Data This Woman Stored Could Change Your Life". Forbes.
  8. Writer, By Vernon Clark, Inquirer Staff. "Marion Stokes, coproducer of TV show". www.inquirer.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. "RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT | Activist Seeking Truth on TV 24/7 | PBS". PBS .
  10. "Elect Mary Washington: About Mary". Archived from the original on September 23, 2010.
  11. "Girls' High grad speaks out after being denied diploma on stage after dancing during ceremony". 6abc.com. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  12. Creese, Mary R. S. (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN   0-8108-3287-9.
  13. Stone, Witmer (December 2, 1932). "Ida Augusta Keller (1866-1932)". Bartonia (14): 59–60. Retrieved October 30, 2014.

Sources