Charlestown Female Seminary (Massachusetts)
| Charlestown Female Seminary | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
|
Charlestown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Private, All-Female |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Christian |
| Established | 1831 |
| Founder | Dr. William Collier Dr. Henry Jackson |
| Head of school | Mrs. Martha Whiting |
Charlestown Female Seminary was a Christian school in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Opened in 1830, the female seminary was the second school in Charlestown for young women.
The establishment of Charlestown Female Seminary was part of a movement to facilitate the education of young women that took root in the United States in the 1820s and 1830s. The movement started in 1814 with the establishment by Catherine Fiske, in Keene, New Hampshire, of the "Young Ladies Seminary." Another important early school was Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary, opened in 1821 in Troy, New York.
Charlestown became the site of a pair of what amateur historian Charles Zellner, of the Charlestown Historical Society, called the "earliest boarding schools" for young women. The first of these was the Mount Benedict Academy, a combined Roman Catholic convent and finishing school for young ladies, established in 1828 by Benedict Fenwick, Roman Catholic bishop of Boston. That academy was staffed by Ursuline nuns. Mount Benedict acquired a superior reputation, leading both Catholic and Protestant families to enroll their daughters there. Despite that acceptance, in 1834 the Academy was burned by an anti-Catholic mob.
The Charlestown Female Seminary, located at 30 Union Street, was established by two First Baptist Church pastors, Dr. William Collier and Dr. Henry Jackson. They opened the school in 1830, but in 1831 it was taken over by Martha Whiting, "one of the pioneers of female education in America," on the suggestion of her pastor, Rev. Jackson. Eventually, Seminary Street was named after the school.
Sophia B. Packard, American educator, co-founder in Atlanta, Georgia of the predecessor to Spelman College, a school for African American women, graduated from this school in 1850.
...
Wikipedia