Contents

Collection Overview

Historical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Origins and Governance Collection, 1834-present

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Patricia J. Albright.

© 2007

Historical Note

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was established by educator Mary Lyon, who in 1832 began making plans for a school for the higher education of women that would own its own property and not be a for-profit venture. She enlisted the support of several clergymen and businessmen in and around Ipswich, Massachusetts, where she had been working as a teacher at Ipswich Female Seminary since 1828. Seven of these individuals - David Choate, Daniel Dana, Joseph Felt, George W. Heard, Edward Hitchcock, Asa Howland, and Theophilus Packard - formed a committee in September, 1834 that selected South Hadley, Massachusetts as the location for the school and worked to obtain a charter for the institution from the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that was granted on February 11, 1836. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened on November 7, 1837. The academic program expanded from three to four years in 1861/62 and students who completed the prescribed course of study received diplomas. In the late 1880s, in response to competition from degree-granting women's colleges, Mount Holyoke successfully petitioned the state legislature for a charter change that was granted on March 8, 1888. At that time, the name of the school changed to Mount Holyoke Seminary and College and the first degrees were awarded on June 27, 1889. The Seminary Program that did not lead to a degree was phased out and another change to the charter granted on January 31, 1893 marked the institution's transformation into Mount Holyoke College.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Materials in the Origins and Governance Collection date from 1834 to the present and are arranged in nine series: Committee of 1834 Records; Charters and Acts of Incorporation; Name Changes; Statutes; Heraldry; Collegiate Status; Policy Documents and Studies; Coeducation; and Self-Studies and Reports. A ledger notebook for the Committee of 1834 (1834-1835) contains minutes of meetings of a group of men who supported Mary Lyon's efforts to establish Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Charters and Acts of Incorporation (1836, 1868-1970) and Name Changes (1888, 1893, 1988) materials include copies of Mount Holyoke's original 1836 charter and documents reflecting the school's transition from a seminary to a degree-granting college. Statutes (circa 1841-1994) concern the duties of teachers, regulations governing student behavior, and parodies of Mount Holyoke's regulations known as the Blue Laws and Fire Laws. Heraldry materials (1838-2001) consist of historical sketches, articles, correspondence, drawings, photographs, and samples concerning Mount Holyoke's color, seal, and logos. A Collegiate Status certificate (1955) confirms the College's membership in the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Policy Documents and Studies consist of minutes, reports, studies, correspondence, and questionnaires documenting the work of the Mount Holyoke Committee of Four (originally formed as the Committee of Ten) from 1936-1938; a group of students who prepared A Working Paper on Education for Mount Holyoke College in 1969; the Fact-Finding Committee on Coeducation (1968-1970); the Danforth Workshop Committee (1972-1973); and the Ad Hoc Committee on Communications and Decision-Making (1974-1976). There is also a Conference Report on Equal Opportunity for Women: University Affirmative Action Programs by Mount Holyoke professors Marjorie Childers and Penny Martin (later Gill) in December, 1972. Coeducation materials (1923-present) consist of articles, correspondence, speeches, questionnaires, studies, and reports concerning the advantages and disadvantages of coeducation and single-sex education, particularly for women. Self-Studies and Reports (1977-present) contains documents relating to accreditation reviews of Mount Holyoke College by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education as well self-studies and reports prepared between 1989-2003 for strategic plans for Mount Holyoke in the 1990s, 2003, and 2010.

Material from this collection is available in an online digital format.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into nine series:

• Committee of 1834 Records (1834-1835)
• Charters and Acts of Incorporation (1836, 1868-1970)
• Name Changes (1888, 1893, 1988)
• Statutes (circa 1841-1994)
• Heraldry (1838-2001)
• Collegiate Status (1955)
• Policy Documents and Studies (1936-1938, 1968-1976)
• Coeducation (1923-present)
• Self-Studies and Reports (1977-present)

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Committee of 1834 1834-1835 1 folder

Committee of Four Records document the activities of a group of men who supported Mary Lyon's efforts to establish Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Serving on the committee were the David Choate, Daniel Dana, Joseph Felt, George W. Heard, Edward Hitchcock, Asa Howland, and Theophilus Packard. The records consist of a ledger notebook containing minutes of committee meetings from September 6, 1834-October 9, 1835. Issues discussed by committee members included the name and site of the Seminary as well as the process for obtaining a charter for the school from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts legislature.

Arranged chronologically.

Charters and Acts of Incorporation 1836, 1868-1970 2 folders

Charters and Acts of Incorporation contains copies of the original charter for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, granted on February 11, 1836 as well as reports and acts concerning charter amendments with regard to funding for the school and how much real estate Mount Holyoke could own. These materials include a summary of all changes to the charter from 1836-1968 and a newspaper article written in 1936 on occasion of one hundredth anniversary of the original charter.

Arranged chronologically.

Name Changes 1888-1988 2 folders

Name Changes materials consist of acts passed by the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that amended the 1836 charter and changed the school's name from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary to Mount Holyoke Seminary and College (1888), then to Mount Holyoke College (1893). These name changes reflect the school's transformation from a seminary that granted diplomas for the completion of studies to graduates into a degree-granting college. The materials also include copies of newspaper editorials from 1888 concerning the proposed charter change and an invitation to a celebration at the College in 1988 commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the 1888 charter.

