Bold in its mission to educate women, Barnard College is also full of secrets: a provocative bench, a 700+ foot sub, a new library and greenhouse, and a dancing mascot. Founded in 1889 with the intent to educate women with the same rigor men readily had available to them, Barnard College is one of the oldest women’s colleges in the world.
Located in Morningside Heights, Barnard offers a challenging liberal arts education, dedicated to shaping bold female leaders to change and inspire the world, which is seen in Barnard’s history, traditions, and new buildings. This ambitious and bold campus, however, is full of brewing, unspoken, and provocative secrets that need to be divulged!
10. A Female Student Founded Barnard
In 1889, Annie Nathan Meyer, a student and writer, founded Barnard College which was named after Columbia University’s 10th president, mathematician, and educator: Frederick Barnard. Although unsuccessful, he argued for the admission of women into Columbia University. Self taught, Meyer was accepted to be a student at Columbia College Collegiate Course for Women, a program founded in 1885 but did not recognize women as officially enrolled students. Nor could women attend the classes at Columbia – they were given a syllabus and if they passed an exam, they could receive a degree.
Meyer and Barnard were both dissatisfied by Columbia’s stance to not admit women, but they were committed to the education of women. Thus, in 1887 Meyer petitioned the University Trustees for an affiliated self-sustaining liberal arts women’s college. In 1889 Barnard was one of the few colleges in the United States where women received the same rigorous education that men received.