Western College for Women, known at other times as Western Female Seminary and simply Western College, was a women's and later coed liberal arts college in Oxford, Ohio, between 1855 and 1974. Initially a seminary, it was the host of orientation sessions for the Freedom Summer in 1964. It was absorbed by Miami University in 1974 after dwindling finances. Now known as the Western Campus of Miami University, it was designated a U.S. Historic district known as the Western Female Seminary Historic District in 1979.

History

thumb|left|[[Alumnae Hall (Western College for Women)|Alumnae Hall was the central building on Western College's campus from 1892 until it was torn down in 1977.]]

Western College was founded in 1853 as Western Female Seminary. It was a daughter school of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and its first principal, Helen Peabody, was a Holyoke graduate. The college changed its name three times, in 1894 to The Western: A College and Seminary for Women, in 1904 to Western College for Women, and in 1971 to The Western College when the institution became coeducational.

Western today

In 1974, the Western College for Women merged with Miami University and became the Western College Program, an interdisciplinary studies program. In 2007, the Western College Program was integrated into the College of Arts and Sciences and is now known as the Western Program for Individualized Studies.

Of the original Western College buildings, Boyd Hall, Clawson Hall, Hoyt Library, Kumler Chapel, McKee Hall, Thomson Hall, and Peabody Hall were retained as either academic building or dormitories. Since the merger, four new dormitories and a dining hall were also added to the Western Campus.

Notable alumnae

thumb|200px|[[Lilian Wyckoff Johnson, the first woman to receive a doctorate from Cornell University, served as President of Western College 1904—1906.]]

  • Margaret Caroline Anderson, founder-editor The Little Review
  • Edith Evans Asbury, journalist
  • Esin Atıl, curator
  • Robin L. Bartlett, economist
  • Wilhelmina von Bremen, Olympic runner
  • Mary Letitia Caldwell, winner of the Garvan Medal for chemistry
  • Penny Colman, author
  • Eliza Calvert Hall, author and suffragist
  • Sarah Jane Dawes Shedd, missionary in Persia
  • Natalie de Blois, architect
  • Ameerah Haq, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
  • Mary Garrett Hay, suffragist and community organizer
  • Dorothy Misener Jurney, the "godmother of women's pages"
  • Helene Mambu, Congolese physician and International Public Health Expert
  • Nancy Barr Mavity, crime mystery writer
  • Ann Marcus, television writer
  • Pamela Mboya, Kenyan representative, UN-Habitat
  • Gladys Milligan, painter
  • Hank Phillippi Ryan, reporter and novelist
  • Donna Shalala, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and university administrator
  • Sylvia Stanfield, diplomat
  • Maliha Zulfacar, professor and Afghan ambassador to Germany
  • Ester Neira de Calvo, educator, feminist and women's right advocate
  • Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, educator and voting rights advocate.
  • Greta Pope, vocalist and vocal coach

See also

  • List of current and historical women's universities and colleges
  • Alumnae Hall (Western College for Women)
  • Hoyt Hall (Miami, Ohio)
  • Kumler Chapel
  • Langstroth Cottage
  • Mary Lyon Residence Hall
  • Peabody Hall (Miami University)

References

  • Western History from Ohiohistorycentral.org
  • Western Female Seminary records, 1863-1973
  • The Western Round-Up Student Newspaper