Benjamin Franklin and Penn's first Trustees took control of the Charity School trust and completed construction of the "New Building" at Fourth and Arch Streets.

The Trustees appointed Frances Holwell the first Mistress of Girls in the Charity School and opened the school to girls. 212 years later, during the University's Homecoming Weekend of October 1965, the Trustees dedicated Holwell House, one of the four houses in the Robert C. Hill Residence Hall, in her honor. Ms. Holwell served the School for seven years, concluding her work in 1760.

The University was chartered by the Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania, but did not admit women.

In September, Mrs. John Heffernan became Mistress of Girls in the Charity School. Mrs. Heffernan served the school for three years, concluding her work in July 1782.

In June, the Trustees' Committee on the Charity Schools of the University reported, "that the new building recently erected on the rear of the lot on the West side of Delaware 4th St. below Arch St. contains three well sized rooms, with a small room attached to each, intended for a clothes' room, and which can be used (tho' not very comfortably at all times) as a class-room for some fifteen scholars. ... There is space in each [large] room for about 75 pupils. The Committee proposes two teachers for each school, a principal and [an] assistant. ... The Girls' school to be a Primary School, similar to the Public Primary Schools in its course of instruction. This course would embrace Spelling & Reading, Mental & Written Arithmetic, Writing and Drawing on Slates, Elementary Geography, Lessons on Common things illustrated as far as practicable by the objects themselves."

In accordance with the Committee's report, the Trustees reorganized the Charity Schools of the University and directed that both a Boys' School and a Girls' Primary School be re-opened, each with a Principal Teacher and an Assistant Teacher.

In September, the Trustees elected Josephine Bedlock to the academic administrator position of Principal Teacher in the Girls' Charity School. Ms. Bedlock had taught for eight years at the South Eastern Grammar School for Boys in Philadelphia and in the last five of those eight she had served as First Assistant. She enjoyed the unqualified recommendations of its principal and directors. She had also received advanced instruction in teaching at Philadelphia's Central High School. Ms. Bedlock made her work at the Charity School her career, serving as Principal Teacher until the School closed in 1877.

Also in September, the Trustees elected Mary Eliza Pancoast to the academic position of Assistant Teacher in the Girls' Charity School. Ms. Pancoast had taught for five years in the Philadelphia public schools, the last two of which at Frankford Grammar School. Like Josephine Bedlock, she had received advanced instruction in teaching at Central High School and enjoyed the unqualified recommendation of John S. Hart, Principal of the High School. Mary Eliza Pancoast served as a teacher in the Charity School until 1853.

Also in September, the Trustees elected Joseph McKinley to the position of Principal Teacher in the Boys' Charity School and elected Margaretta Wallace to the position of Assistant Teacher. Ms. Wallace was serving as Principal of the Christ Church Parish School and had previously taught for four years at the Lombard Street (Public) Grammar School. She enjoyed the unqualified recommendations of the principal and the directors of the Lombard Street School. Ms. Wallace, like Josephine Bedlock, made her work at the Charity School her career, serving as a Teacher until the school closed in 1877.

At the request of the Trustees of the University, the Board of Managers of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania established a Board of Women Visitors, the purpose of which was "to assist the Managers in the administration of the housekeeping and nursing of the Hospital." The first members of the Board of Women Visitors were Anna Blanchard, Mary Todhunter Sill Clark ("Mrs. Clarence H. Clark"), Virginia Earp ("Miss Earp"), Mrs. Ebbs, Mary Klett Gibson ("Mrs. Henry C. Gibson"), Lillie H. Kay, Sarah Longacre Keen ("Mrs. John F. Keen"), Ellen Hansell Page ("Mrs. Joseph Page"), Frances Sergeant Perry Pepper ("Mrs. William Pepper"), Delia Saunders Rogers ("Mrs. Robert Empie Rogers"), Lydia Crane Reyburn ("Mrs. William Stuart Reyburn"), Anna Dike Riddle Scott ("Mrs. Thomas A. Scott"), Ellen Holmes Verner Simpson ("Mrs. Matthew Simpson"), Maria R. Tevis Towne ("Mrs. John Henry Towne"), Anna H. Wilstach ("Mrs. [Wm.] Wilstach"), Annis Lee Furness Wister ("Mrs. Caspar Wister"), and Juliana Wood. In October 1875, the Board of Managers of the Hospital authorized the Board of Women Visitors to adopt by-laws and other rules for their own governance. The Board elected Caroline W. Paul the first President of the Board, Juliana Wood the first Secretary, and Frances Sergeant Perry Pepper the first Treasurer. Through the Board of Women Visitors at the Hospital, women fulfilled the responsibilities of a board of overseers for the first time in Penn's history.

In May, the Trustees elected Hugh Alexander Clarke to the faculty position of Professor of the Science of Music.

In October, the Catalogue of the University announced, for the first time, "Lectures on the Science of Music are delivered twice a week by Professor [Hugh A.] Clarke to such persons, members of the University and others, male and female, as may desire systematic instruction on this subject." It is unfortunate that the University did not register the names of Professor Clarke's students until the Department of Music was established and opened to enrollment at the beginning of the 1877-78 academic year.

On 13 October, two women - Gertrude Klein Peirce and Anna Lockhart Flanigen - enrolled as special students in the Towne Scientific School (the present-day School of Engineering and Applied Science). Ms. Flanigen was twenty-four years old and had been a student at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (but apparently not a graduate of that school). Ms. Peirce was seventeen years old and had also been a student in the Women's Medical College. They were the first women to be admitted to collegiate courses customarily leading to a University degree. As special students, however, Peirce and Flanigen were not eligible for a degree. Both women took courses in the Department of Chemistry.

In December, the Trustees established the Department of Music and adopted the academic requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree. This was the first academic program at Penn to admit women from the date of its establishment. Six women - A.R. Brown, Eleanor S. Cooper, Julia Catherine Foulke, E.H. Miller, M.H. Sinclair, and M. Wetherill - enrolled in 1877-78 as regular students in the two-year course leading to a Certificate of Proficiency in Music. None of these women earned the Certificate of Proficiency, but they were nevertheless a distinguished group. "A.R. Brown" was Anna Robertson Brown, who, in 1892, would become the first woman to earn Penn's Ph.D. "E.H. Miller" was the daughter of Elihu Spencer Miller, Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School. "Julia Catherine Foulke" later married a graduate of the College, Henry Carvill Lewis, A.B. 1873.

In June, the Trustees closed the Charity School, stating that the public schools of Philadelphia had progressed to the point where they provided educational facilities and teaching comparable to that previously available to the poor only through charity schools. The Trustees re-directed the income of the Charity School trust to collegiate scholarships for young men and to instruction for "female students" so far as the Provost thought appropriate at the University.

On 14 September, Mary Elfreth Allen, M.D., an 1876 graduate of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, became the third woman to enroll as a special student in the School of Engineering. Dr. Allen was twenty-seven years old and lived at 524 Pine Street, Philadelphia.