Arranged chronologically.

Statutes circa 1841-1994 1 box

Statutes (circa 1841-1994) contain copies of and information about Mount Holyoke's rules and regulations. A notebook known as the Book of Duties (1842-1846) outlines the responsibilities of teachers, procedures for examinations and the system of marking, the daily schedule, the activities to be completed by members of the Mount Holyoke community of particular days, and the regulations concerning the care of health, study hours, music lessons, fire prevention, vacations, walking and calisthenics exercises for students, and the requirement that all students regularly write compositions. Other regulations (circa 1841-1994) concern student behavior with regard to church attendance, exercise, visitors, off-campus activities, the care and furnishings of dormitory rooms, the use of library materials, smoking, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. There are also articles and letters (circa 1867-1968) relating to parodies of Mount Holyoke's regulations known as the Blue Laws and Fire Laws. These burlesques of actual rules were originally written by Mount Holyoke students in the mid-nineteenth century and have often been mistaken for the school's authentic rules.

Arranged by form of material, then chronologically.

Heraldry 1838-2001 4 folders

Heraldry materials concern the color, seals, and logos used by Mount Holyoke from 1838-2001. These materials consist of articles and correspondence about the history of the seal and logo; drawings, sketches, and photographs of those devices, and ribbon samples in Mount Holyoke College Blue.

Arranged by topic.

Collegiate Status 1955 1 folder

Consists of a certificate issued by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1955 certifying that Mount Holyoke was admitted to membership in the Association in 1929.

Arranged chronologically.

Policy Documents and Studies 1936-1976 2 boxes

Policy Documents and Studies consist of records documenting the work of four committees and one working group at Mount Holyoke College from 1936-1938 and 1968-1976 and a conference report concerning affirmative action from 1972. The earliest of these groups, the Committee of Four, was initially established as the Committee of Ten in the spring of 1937 to study the inter-relationships among trustees, administrators, faculty, students, and alumnae in the aftermath of the divisive controversy over the selection of Roswell Gray Ham to succeed Mary Emma Woolley as President of Mount Holyoke College. Records for the committee date from 1936-1938 and consist of minutes, correspondence, and reports, including a examination of The Machinery of Control at Mount Holyoke College that was published in the November 1937 issue of the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly. In 1969, numerous Mount Holyoke students worked on a study of Mount Holyoke's educational philosophy and curriculum. The results of their work was issued as A Working Paper on Education for Mount Holyoke College, written by Janet Hall, Judy Harris, Jane Hickie, Susan Norton, and Merrill Wasserman with Susan Essock. Records of the Fact-Finding Committee on Coeducation (1968-1970) consist of correspondence, questionnaires, articles, press releases, and reports that concern the work of a group of trustees, faculty, administrators, and students that thoroughly examined Mount Holyoke's single-sex status. Activities of the Danforth Workshop Committee, comprised of Mount Holyoke faculty members who participated in seminar-workshop about women in higher education at Danforth Foundation Workshop on Liberal Arts Education in 1972, are documented by memoranda and a report (1972-1973). Records of the Ad Hoc Committee on Communications and Decision-Making (1974-1976) which was established by the Board of Trustees to recommend ways to improve communication among trustees, students, faculty, and staff and allow students to more fully participate in the decision-making processes at the College, consist of minutes and agenda, correspondence, notes, articles, and a final report. The Conference Report on Equal Opportunity for Women: University Affirmative Action Programs by Mount Holyoke professors Marjorie Childers and Penny Martin (later Gill) from December, 1972 concerns discussions at a meeting sponsored by the Urban Research Cooperation.

Arranged chronologically.

Coeducation 1923-present 1 box

These materials date from 1923 the present and consist of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles, press releases, announcements, speeches, questionnaires, correspondence, studies and reports concerning the advantages and disadvantages of coed and single sex education. Many of the articles concern colleges for women. There is also a collection of Selected News Clips May-August, 1994 compiled by the Women's College Coalition that concern women's colleges, single-sex education, and the plight of girls in the classroom.

Arranged chronologically.

Self-Studies and Reports 1977-present 3 boxes

Self-Studies and Reports contain documents relating to accreditation reviews of Mount Holyoke College by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. (NEASC) and to three strategic plans prepared by the College from 1989-2003. Review materials consist of detailed self-studies that describe the curriculum, finances, student services, use of computers and telecommunications, and facilities at Mount Holyoke and reports by the NEASC recommending various improvements. Drafts and reports relating to the strategic plans document the work of the Strategic Planning Task Force (1989-1993) on a plan for Mount Holyoke College in the 1990s, the College Planning Task Force (1996-1997) on The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003, and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of the College (2000-2003) on The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2010. A Supplement to the Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003 from August 1997 consists of another detailed self-study that the College prepared for the NEASC Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.

Arranged chronologically.

Committee of 1834 1834-1835 1 folder

Charters and Acts of Incorporation 1836, 1868-1970 2 folders

Name Changes 1888-1988 2 folders

Statutes circa 1841-1994 1 box

Heraldry 1838-2001 4 folders

Collegiate Status 1955 1 folder

Policy Documents and Studies 1936-1976 2 boxes

Coeducation 1923-present 1 box

Self-Studies and Reports 1977-present 2 boxes