February 2002
Western Female Seminary
Founded in 1853, Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio, offered women a four-year curriculum modeled on that of Mount Holyoke College. When it opened in 1855, the first principal of this western Mount Holyoke, Helen Peabody, was herself a Mount Holyoke graduate. The Library Company recently acquired a series of the school's publications from the period from 1867 to 1876. Among other things, they document the aftermath of a fire in 1871, when the graduates and local Presbyterian community rallied to rebuild the college. Subsequent catalogs included an engraving showing the school's new edifice. In the 20th century, when Western College (as it was later named) closed in 1974, Miami University purchased the facilities.