Also in September, at their regular stated meeting, the Trustees adopted the following preamble and five-part resolution:

"Whereas, the Board, at its meeting June 5th 1877 directed that the Charity Schools be closed, and that the funds by which they were supported should be hereafter applied to maintain gratuitous instruction for children, male and female, in needy circumstances in the Department of Arts [the present-day College] and the Towne Scientific School [the present-day School of Engineering and Applied Science],

"Resolved, That the [Trustees] Committees on said Departments be authorized, on the recommendation of the Provost, to admit into the Department of Arts and the Towne Scientific School such a number of male children in indigent circumstances as they may deem expedient, such children having first passed the prescribed examination for admission and fulfilled the other conditions for entrance therein;

"Resolved, That said Committees be authorized on the recommendation of the Provost to admit such a number of female children in indigent circumstances as they may deem expedient to the lectures on History and to the instruction by lecture and in the laboratories in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics;

"Resolved, That any other females desiring to attend the instruction in the aforesaid subjects may do so on the payment of a fee to be settled by the Committees, provided that said females in the opinion of the Provost are sufficiently advanced to profit by the instruction;

"Resolved, That any female attending said course of instruction may present herself at the end thereof for examination therein and if said examination is satisfactory shall receive from the authorities of the University a certificate thereof;

"Resolved, That the Provost be requested to organize a plan of instruction upon the aforesaid principles and to give public notice of the same."

In October, the annual Catalogue of the University announced, for the first time,

"Women are now admitted, in the Towne Scientific School, to the Lectures on Modern History, given to the Seniors, to those on General Chemistry, given to the Freshmen and Sophomores, to those on Physics, given to the Sophomores, and to the instruction in Analytical Chemistry, given to Juniors and Seniors in one of the Laboratories."

In February, the Provost reported to the Trustees that "several ladies were in attendance" at the lectures on Modern History given to the Senior Class in the College.

On 22 March, Mary Thorn Lewis became the fourth (and final) woman to enroll as a special student in the School of Engineering. She was twenty-four years old and lived at 2224 Green Street, Philadelphia.

In April, the Trustees adopted a resolution which granted the request of the faculty of the Auxiliary School of Medicine to admit women. The Trustees noted, however, that the women admitted were "subject to the same regulation as at present exists permitting women under certain conditions to become special students in the Towne Scientific School (the present-day School of Engineering and Applied Science)."

At the Commencement held on 14 June, the University granted Certificates of Proficiency in Science to Anna Lockhart Flanigen and Gertrude Klein Peirce. They were the first women to complete a collegiate course of study at Penn.

The School of Dental Medicine was founded, but did not admit women.

The Trustees announced that "persons of both sexes are now admitted" to the classes in English, Classics, History, Social Science, and Speculative Philosophy (or "Darwinism"), in the College; to the classes in General Chemistry, Physics, and Analytical Chemistry, in the School of Engineering; and to all classes in the Department of Music.

The Trustees simultaneously announced the establishment of the Bloomfield Moore Fund, the income of which was dedicated to the education of women who planned to become teachers. The Fund was sufficient to support as many as six women in any one year and those who received the scholarship were free to enroll in any of the classes declared open to "both sexes." The Bloomfield Moore Fund was the first endowment for women's education at Penn.

In the spring semester, the School of Auxiliary Medicine admitted its first women students, Mary Alice Bennett, M.D., of Wrentham, Massachusetts, and Anna H. Johnson, of Orange, New Jersey.

At the Commencement held on 15 June, the University granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to Mary Alice Bennett, M.D. for her successful completion of the post-graduate course in medical science offered by the School of Auxiliary Medicine. Dr. Bennett, an 1876 graduate of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, thereby became the first woman to earn a degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She was among the last students, however, to take the Ph.D. from the School of Auxiliary Medicine. The School's two-year course was far less demanding than the modern Ph.D. and beginning in 1882, the Trustees substituted the degree of Bachelor of Sciences Auxiliary to Medicine for the Ph.D. In that same year, Martha Paul Hughes, M.D., an 1880 graduate of the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan, was a member of the first class to earn the B.S. Auxiliary to Medicine degree at Penn. In 1898 the School of Auxiliary Medicine was closed.

Also at the Commencement of 1880, the University granted a Certificate of Proficiency in Science to Mary Thorn Lewis.

The Wharton School was founded, but did not admit women.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was founded and was the first to admit women at its establishment to courses leading to a degree.

In October, the faculty of the College recommended the admission to the College of Ms. Ida C. Craddock. The faculty noted that she had applied for admission to the first-year year class of the College and had passed the required examination. Frederick Fraley, chairman of the committee of the Trustees charged with oversight of the College, presented a ten-part plan for establishing a "women's section" in the College. His proposal was rejected and Ms. Craddock denied admission. Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and also one of the Trustees of the University, then introduced a resolution explicitly prohibiting the admission of women to the College. The Trustees adopted the Bishop's resolution, but also adopted a resolution offered by another Trustee, George Whitney, "that the Trustees will organize a separate Collegiate Department for the complete education of women, so soon as funds are received sufficient to meet the expense thereof." The Trustees thereby committed themselves to establishing a college for women at Penn, but more than fifty years passed before the College for Women matriculated its first students.

At the Commencement held on 15 June, the University granted the degree of Bachelor of Laws to Caroline Burnham Kilgore. She became the first woman admitted to the practice of law before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Eighty-two years after her graduation, during the University's Homecoming Weekend of October 1965, the Trustees dedicated Kilgore House, one of the four houses in the Robert C. Hill Residence Hall, in her honor.

Also at the Commencement of 1883, the University granted Certificates of Proficiency in Music to four women: Helen Archibald Clarke, Marie Elisabeth Jefferys, Katherine E. Smaltz, and Annie V. Spooner. They were the first students to complete the two-year course leading to the Certificate of Proficiency. Helen Clarke was the daughter of the Professor of Music, Hugh Archibald Clarke. She became a distinguished author and poet and lived in Boston, Massachusetts. Marie Jefferys also became a well-known author. She married Henry Lee Hobart and lived in New York City. Katherine Smaltz was active in the Philomusician and Matinee Musical Clubs of Philadelphia. She married Charles Mortimooe and lived in West Philadelphia.

The Department of Biology was founded and was the third academic program at Penn to admit women from its inception, though its course did not lead to a degree. Its purpose was "to provide a course of instruction in Biology for students of both sexes who are preparing to study medicine, or who desire systematic training in this subject." A Certificate of Proficiency was granted to those who successfully completed the two-year course.

At the Commencement held on 15 June, the University awarded the Certificate of Proficiency in Biology to Ida Augusta Keller. She was the first woman to complete the two-year course in Biology. Four years later she earned the Ph.D. degree from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

In December, the University Hospital Training School for Nurses was founded and was the fourth academic program at Penn to admit women from its inception, though its course did not lead to a degree. The Board of Managers of the Hospital also opened the Wood Memorial Nurses Home, on the southwest corner of Thirty-fourth and Spruce Streets. It was the first residence hall for women at Penn.

The Department of Biology appointed Emily Lovira Gregory, A.B., Ph.D., to the faculty position of teaching fellow. She thereby became the first woman member of the faculty at Penn. Born in Portage, New York, Emily Lovira Gregory taught school until, at the age of thirty-five, she entered Cornell University, where she earned the degree of bachelor of arts in 1881. She then travelled to Europe, where she earned a doctorate in botany at the University of Zurich. After her year at Penn, she was appointed lecturer at Barnard College in New York City. At Barnard she played an active part in championing the cause of graduate students and encouraging laboratory assistants by paying them out of her own funds. She died at the age of fifty-six, two years after becoming the first woman to win promotion to a full professorship at Barnard.

In October, the Senior Class in the College organized a protest against co-education and presented a petition to the Trustees signed by virtually all the members of the class.

