THE WOMAN'S COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE
The Woman's College of Baltimore was founded by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the purpose of providing young women with facilities for thorough collegiate training under conditions no less favorable to physical and moral well-being. It was incorporated under the general law of the State of Maryland, January 26, 1885, and its doors were opened to students September 17, 1888. The charter was amended and the powers of the corporation were enlarged by a special Act of Legislature, April3, 1890. Twelve hundred thousand dollars have been invested inporperty and endowments.
The College is denominational in the sense that its discipline is in harmony with the views of the church which founded it, but in no other; its instructors are selected on grounds of fitness without regard to church affiliations, and young women of any religious faith are welcomed to its classes. The New Testament ideal of character is upheld and urged by every means upon students, but no effort is made, directly or indirectly, to influence their denominational preferences.
Advantages of Situation
Baltimore offers many advantages as the seat of an institution of learning. The region in which it is situated is noted for healthfulness; the winters are short and the climate mild compared with that of the North and West, while the cleanliness and excellent sanitary condition of the city are proverbial. The prevailing tone of cultivated society is wholesome. The churches represent the leading denominations and furnish opportunities for religious culture and Christian work. The Johns Hopkins University provides courses of lectures which afford the privilege of hearing thestatement of latest discoveries and conclusions from the lips of renowned investigators. There are large and well-selected libraries - the Peabody, Pratt, Historical, Mercantile, Bar, Medical, and Chirugical - which, with the University library, contain in the aggregate nearly half a million volumes and afford abundant facilities for general reading or special investigation. The Art Gallery of the Peabody Institute is open all the year, the celebrated private galleries of the late Mr. Wm.T. Walters are accessible during a portion of each winter, and the Peabody Lectures and Concerts offer literary and musical entertainment and stimulus. Additional opportunities of hearing notable singers, musicians and lecturers from all parts of the world are now frequent, while the proximity of the national capital renders accessible, at a trifling expenditure of time and money, libraries, museums, galleries of art and other institutions of great educational importance.
The College site is in the north-central part of the city, upon elevated ground, amidst recently built residences, and within easy reach of lovely rural environs. All its surroundings are cheerful and healthful. Seven buildings have been erected especially for College uses, and three others have been temporarily adapted to its requirements.
Goucher Hall, so named by the trustees after its donor, is a massive granite building of Romanesque architecture, 165 feet long and 90 feet deep, with four floors. It contains forty rooms, used only for purposes of instruction and administration. In its construction careful attention has been paid to details, and the requirements of sanitation have been punctiliously observed in lighting, heating, ventilation and drainage.
Bennett Memorial Hall, the College gymnasium, is the gift of Mr. Benjamin F. Bennett, of Baltimore, who dedicated it to the memory of his deceased wife. It is of Port Deposit granite, two stories high, contains a swimming pool and baths of various kinds, and a walking track, and is fitted with the best modern appliances for both general and special gymnastic exercises, among them a set of thirty-seven Zander machines.
Bennett Hall Annex
This building, similar to the one just described, and connected with it by means of an enclosed archway, is also the gift of Mr. Bennett, who presented it to the College in November, 1893. The upper floor is used for gymnastic exercises whenever it is necessary to place two classes upon the floor at the same hour. The lower floor is intended for the Department of Physiology, but is now occupied by the Department of Biology. It contains a laboratory, a lecture room, and the professor's private office. Beneath this floor are tanks and cages for the keeping of material necessary for investigation.
The College possesses three halls for residence only. They are seperate from the instruction buildings and accomodate about seventy persons each. They are substantially alike, built upon plans which were adopted after inspecting and comparing edifices for this purpose in the best institutions of the North and the East. It is believed that they contain every provision which experience has shown to be essential to convenience, comfort and healthfulness.
The Chapel
The Chapel of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, which is connected with Goucher Hall by a bridge, is, through the courtesy of the Trustees, used as the College Chapel. It is a beautiful and commodius room, with a capacity of eight hundred, seated with chairs and furnished with a pipe organ. The daily devotional exercises and many of the entertainments given by or to the students are held here.
Endowments
By the will of the late Rev. Lyttleton F. Morgan, D.D., investments of the value of sixty thousand dollars were devised to the College for the purpose of founding the Morgan Professorship of the Bible in English as a memorial to his wife, the late Susan Dallam Morgan. The gifts of the late Henry Shirk, amounting to one hundred thousand dollars, have, in conformity with his expressed wish, been constituted a single fund bearing the name of the Henry Shirk Fund for the Promotion of the Study of the German Language and Literature.
Foreign Fellowships
Two fellowships, each of the value of five hundred dollars, ahve been founded and will be awarded by the Board of Control, annually, to members of the graduating class for the encouragement of study at a foreign university. The particular university to be attended may be selected by the recipients, subject to the approval of the Board of Control.
Laboratories and Cabinets
Ample provision is made for the study of the natural sciences by laboratory methods, and the student is introcued to her subject by the way of personal investigation. The vicinity of Baltimore furnishes excellent opportunities for field work in geology, botany, and biology, and frequent excursions are made at suitable seasons of the year by both land and water. Neighborhood investigations are systematically pursued, and students in teh science classes share in the benefits of both the research and its fruits.
The biological laboratory has already been referred to as temporarily housed in the physiological quarters until a building for the especial uses of the natural sciences can be provided. The physical and chemical lecture rooms and laboratiories occupy the whole lower floor of Goucher Hall. The cabinets, containing a valuable collection of specimens, are arranged where they are easily accessible, around the wall sof the well-lighted second story of the central pavilion of Goucher Hall. These collections are recieving constant accessions, and the equipment of the different departments is enlarged and improved with every year.
The college herbarium contains a nearly complete collection of the local phanerogams and ferns and many local mosses and lichens. The Lotsy collections, numbering about 6000 species, which were obtained in 1896, are practically complete for the phanerogams of central and southern Europe. They contain representatives of nearly all genera of algae, extensive collections of lichens, about 500 desert plants from Algiers, also a collection of about 800 seeds. A number of genera (eg Eucalyptus, Hieracium and others) are represented by nearly complete collections identified by the most prominent specialists for the several genera.
Studios
The art department is accomodated in six spacious rooms with skylights and large windows opening to the north. A growing collection of artistic material is at the service of art students, in the shape of plaster models, etchings, paintings, and bric-a-brac.
Back to 1899 Program
Last Updated 9/22/99.
Copyright 1999.