Pembroke College, Director of Residence records (OF.1R.1zp)

Historical note

Pembroke College in Brown University was the name given to the Women’s College in 1928. The first women students had arrived in October 1891, after some years of negotiations. At the end of the academic year, in the spring of 1892, the Corporation voted to open all degrees of the University to women. The next year there were nine sophomores, fourteen freshmen and 22 special students, and the classes were moved into the building at 235 Benefit Street.

It was not until 1896 that the Corporation finally passed its “Legislation Founding the Women’s College in Brown University.” which recognized the women’s college as a department. The first women graduates in 1894 were Mary Emma Woolley and Anne Tillinghast Weeden. The next year eleven graduated, seven with a bachelor of arts degree and four with a bachelor of philosophy, and their names were listed below a dividing line after the male graduates. The courses and examinations taken by the women were the same as those prescribed for the men, and the performance of the women students was often proclaimed to be superior to that of the men.

In 1903 the Women’s College was given its own faculty, composed of all department heads in the University and the faculty members who taught courses for women, to supervise all academic matters except admission and graduation. On October 20, 1917, the Women’s College celebrated its 25th anniversary, which had been postponed from the previous spring because of the threat of war.

Over the years Brown and Pembroke students merged their student organizations, attended coeducational classes, and in 1969 began living in coed dormitories. On July 1, 1971, the offices of the two colleges for admission, financial aid, placement, housing, and counseling were merged in the final act of making Brown a truly coeducational university.

The information above is taken from the Encyclopedia Brunoniana by Martha Mitchell, copyright ©1993 by the Brown University Library. It is used here by permission of the author and the University and may not be copied or further distributed without permission.

Sally McPherson was Director of Residence from 1947 through the spring of 1964.