In November, however, the Trustees accepted the offer of Joseph M. Bennett to endow a college for women.

In March, six women students established at Penn the Beta Alpha chapter of the national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. It was the first sorority at Penn. The founders were Josephine Feger Ancona (Cert. of Prof. in Biol., 1891; B.S. in Biol., 1895), Rose Ancona (Cert. of Prof. in Biol., 1891), Martha Bunting (Cert. of Prof. in Biol., 1890), Kathleen Carter (Cert. of Prof. in Biol., 1890; Ph.D. in Psychology, 1896; after her marriage, "Mrs. John Percy Moore"), Jessie Lippincott Colson (Cert. of Prof. in Biol., 1889), and Lois Meiss Otis (student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1889-90 and 1890-91, but did not earn a degree). Martha Bunting was the first President. Kappa Kappa Gamma occupied 3323 Walnut Street from 1921 to 1959, when the house was demolished to make way for Hill House. Kappa Kappa Gamma occupied 225 South 39th Street from 1959 to 1970. This was followed by rented space in two fraternity houses, Delta Psi and Delta Phi, before the Beta Alpha chapter was disbanded in 1975.

In April, the Trustees adopted a resolution which created a Board of Managers for the Graduate Department of Women, to be composed of seven Trustees and five women. The Trustees elected Agnes Irwin, Mary McMurtrie, and Ida Wood to the Board of Managers.

In June, the Provost nominated Mary H. Rodgers Biddle ("Mrs. George Biddle"), Frances E. Bennett, Mary Burnham, and Anna Wright Baird ("Mrs. Matthew Baird") to the Board of Managers of the Graduate Department of Women. The Trustees "confirmed" the nominations, but Biddle and Burnham may not have agreed to accept their respective nominations as their names did not appear among the Managers of 1891.

At the Commencement held on 5 June, the University granted the Certificate of Proficiency in Music to Ida Elizabeth Bowser. She was the first African American woman to enroll in classes at Penn.

The University opened the second women's residence hall - this one for women in the Graduate School only - in two houses at the southeast corner of Thirty-Fourth and Walnut Streets. These properties had been donated to Penn by Joseph M. Bennett as part of his endowment of a College for Women.

In December, the Trustees formally established the Graduate Department for Women by adopting a resolution assigning the entire faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to secondary appointments in the Graduate Department for Women.

The Trustees published an announcement stating that the Graduate Department for Women was founded "for the purpose of affording to women the opportunities for advanced study which are provided by the Faculty of [the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences]. It is under the direct control of a Board of Managers appointed by the Trustees, and has accommodations for residence and study in a Hall presented by Joseph M. Bennett, of Philadelphia, nearly opposite to the Library and convenient to the class-rooms and laboratories of the several departments in which its students receive their instruction." Anna Wright Baird ("Mrs. Matthew Baird"), Frances E. Bennett, Mary Pepper Norris Cochran ("Mrs. Travis Cochran"), Deborah Brown Coleman ("Mrs. George Dawson Coleman"), Agnes Irwin (Hon. Litt.D., 1898), Mary McMurtrie, and Ida Wood were members of the first Board of Managers and formed a voting majority of the Board.

In November, the Trustees elected Ida Wood the first Secretary of the Graduate Department for Women, but "without salary." She resigned her position in February 1893, less than a year and a half later.

In May, the Trustees enlarged the Board of Managers of the Graduate Department for Women to twenty and elected Isabel Armstrong Lippincott ("Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott"), Anna S. Biddle Blair ("Mrs. Andrew A. Blair"), and Eleanor Elkins Widener ("Mrs. George D. Widener") to the Board.

Also in May, the University held a formal "Opening of the Graduate Department for Women." M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr College, was the principal speaker and she described in detail the advancement of women in higher education in the United States. She noted that 165 colleges in the American West were "conferring on women regular degrees in arts and sciences;" that co-education became the norm in the West after 1870, when the University of Michigan opened its admissions to women; and that the "two new Western universities, that promise to be the most richly endowed in all America, the Leland Stanford University in California, and the University of Chicago, make no distinction between men and women." She noted also that in the American South there were "thirty-nine co-educational colleges and universities," including the State universities of Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas. She noted also that in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, "within the last few months the great University of Yale has admitted [women] to all its graduate instruction, its second degrees, and its fellowships; … Brown, has this year admitted women to its examinations, and, as I have heard from the president, in a letter received last week, will next year admit women to all its graduate work; … Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are open to women … Cornell is open to women; the degrees of Columbia, and to all intents and purposes its graduate department, are open to women; … [and] in the East, where there is a choice, we find in the four best known colleges for women, in Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr, no less than two thousand women." The program was concluded by Provost William Pepper, who announced that a total of eight graduate fellowships were fully endowed in the Graduate Department for Women and would be offered to prospective students in the 1892-93 academic year.

The Trustees established five undergraduate professional degree programs in the School of Engineering: Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Women were not admitted to these courses.

At the Commencement held on 15 June, the University granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English to Anna Robertson Brown. She was the first woman to earn the modern Ph.D. at Penn and the first person to earn Penn's Ph.D. in English. After taking her doctorate, she married Samuel McCune Lindsay, Professor of Sociology at Penn, and she began a career of authoring religious works, publishing more than a dozen monographs over a thirty-year period. She also served as a Trustee of her college, Wellesley, from 1906 to 1918.

The University Hospital Training School for Nurses extended its course from two years to three. The three-year course remained the standard until the School was closed in 1978.

At the Commencement held on 16 June, the University granted the degree of Master of Arts to Alice Minerva Atkinson and Eleanor Elizabeth Tibbetts. They were the first women to earn the modern M.A. at Penn. Both continued their graduate studies at Penn. In 1894 Tibbetts became the first woman to earn Penn's Ph.D. in Philosophy and in 1895 Atkinson became the first woman to earn Penn's Ph.D. in Latin.

In February, the Trustees elected seven women--Anna Wright Baird ("Mrs. Matthew Baird"), Mrs. Rudolph Ellis, Mrs. E.A.P. de Guerrero, Emily Gardiner Leland Harrison ("Mrs. John Harrison"), Alice Potter Lippincott ("Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott"), Sara Yorke Stevenson ("Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson"), and Sabine d'Invilliers Weightman ("Mrs. William Weightman, Jr.")--to the Board of Managers of the University Museum. These seven were the first women to serve the University as overseers of the University Museum.

At the Commencement held on 5 June, Sara Yorke Stevenson became the first woman recipient of an honorary degree. The Trustees granted her the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her founding role in the University Museum. She was the first woman to be awarded the Sc.D. degree at Penn.

In July the Trustees established a four-year course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Biology and open to men and women "on equal terms." This was the first, modern, full-time, four-year, undergraduate course open to women.

In September Fuji Tsukamoto enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and declared Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry her fields of study. A graduate of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Fuji Tsukamoto was the first Asian American woman to matriculate at Penn.

In October the Courses for Teachers program was founded under the direction of Professor Martin G. Brumbaugh and became the sixth academic program at Penn to admit women from its inception. Described by the Trustees as "the work in Pedagogy at the University," its purpose was to "meet the needs of teachers who wish to pursue work in one or more subjects." It may properly be seen as the predecessor to the School of Education. In order to accommodate teachers already actively employed, the classes were held on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings only. A Certificate of Proficiency was granted to those who successfully completed the course.

