Charleston Female Seminary

Charleston Female Seminary
Charleston Female Seminary at its Philip Street location
Location
Charleston, South Carolina United States
Information
Type	Private, All-Female
Motto	Mens sana in corpore sano ("A sound mind in a sound body.")
Religious affiliation(s)	Christian
Established	1870
Founder	Henrietta "Etta" Aiken Kelly

The Charleston Female Seminary, also known as Miss Kelly's School, was a private Christian school for wealthy white girls in Charleston, South Carolina.

The school was opened in 1870 by Henrietta "Etta" Aiken Kelly (March 17, 1844 – January 18, 1916) initially in her own home. Kelly, who was an expert on silk worms, had earlier sought to have female students admitted to study at the College of Charleston. After that effort proved unsuccessful, she established the Charleston Female Seminary to offer females access to higher education. Beginning in 1872, the school was housed on 50 Philip Street, in a building constructed in 1871 by architect John Henry Devereux. Devereux used "mixed Roman" Italianate architecture, and "an arcaded and pedimented facade".

Kelly ran the school using the motto Mens sana in corpore sano and incorporated physical education into the curriculum.

In the 1890s, the school occupied the Benjamin Lazarus House on 151 Wentworth Street, at which time a third floor was added to the building. "From 1882 to 1896, the building housed Miss Kelly and boarders of her 'rigorous but genteel' academy". Thereafter, it was at a location that became the Nathaniel Russell House at 51 Meeting Street.

The establishment of Female seminaries was a cultural trend across the United States. They were associated with a large and growing trend toward women's equality. Beginning round 1815 and close to the Civil War, it has been said to be at the confluence of various liberation movements.

Southern iterations were "among the most advanced in the country" offering the equivalent of four-year college programs even before the American Civil War. It was part of "an unprecedented social experiment in women's education." Southern female seminaries educated daughters and "education in a renowned and fashionable seminary conferred social capital as well as intellectual and artistic satisfaction". The continuing changes at Charleston Female Seminary aligned with trends throughout the United States. They included ever growing facilities in a more institutional format. Classical building structures became a norm, and were in sharp contrast to earlier forms of female education which moved from boarding schools and private education to seminaries. By midcentury, "female seminaries and academies were everywhere, replacing the homelike atmosphere of boarding schools with a more institutional setting". These larger buildings housed "dormitory rooms, chapels, dining halls, and classrooms". The timing of the opening of a female seminary in 1870 was significant, as there was a retrenchment in female education following the Civil War.