Also in October, the Provost reported to the Trustees that the Board of Managers of the Graduate Department for Women had been reduced in number by four: Deborah Brown Coleman ("Mrs. George Dawson Coleman") and Isabel Armstrong Lippincott ("Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott") had died and Agnes Irwin and Ida Wood had moved away from Philadelphia and resigned from the Board. The Provost nominated "Mrs. John Markoe," in Agnes Irwin's place and the Trustees "duly confirmed" the nomination.

In December the Trustees established a four-year course at the Wharton School leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Economics. Women were not admitted to this course.

At the Commencement held on 9 June, the University granted the degree of Bachelor of Music to Elsa West Rulon (Cert. of Prof. in Music, 1895). She was the first woman to complete the extraordinary requirement for the bachelor's degree: "an original composition in the form of a cantata for solos and chorus, with an accompaniment of at least a quintette of string instruments … of such a length as to require at least twenty minutes for its performance."

In October, the Trustees elected Dr. Fanny Rysam Mulford Hitchcock to the Board of Managers of the Graduate Department for Women. She succeeded "Mrs. John Markoe," who had resigned from the Board. Dr. Hitchcock had first enrolled at Penn in the fall of 1890 as an undergraduate student in Biology. When she returned in the fall of 1891, however, she matriculated as a student in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. After three years of graduate studies, she earned Penn's Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry in 1894, the first woman to take in the Ph.D. in Chemistry.

In December, the Trustees re-organized the Graduate Department of Women to provide for a Board of Managers of twenty-four members, to be elected by the Trustees in April of each year for one-year terms; an Executive Committee of five members, to be appointed by the Provost in May of each year for one-year terms; a "Director [who] shall always be a woman," to be elected by the Trustees in April of each year for a one-year term beginning 1 September of that same year. The Board of Managers was granted control of the administration of "Bennett House," at 3448-50 Walnut Street, with authority over its finances, including its trust funds. The Director was responsible for the student life of all women students. She was also an ex-officio member of the Board of Managers and Chairman of the Executive Committee.

Fanny Rysam Mulford Hitchcock (Ph.D., 1894) was the first Director of Women Students and had an office in Room 102 of College Hall.

In May, Joseph Bennett gave to the University "four houses adjoining Bennett Hall, to be used for the higher education of women." Bennett Hall, his original gift in 1890, consisted of two four-story houses at 3448 and 3450 Walnut Street. This additional gift consisted of 3440, 3442, 3444, and 3446 Walnut Street. Together they included all the ground now covered by the present-day Bennett Hall.

At the Commencement held on 8 June, Agnes Irwin became the second woman recipient of an honorary degree at Penn and the first to be celebrated for advancing the cause of women in higher education. The Trustees granted her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Hon. Litt.D.) in recognition of her accomplishments as the founder of a distinguished college preparatory school for women in Philadelphia and since 1894, Dean of Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the first woman to be awarded the honorary Litt.D. degree at Penn.

Also in May, the Trustees authorized the expenditure of $1,000 for the repair and maintenance of Bennett Hall at 3448-50 Walnut Street.

Also in May, the Trustees accepted the offer of Frances Hitchcock, one of the Managers of the Graduate Department for Women, to provide part of the building at 3903 Locust Street to the University as a "temporary gymnasium for women," at no charge to the University.

In September, the Trustees appointed Elizabeth A. Ryder, M.D., to the faculty position of Assistant Director of the Department of Physical Education. She held that position for two academic years before submitting her resignation to the Trustees on 29 May 1901.

In December, "at the suggestion of the women students of the University," the Trustees authorized the use of the gymnasium for women, located "at 39th and Locust Streets." The Trustees confirmed their earlier appointment of Elizabeth A. Ryder, M.D. to the faculty position of Assistant Director of the Department of Physical Education. They also appointed Esther Kuhn to the part-time faculty position of Instructor in the Department of Physical Education. They set the annual salary of Ms. Kuhn at $300 with the understanding that if her work should expand to full time, her compensation would increase appropriately. In order to defray the cost of Ms. Kuhn's salary, they established a gymnasium general fee of $1 per semester and charged it to all women students in the Biological Department and the course in Interior Decoration.

Twenty-five years after the first women enrolled in classes at Penn, a total of 317 women were enrolled in six different academic programs. The great majority of women attended classes on a part time basis in the Courses for Teachers program and were not candidates for degrees. 66 women were full time students, enrolled in the Department of Music, the Department of Biology, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or the Law School. They aimed to earn a degree and enter a profession of their choice. In addition there were 68 women enrolled in the University Hospital Training School for Nurses. They were also full time students. They aimed to complete the School's three-year course and earn its diploma in nursing. The University of Pennsylvania Catalogue for 1901-02 contained a brief account of the Training School for Nurses listed the sixteen students who formed the Graduating Class of 1901.

It was also at the Hospital that women held senior administrative and academic administrator positions. Jean W. McPherson combined both functions in a single position, serving simultaneously as Superintendent of the Hospital and Directress of Nurses. As Superintendent, she was responsible for one of the largest budgets and largest payrolls on campus; as Directress, she was the chief academic officer of the Training School for Nurses. HUP admitted more than 2,600 patients in 1901 and treated another 13,200 on an out-patient basis. She managed annual expenditures of $142,000, which included a payroll of $33,000. No other woman at Penn held an administrative position remotely approaching the authority of the Superintendent of the Hospital. The Assistant Superintendent of the Hospital was also a woman, Elsie F.M. Chambers. Ms. McPherson and Ms. Chambers were also the chief academic administrators, senior teachers, and supervisors of student life in the Training School for Nurses. They were responsible for the student nurses both in the classroom and in the Nurses' Home, where the entire student body was required to live.

Women were still half a century away from being represented among the Trustees of the University, but they had advanced to membership in three of the University's Boards of Managers. Three women - Ellen Nixon Waln Harrison ("Mrs. Charles C. Harrison"), Mrs. Edward M. Paxson, and Mrs. George Wharton Pepper - served as Managers of the University Hospital. One woman - Sarah Yorke Stevenson - was a member and an officers of the Board of Managers of the University Museum. Seven women - Lucy Wharton Drexel, "Mrs. William Frishmuth," Emily Gardner Leland Harrison ("Mrs. John Harrison"), "Mrs. Walter M. James," Elizabeth Norris Platt ("Mrs. Charles Platt, Jr."), M. Carey Thomas, and Sabine d'Invillier Weightman Wister ("Mrs. Jones Wister") - served on the Museum's Advisory Board of Managers. Though the Board of Managers of the Graduate Department of Women had atrophied considerably in the latter half of the 1890s, women continued to be represented by the wives of two members of the faculty, Gertrude Stevenson McMaster ("Mrs. John Bach McMaster") and "Mrs. Felix E. Schelling."

Lastly, a few women held salaried ositions among the University staff. The most prominent were Margaret Center Klingelsmith (LL.B., 1898), Librarian of the Biddle Law Library, and Susan W. Randall, Assistant Librarian of the University. There were another fifteen women working in the University Library, whose responsibilities were already specialized along the modern departmental units of acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, public services, and departmental libraries. There were also Dr. Ryder and Ms. Kuhn, in the Department of Physical Education, as described in the entry for 1899, above.

In March, however, the Trustees adopted the following resolution:

That while highly appreciating the generous offer made by Miss [Fanny Rysam Mulford] Hitchcock for establishment of one or more undergraduate courses for women, leading to a degree in Arts or Science, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, after careful consultation with the officers of instruction and government, are unable to recede from the position announced by them in previous years; viz., that they would undertake the establishment of a separate College for Women as soon as they should be provided with adequate funds for that purpose. They cannot regard the plan proposed by Miss Hitchcock as within the lines of their declared policy, and therefore, with much regret, and a sincere sympathy in her desire to advance the education of women, are obliged to withhold their approval of the particular plan proposed by her in her communication of February 26, 1901.

In May, Dr. Fanny Rysam Mulford Hitchcock informed the Trustees that she did not desire to be re-elected "Director of Women Students of the University." The Trustees adopted a resolution which thanked her for "the services she has rendered in that capacity" and also stated that the Trustees would not elect a successor to Ms. Hitchcock.

Sara Yorke Stevenson was elected President of the Board of Managers of the University Museum. Though she served just one year, she was the first woman to serve as President or Chair of the University Museum.

The College faculty founded the Summer School Courses and admitted women to this program from its inception. A Certificate of Proficiency was granted to those who successfully completed the course.

Delta Delta Delta was established, the second sorority at Penn.

College Courses for Teachers (CCT) was founded and admitted women from its inception. The CCT was the predecessor to the College of General Studies (CGS) and its courses led to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science.

At the Commencement held on 17 June, the University awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts to Pauline Wolcott Spencer. She was the first woman to earn the A.B. degree at Penn. At the same Commencement the University awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science to Zeta Berenice Cundey. These two women were the first to complete the requirements for the bachelor's degree at Penn through the College Courses for Teachers program. Both women were career teachers in the Philadelphia public schools. Pauline Spencer taught the history of education at the Philadelphia Normal School for Girls and Zeta Cundey was head of the English department at the William Penn High School for Girls. Both served as President of the University's Alumnae Association during the first decade of its existence.

In May, the Alumnae Association of the University of Pennsylvania was founded. Its purposes were "to unite the women graduates of the University of Pennsylvania and to further among them a spirit of cooperation in work and fellowship; to promote the welfare of the women students at the University; and to keep alive the interest of the women graduates in all the activities of their Alma Mater." The first officers were Pauline Wolcott Spencer (A.B., 1908; A.M. in Latin, Sociology, and Psychology, 1910; and Ph.D. in Sociology, 1915), Sarah Pleis Miller (B.S. in Biology, 1899 and Ph.D. in Chemistry, 1904), Jennie Ritner Beale (A.M. in English Literature and Ethics, 1910), Zeta Berenice Cundey (B.S., 1908 and A.M. in English Literature, 1913), Eleanor Fulton Karsner (B.S. in Biology, 1905 and A.M. in Sociology, 1914), and Mrs. Elizabeth N. Woolman Pennock (Certificate of Proficiency in Chemistry, 1893).

At the Commencement held in June, the University awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology to Alice Paul. She was the first woman at Penn to earn the Ph.D. degree in Sociology. Four years later, in June 1916, Alice Paul founded the National Woman's Party, the chief purpose of which was to lobby for the immediate passage of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guaranteed to women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1920. Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party then turned their attention to the adoption of an Equal Rights Amendment for women. Though this second effort was not successful, it propelled Alice Paul to national leadership in the women's rights movement. In 1938 Paul founded the World Woman's Party in Geneva, Switzerland and in the years immediately following World War II, the World Woman's Party lobbied successfully for the inclusion of equality provisions in the United Nations charter.

In October, the Trustees authorized the expenditure of $1,000 for furnishing and equipping a women's dormitory on South Thirty-Fourth Street.

The Women's Dormitory was opened in two houses at 120-22 South Thirty-Fourth Street, at the southwest corner of Thirty-Fourth and Sansom Streets. The twelve residence rooms were available only to women enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, but the buildings' rest rooms and dining hall were open to all women at Penn.

The School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine admitted women for the first time.

Undergraduate Penn women published The Quill: The Girls' Book as a gift to the Class of 1915. It was a twenty-four page, illustrated booklet, "striving," its editors stated, "towards a College Record Book for the Girls of the University of Pennsylvania." The Quill described women's student life activities in the 1914-15 academic year, including the "Pêle Mêle" musical comedy and songfest; the second "Annual Dance" sponsored by women in Houston Hall; and the "Senior-Junior Frolic at Wildwood-by-the-Sea." The Quill also demonstrated that Penn women had organized a student government, the Women's Undergraduate Association, and elected class officers in each of the four undergraduate classes. In addition the women had formed at least two student clubs and maintained their support of two sororities, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Delta Delta.

Lydia Katharine Adams (A.B., 1916) was the first Editor-in-Chief of the women's Record. She was also a member of the undergraduate women's English Club; a member of the cast for the women's dramatic performance, "Pele Mele," in 1915; and President of the Senior Class in 1915-16. She was also a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

At the Commencement held on 16 June, the University awarded the Bachelor of Science in Education degree to Elsie May Bartlett, Cora Hallman Buckwalter, and Elmira Lodor. They were the first women to earn the B.S. in Ed. degree at Penn.

Penn women form a women's chapter of the Catholic Students' Organization Committee, which, in 1920, changed its name to the Newman Club. The women's chapter had its own organization and officers. The first President of the women's chapter was Susan Genevieve MacMurray (A.M., 1914), who, in 1914-15 and 1915-16, was a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences while simultaneously teaching at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. The President in the 1916-17 academic year and therefore the second President of the women's chapter was Maryrose McIlvain Davis (B.S. in Ed., June 1918). The Penn men's chapter of the Newman Club had been founded about 1893. The Newman Club was a religious service organization for Roman Catholic students, faculty, staff, alumni, as well as the general public.

At the Commencement held on 21 June, the University awarded the Doctor of Public Hygiene to Dorothy Child, Mary M.C. Langdon, and Annie Young. They were the first women to earn the Dr. P.H. degree at Penn.

The Sphinx and Key Honorary Society was established to honor those women students who worked "for the betterment of the girls' college life and activities and also for the advancement of their class in the University of Pennsylvania."

Pi Lambda Theta, a national honors society open to students enrolled in the School of Education, established a chapter at the University of Pennsylvania.

Six women students form the Penn women's section of the Young Women's Christian Association, which later took the shortened name of Christian Association (CA). The women's section had its own organization and officers. The first President of the women's section was Mary Guard Wright (B.S. in Ed., June 1917). The President in the 1917-18 academic year and therefore the second President of the women's section was Clara S. Evans (B.S. in Ed., 1918). The Penn men's chapter of the CA had been founded about 1891. The CA was a religious service organization whose membership was open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.

Also at the Commencement of 1917, the University awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine degree to Clara Hillesheim. She was the first woman to earn the M.D. degree at Penn. Following graduation, Dr. Hillesheim returned to her native Minnesota, where she joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The School of Dental Medicine appointed Carrie Kirk Bryant (B.S. in Biol., 1907) to the faculty position of Instructor in Bacteriology. In 1926 she was promoted to Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Bacteriology. For several years she served the School as chairperson of its Research Committee of the Faculty. In 1928 she co-authored, with J.L.T. Appleton, Jr., A Laboratory Guide in Bacteriology particularly for Students in Dentistry (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1928). She was the first woman to serve as an Officer of Instruction at the School of Dental Medicine and the first woman to be a member of that School's standing faculty.

The School of Hygiene and Public Health appointed Edith Hedges Matzke, M.D. and Edith Hamilton Gordon, M.D. (Dr. P.H., 1921) to the faculty positions of Lecturer on Hygiene and Lecturer on Social Hygiene, respectively. Their work was funded by a "grant awarded by the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board" and they taught special courses of instruction in the School. They were the first women to serve as Officers of Instruction in the School of Hygiene and Public Health. In addition, both Dr. Matzke and Dr. Gordon accepted secondary appointments in the Department of Physical Education. The Department named Dr. Matzke to the faculty position of Medical Examiner for Women and Dr. Gordon to the faculty position of Instructor in Hygiene for Women. Dr. Matzke and Dr. Gordon also served as informal advisers to all undergraduate women.

The Graduate School of Medicine was founded and matriculation was open to men and women alike.

The University established the position of Advisor of Women, the first administrator at Penn responsible for women's student life. Louise Hortense Snowden, an alumna who had earned the Bachelor of Science in Biology with honors in 1898, was named the first Advisor. The editors of Women's Undergraduate Record for 1921 noted, "The girls feel they have a friend who is their very own."

The School of Education appointed Edith Baer, B.S., to the faculty position of Assistant Professor of Home Economics. She was the first woman to serve as an Officer of Instruction in the School of Education and the first woman to be a member of the standing faculty at Penn.

Also in May, the Trustees voted to establish the Bennett Club, a "clubhouse for women students," in a former dwelling house at 3322 Walnut Street. The "new clubhouse" was "to be fitted up somewhat after the fashion of the Houston Club, the men's clubhouse." The Trustees noted, "the women students have been asking for such a clubhouse for many years and for the last two years have been at work raising a fund."

At the Commencement held on 15 June, the University awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics to Sadie Tanner Mossell. She was the first African American woman to earn the Ph.D. degree at Penn.

Margaret Katherine Majer (pronounced "Mayor") succeeded Ethel Loring as Instructor in Physical Education for Women. Margaret Majer was an excellent athlete, who had excelled in intercollegiate swimming as an undergraduate at Temple University. She soon expanded her role at Penn and became the first coach of women's athletic teams. She organized and trained a women's basketball team and scheduled the first intercollegiate competitions for women. The women's basketball team played eight opponents in its first year, including Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, and Temple University. Teams in gymnastics, softball, swimming, and tennis were planned for the next year and Margaret Majer led a successful fundraising campaign to build women's tennis courts on what, for a few years, was a vacant lot on the southeast corner of Thirty-Fourth and Walnut Streets. Margaret Katherine Majer was soon celebrated as the founder of women's athletics at Penn. In 1924 she married Olympic oarsman John B. Kelly and subsequently became the mother of two Penn graduates, an Olympic medalist, and the extraordinary actress, Grace Kelly.

Encouraged by work of Margaret Majer, undergraduate women formed an Athletic Association and elected four student athletes - Catherine Elizabeth Riggs (A.B., 1923), Genevieve M. McDermott (B.S. in Ed., 1923), Georgina Pope Yeatman (A.B., 1922), and Mildred Dougherty (B.S. in Ed., 1923) - the first officers of the Association.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences established a graduate level course in business, leading to the Master of Business Administration degree. The first degrees were awarded in 1922.

Mortar Board, a "national honorary fraternity for women," was organized at Penn in 1921. It was only three years old, the first chapter of the organization having been founded in 1918 at Syracuse University. Its membership was open only to senior women who "have been prominent in college activities."

Twelve seniors and seven juniors were named the first members of the Penn chapter of Mortar Board. These nineteen "honor" women were as follows:

Seniors, members of the Class of 1921:

• Dorothy Aiken Buckley (B.S. in Ed., with honors, June 1921)
• Anne Katharine Canning (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Ruth Celestia Dibert (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Charlotte Easby (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1921)
• Margaret Janvier Hort (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Marion Jordan Johnson (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Regina Catherine Kelley (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Marion Woodworth Masland (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Clara Rabinowitz (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Helena E. Riggs (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1921)
• Ardis Anna Voegelin (B.S. in Ed., June 1921)
• Miriam Edith Woolley (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1921)

Juniors, members of the Class of 1922:

• Margaret Allen Alcott (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1922)
• Dorothy Mary Calby (B.S. in Ed., June 1922)
• Marguerite Burns Evans (B.S. in Ed., June 1922)
• Margaret Frankeberger (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1922)
• Ruby Zarouhie Kevorkian (B.S. in Ed., February 1923)
• Beulah Evelyn McGorvin (A.B., College of General Studies, June 1922)
• Margaret Agnes Sharpless (B.S. in Ed., June 1922)

1922

The School of Education appointed Helen Crandall Goodspeed, B.S., to the faculty position left vacant by the death of Edith Baer. As Assistant Professor of Home Economics for the academic year 1922-23, Helen Crandall Goodspeed was the second woman to be a member of the standing faculty at Penn.

At the Commencement held on 18 June, Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, famous Philadelphia author and an authority on early American history and culture, became the seventh woman recipient of an honorary degree at Penn. The Trustees granted her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Hon. Litt.D.) in recognition of her study of American history, her contributions to English literature, and her inspirational patriotism. She was the third woman to be awarded the honorary Litt.D. degree at Penn.

Also at the Commencement held on 18 June, the University awarded the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree to Margaret Frances Coleman. She was the first woman to earn the B.F.A. degree at Penn.

The University purchased an upscale apartment building at the northeast corner of Thirty-Fourth and Chestnut Streets and converted it to Sergeant Hall, a women's dormitory and clubhouse. Sergeant Hall provided living and dining quarters for 175 women students, both graduate and undergraduate. It also hosted several women's student organizations.

The Women's Student Government Association began publication of a women's student newspaper, The Bennett News. Grace Marie Haspel (B.S. in Ed., 1925) was the first Editor-in-Chief of The Bennett News. This weekly paper went through twenty-three volumes before its name changed to The Pennsylvania News in the fall of 1947. The Pennsylvania News was published until the fall of 1964.

Women were also beginning to appear among the several faculties of the University. In addition to Carrie Kirk Bryant and Ruth E. Michaels, both of whom had advanced to the rank of Assistant Professor by 1926, three others had held the academic rank of Associate - just below that of Assistant Professor - in the Graduate School of Medicine. They were Katherine M. Starkey, M.D., who was appointed Associate in Pediatric Hygiene in 1923; Emily Partridge Bacon, A.B., M.D., who, in 1924, succeeded Starkey as Associate in Pediatric Hygiene; and Marnetta E. Vogt, M.D., who was appointed a Lecturer in Gynecology in 1925 and promoted to Associate in Gynecology the following year. Elsewhere in the University, there were more than two dozen women who held appointments with the academic rank of Instructor or Assistant Instructor. In addition there were 30 women staff members in the University Hospital Training School for Nurses whose work was, at least in part, teaching of the student nurses. At least two of that number - Madge Timlin, R.N., the Director of Instruction, and Viola B. Brown, R.N., the Assistant Instructor - appeared to devote the majority of their time to teaching and training. At least two others - Mary Louise Snyder, R.N., who had held the position of Directress of Nurses since 1909, and Lucy Mastern, R.N., the Assistant Directress of Nurses - appeared to hold academic administrator positions. If so, they were the only two women Officers of Instruction at Penn in 1926 to serve the University as academic administrators.

Marion Hague Rea (Mrs. B. Lucke), A.B., M.D., was Instructor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine (1920-46), Director of Health for Women (1922-31), and Student Physician for Women (1926-46).

Mary M. Search was Superintendent of the Bennett Club from 1925-27.

Board of Managers of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania included two women, Mrs. Chancellor Clement English and Mrs. Walter Smith Thomson. Board of Managers of the Graduate School of Medicine included Elizabeth Conway Clark and Celia Justine Nicholson. Mary Virginia Stephenson, R.N., was the Superintendent of the Hospital (1921-35) and had previously served as Assistant Directress and Instructor of Nurses in the Training School (1913-1921). Marion E. Smith had served as Superintendent of the Hospital from 1903 to 1921. No women among the six resident physicians, but two women - Julia Russell, M.D., and Katherine S. Andrews, M.D., among the twenty-two Interns. In the Medical Clinic of the Hospital, Elizabeth Glenn Ravdin, M.D., was the Henrietta Heckscher Research Fellow in Clinical Medicine. Lena R. Waters was Director of the Social Service Department.

In June, Penn's undergraduate women held their own Ivy Day ceremony, placing the first of many ivy stones on the Chancellor Street wall of the new Bennett Hall. Women had participated in the annual Hey Day program from the time of its establishment in 1916, but in 1926 the undergraduate men advised the women that they were no longer welcome. Women quickly responded by organizing their own Class Day and Ivy Day events and by 1931 had combined them in the Women's Hey Day. Women maintained independent programs and ceremonies until 1968, when they were once again combined with those of the men.

Anna Elizabeth Boyd (B.S. in Ed., 1929) was the first known President of the Panhellenic Council at Penn. The "Panhellenic Association" was in existence at Penn as early as 1925, when it was mentioned in The Bennett News, but the names of its presidents are unknown until 1929.

At the Commencement held on 19 June, the University awarded the Graduate School of Medicine's degree of Doctor of Medical Science to Juanita Pearl Johns (M.Sc. (Med.), 1928). She was the first woman to earn the D.Sc. (Med.) degree at Penn. Dr. Johns was an ophthalmologist who subsequently practiced for more than thirty years at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Women's Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences appointed Anne Bezanson, Ph.D., to the faculty position of Research Professor in Industry. In March 1921, she helped found the Industrial Research Department of the Wharton School and became its Associate Director. She served as Special Lecturer on Industrial Management for the academic year 1924-25 and Lecturer on Industry for the year 1928-29. In 1929, she earned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Radcliffe College. She was the first woman to join the standing faculty in the Graduate School. She was also the first woman to earn tenure in that School or in any School of the University and the first to hold a senior professorship at Penn.

The women's undergraduate Class of 1929 established a women's Hall of Fame at the University of Pennsylvania. The Record of 1929 described the intentions of those who introduced this idea, "Five Pennsylvania women are herewith presented whom we deem highly deserving of honor and esteem. There are others we know to be worthy, and it is our hope that succeeding classes will carry on what we started." The five nominees were Gertrude Klein Pierce Easby (Cert. of Prof. in Chem., 1878); Anna Lockhart Flanigen (Cert. of Prof. in Chem, 1878; Ph.D. in Chemistry, 1906); Margaret Center Klingelsmith (LL.B., 1898; Hon. LL.M., 1916); Louise Hortense Snowden (B.S. in Biol., 1898); and Ida Wood (Cert. of Prof., 1884). Mrs. Easby was married in 1884, soon became a mother, and was active in civic and social welfare organizations in Philadelphia. Dr. Flanigen was a professional chemist. Margaret Klingelsmith was Librarian of the Biddle Law Library of the Law School from 1898 to 1939. She was a translator of Norman-French digests of common law. Louise Snowden was Penn's first Advisor of Women, a position similar to the University's present day chief student affairs officer. When the Graduate Department for Women was established at Penn, Ida Wood was its first Secretary, serving from November 1891 to February 1893.

At the Commencement held on 18 June, the University awarded the degree of Bachelor of Landscape Architecture to Edith Crosby Brown Stuart. She was the first woman to earn the B. L. Arch. degree at Penn.

The women's undergraduate Class of 1930 nominated four women - Anne Bezanson, Research Professor in Industry; Sigrid Anna Marie Nelson Craig (B.S. in Ed, 1916); Charlotte Easby Grave (A.B. 1921; A.M. 1922; Ph.D. in Psychology, 1924); Emily Lois Van Loon (M.Sc. in Med., 1928) - to the women's Hall of Fame at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Bezanson was honored as the "only full-fledged women Professor in the University." Sigrid Nelson Craig was President of the Education Alumnae Association and Chairman of the Practice School Committee. Dr. Grave was a consulting psychologist in private practice (and daughter of Gertrude Pierce Klein Easby, one of the first two women to enroll at Penn in 1876). Dr. Van Loon was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Chief of Otolaryngology at the Woman's Hospital, and Assistant in Bronchoscopy in the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The School of Medicine appointed Florence Barbara Seibert, Ph.D., to the faculty position of Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in the Henry Phipps Institute. She was the first woman to join the standing faculty in the School of Medicine. In 1937 she was promoted to Associate Professor and became the first woman to earn tenure in the School of Medicine. In 1945 the University awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her extraordinary discoveries on the detection and cure of tuberculosis. In 1955 she was promoted to Professor of Biochemistry, the first woman to hold a senior professorship in the School of Medicine. In 1959 she retired and was appointed Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry in the Phipps Institute.

The Trustees elected Marion Edwards Park an Associate Trustee of the University and appointed her to membership on the Board of Graduate Education and Research. Dr. Park, President of Bryn Mawr College since 1922, was the first woman to serve as an Associate Trustee (the equivalent of a present-day appointment to one of Penn's boards of overseers).

In May, Penn established a women's section of the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society. The Delta Chapter was established at Penn in 1892, but its membership was open only to men. The women's section had its own organization and officers. The first members of the women's section of the Delta Chapter were Marion Melvina Astley, Alice Patchin Ake Holmes, Margaret Anne Kateley, Marion Grace Miller, Sara Elizabeth Pepper, Erma Renninger, and Susan Foulke Yocum. All seven earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the College for Women in 1935. In addition, at the May 1935 inaugural ceremonies for the women's section, one alumna, Ruth Bertha Elise Schmidt (A.B., College for Women, 1934) was also elected to membership.

The first officers of the Penn women's Phi Beta Kappa organization were Ada Heilner Haeseler Lewis (A.M. in History, 1922; in 1942, an Associate Trustee of the University) ("Mrs. John F. Lewis, Jr."), President; Anne Bezanson (Phi Beta Kappa at Radcliffe College; Research Professor in Industry in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), Vice-President; and Virginia Kinsman Henderson (B.S. in Ed., 1930; A.M. in Psychology, 1936; Personnel Officer in the College for Women), Secretary-Treasurer.

The Pennsylvania School of Social Work was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania as a graduate professional school. The Pennsylvania School had been founded in 1909 and was well established as autonomous institution of higher education. Its Trustees, in the year of affiliation with Penn, included seven women: Helen Safford Knowles Bonnell ("Mrs. Henry H. Bonnell"), Harriet Frazier Zimmermann Caner ("Mrs. Gerald W. Caner"), Helen Derr Harbison, Ruth Mildred Ingeborg Karlson (B.S. in Ed., 1929; M.S.W., 1938), Mrs. I. Albert Liveright, Marion Clark Madeira ("Mrs. Louis C. Madeira"), and Helen Foss Wood ("Mrs. George Bacon Wood"). These seven were the first women to serve the University as overseers of the School of Social Work.

The Pennsylvania School of Social Work offered the professional degree of Master of Social Work. In its first year, the School of Social Work brought five women to the standing faculty - Virginia Pollard Robinson (Ph.D. in Sociology, 1931), Professor of Social Case Work; Jessie Taft, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Social Case Work; Isabel Gordon Carter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Social Research; and Goldie Basch, B.A., B.S. and Rosa Lee Wessel, B.A., Assistant Professors of Social Case Work - and 186 women to the student body. The School of Social Work became a full professional school of the University in 1948 and beginning in 1949 offered the research and teaching degree of Doctor of Social Work.

The School of Education established a Department of Nursing Education and offered graduates of the diploma schools of nursing an undergraduate, professional degree in education. This advanced course was designed to prepare graduate nurses for positions in hospitals, schools of nursing, and public health nursing agencies. The establishment of the Department of Nursing Education in the School of Education is generally regarded as the founding of the modern School of Nursing at Penn. In 1935 the School of Education appointed two full Professors to the Department of Nursing Education: Katherine Tucker, R.N., A.B., and C. Ruth Bower, R.N., M.S., Sc.D. They were the first women to be awarded tenure in the School of Education and the first to hold senior professorships in that School. Professor Tucker was appointed Director of the Department of Nursing Education. Professor Bower moved to the School of Nursing, when it was established in 1950, and continued to serve as Professor of Nursing Education until her retirement in 1955. The University appointed her Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, effective 1 July 1955.

Also at the Commencement of June 1936, the University awarded the degree of Master of Social Work to thirty-nine women graduates of the Pennsylvania School of Social Work. They were the first women to earn the M.S.W. degree at Penn.

The School of Education acquired the Illman Training School for Kindergarten and Primary Teachers. The Illman School brought two women to the faculty - Adelaide Thomas Illman (B.S. in Ed., 1929), A.M., Professor of Education and Florence E. Thorp, Assistant Professor of Kindergarten Education. They were the first two women to join the School of Education as standing faculty in the academic discipline of education (as opposed to another discipline - Nursing - or a vocation - Home Economics). Adelaide Illman was the first woman to be awarded tenure in the academic discipline of education and the first woman to hold a senior professorship in that discipline.

Althea Stauffer Kratz Hottel (B.S. in Ed., 1929, A.M. in Sociology, 1934, Ph.D. in Sociology, 1940, Hon. LL.D., 1959), though just seven years out of college, was named Directress of Women.

Georgina Pope Yeatman, one of the founders of the Women's Athletic Association (see above, entry for 1921), was a student in School of Fine Arts' architecture course for two years, from 1922 through 1924. Though academically qualified, she was denied a degree by the faculty of the SFA. She enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1924 and earned the degree of B.S. in Architecture from MIT in 1925. In 1929 she became the first woman to practice architecture in Philadelphia and in 1936 she became the City of Philadelphia's first woman Director of Architecture.

Also at the Commencement of 1941, the University awarded the School of Medicine's degree of Master of Public Health to Ruth Hartley Weaver, M.D. and Dorothy Donnelly Wood. They were the first women to earn the M.P.H. degree at Penn. Dr. Weaver, a 1917 graduate of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, was Assistant Director of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In 1960 she would become Director of Medical Services for the Philadelphia Board of Education.

At the Commencement held on 2 June, the University awarded the degree of Master of Architecture to Christine Alice Fahringer (B. Arch., 1941). She was the first woman to earn the M. Arch. degree at Penn.

In June a "School" of Nursing was established and the University announced a five-year course leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing. During the first two years the student was enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts for Women, "for a program of pre-professional courses." Then the student entered the regular three-year course of the School of Nursing of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In this way the University offered the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, but without establishing a faculty of nursing with its own dean. In addition, the hybrid curriculum of liberal arts classes and the traditional, three-year, nurses' training program did not provide its graduates with a mastery of the academic discipline or a set of professional skills superior to that of the graduates of the HUP School of Nursing. The five-year course was considered a "basic curriculum" in contrast to the "advanced curriculum" taught in the School of Education.

At the Commencement held on 1 July, the University awarded diplomas in Nursing to twenty-nine women graduates of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. This was the first class of the HUP School of Nursing to be recognized by the University at its Commencement.

The Hillel Foundation was established in this year at 3613 Locust Street. Wilma Frances Korn (B.S. in Ed., June 1945) was the first President of the Hillel Foundation. Hillel was the successor to the Louis Marshall Society as the Jewish student organization at Penn. The Louis Marshall Society had been established in 1938; the men's undergraduate yearbook for 1938 described the Marshall Society as follows, "the religious and cultural organization of the Jewish students at the University. The Society is an outgrowth of the former Jewish Students' Association." Wilma Korn was President of the Louis Marchall Society when it changed its name to the Hillel Foundation. The Jewish Students' Association had been organized in 1924 by the Philadelphia Branch of the United Synagogue of America. It had occupied the "Jewish Students' House" at 3613 Locust Street since the mid 1920s, where it served as a dormitory, Kosher dining room, and a social center for Jewish students. No woman is known to have served as President of the Jewish Students' Society. The Hillel Foundation moved to 202 South 36th Street in May 1946. It is scheduled to move again in 2002 to a new building near 39th and Walnut Streets.

Penn women form a women's chapter of the Catholic Students' Organization Committee, which, in 1920, changed its name to the Newman Club. The women's chapter had its own organization and officers. The first President of the women's chapter was Susan Genevieve MacMurray (A.M., 1914), who, in 1914-15 and 1915-16, was a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences while simultaneously teaching at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. The President in the 1916-17 academic year and therefore the second President of the women's chapter was Maryrose McIlvain Davis (B.S. in Ed., June 1918). The Penn men's chapter of the Newman Club had been founded about 1893. The Newman Club was a religious service organization for Roman Catholic students, faculty, staff, alumni, as well as the general public.

At the Commencement held on 18 June, the University awarded the Graduate School of Medicine's degree of Master of Medical Science to Helen Octavia Dickens. She was the first African American woman to earn the M.Sc. (Med.) degree at Penn.

Also in June, the Trustees established the Constituent Board of Education for Social Work. It was the ninth Constituent Board created by the Trustees. One month later, the Trustees elected Helen Derr Harbison and Martha Rosenthal Wolf (B.S. in Ed., 1927) ("Mrs. Howard A. Wolf") Associate Trustees of the University and appointed them members of the Board of Education for Social Work.

Also in June, the Trustees elected Ada Haeseler Lewis (A.M., 1922) ("Mrs. John F. Lewis, Jr.") an Associate Trustee of the University with membership on the Board of Liberal Arts, which had oversight of the College (for men), the College for Women and the College of General Studies. Mrs. Lewis was the first woman to serve the University as a member of the Constituent Board of Liberal Arts.

The Graduate School of Medicine appointed Mary Hoskins Easby, A.B., M.D., to the faculty position to Assistant Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine. She was the first woman to join the standing faculty in the Graduate School of Medicine.

The School of Veterinary Medicine appointed Mary Josephine Deubler (D.V.M. 1938, M.S. 1941, Ph.D. 1944) to the faculty position of Assistant Professor of Veterinary Pathology. She was the first woman to join the standing faculty in that School.

The School of Fine Arts appointed Joyce Michell, Ph.D., to the faculty position of Associate Professor of Music and the academic administrativ