Barnard College Timeline
1754 – 1945
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Year |
Event |
Tags |
| 1754 | King’s College, subsequently Columbia University, founded in New York by the City’s leading Anglicans and with public funding. No provision for women students | Columbia history women’ higher education |
| 1784 | King’s College renamed and rechartered as Columbia College. Anglican aspects of the earlier college officially eliminated by new charter, though continued in practice. | Columbia history |
| 1810 | Last substantial revision of Columbia charter. Remains in force. Contains no provision for enrolling women but no specific provision precluding doing so. | Columbia history |
| 1837 | Newly opened Oberlin College admits women | Women’s higher education |
| 1839 | Georgia Female Academy in Macon, Georgia, the first women’s college in the US | Women’s higher education |
| 1865 | Vassar College opens in Poughkeepsie, NY. The oldest of what in the 1920s becomes known as “The Seven Sisters.” | Women’s higher education |
| 1869 | Cornell university opens; officially coeducational | Women’s higher education |
| 1873 | Lillie Devereux Blake calls upon Columbia trustees to open Columbia to women. School of Mines faculty Ogden Rood, Charles A. Joy and John S. Newberry allowing women at their lectures. | Columbia women |
| 1875 | Wellesley College opens in Boston suburb of Wellesley, Mass., and Smith College opens in Northampton. Numbers 2 and 3 of Seven Sisters, | Women’s higher education |
| 1876 | Columbia Trustees receive a memorial from a New York-based Sorosis group calling upon Columbia to open admission to its three schools (the College, the law school, the School of Mines) and to its then affiliated medical school, the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Trustees decline to do so. | Columbia women |
| 1879 | Columbia trustees prohibit women from attending classes. | Columbia women |
| 1879 | Columbia president Frederick A. P. Barnard uses the first of three successive annual President Reports to argue for the admission of women to Columbia’s schools. | Columbia administration Columbia women |
| 1881 | Upon receipt of Barnard’s third report calling for the admission of women, the trustees restricted use of his annual reports and rejected his arguments. Faculty and College undergraduates also opposed Barnard’s call for coeducation. | Columbia administration Columbia women |
| 1882 | A public meeting and petition drive of the newly formed “Association for Promotion of Higher Education of Women” secures support from some of the City’s leading women among its 1400 signatories. Not all signatories in favor of coeducation. | Wmen’s Higher education |
| 1884 | Columbia trustees allow a woman and Wellesley graduate, Winifred Edgerton, to receive graduate instruction in astronomy under “special circumstances.” She receives a PhD from the School of Mines in 1886. | Columbia women |
| 1885 | Columbia College opens a trustee-authorized “Collegiate Course for Women,” where women are provided separate instruction in some of the subjects open to male undergraduates. Among the women who applied, the 18-year-old Annie Nathan, the Nathans multi-generational New Yorkers and Sephardic Jews, who withdrew her application upon marrying Dr. Alfred Meyer and becoming Annie Nathan Meyer. | Columbia women |
| 1885 | Bryn Mawr College opens in suburban Philadelphia, with aspirations to becoming “a female Johns Hopkins.’ Becomes by date of founding the 5th of the Seven Sisters. | Women’s Higher education |
| 1887 | Mount Holyoke Seminary (1837) rechartered as Mount Holyoke College. The 6th of the “Seven Sisters.” | Women’s Higher education |
| 1888 | January 21 — Annie Nathan Meyer writes a column in The Nation calling upon the Columbia trustees to open an affiliated school for undergraduate women along the lines of Harvard’s recently opened “Annex” in 1879, later Radcliffe College. Columbia librarian, Melvil Dewey, encouraged Meyer in her efforts. | Women’s Higher education |
| 1888 | May 7 – At the same trustee meeting that the ailing President Barnard submitted his resignation, the board approved in principle the proposal for a separate women’s “annex” as long as it was financially self-sufficient. The trustees preferred this to countenancing continued pressure for coeducation | Women’s higher education Barnard-Columbia relations |
| 1889 | April 1 — Columbia trustees approve resolution for the establishment of Barnard College. | Barnard-Columbia relations |
| 1889 | October 7 – The affiliated women’s college opens in 4-story brownstone on 343 Madison Avenue between East 44th and 45th Street, four blocks south of the Columbia campus at Madison and 49th. Named “Barnard College” in honor of the recently deceased Frederick A.P. Barnard. | Campus |
| 1889-90 | Fourteen students registered as regular degree students, another 22 to do special work in science | Enrollments |
| 22-member Barnard Board of Trustees organizedRev. Arthur Brooks, chairman Jacob H. Schiff, treasurer
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Trustees | |
| 1889 | J.P. Morgan makes gift of $5000, the first received by the College to enable its opening. | Gifts |
| 1889 | Ella Weed, a Vassar graduate and heretofore headmistress of Miss Brown’s School for Girls, becomes the college’s first head, although not dean (1889-94); instruction expected to be provided by Columbia instructors, who would be compensated from Barnard tuitions | Administration |
| 1889 | Financier and charter trustee, Jacob Schiff, becomes the College’s first treasurer. One of at least two Jewish members on the original board. | Trustees |
| 1889 | Tuition set at $150.00 per year. Remains so to 1915. | Tuition |
| 1890 | Barnard hires its first faculty member, Emily L. Gregory, when no one on Columbia faculty available to teach botany. Appointed lecturer by Columbia. Gregory continued to teach at Barnard until her death in 1897. | Faculty Botany |
| 1890 | Columbia reorganization into three graduate faculties has the Faculty of Philosophy admitting women for graduate study. | Columbia professional schools |
| 1891 | Seth Low becomes 11th president of Columbia; earlier as trustee had supported establishment of Barnard College. | Columbia relations |
| 1891 | November – Columbia trustees announce plan to move campus from Madison Avenue to Morningside Heights. | Campus |
| 1892 | Mary E. (Mrs. Van Wyck) Brinckerhoff offered Barnard a matching gift of $100,000 to construct a building within 1000 feet of Columbia’s planned campus on Morningside Heights. Brinckerhoff gift had come through the solicitation of her attorney, Barnard trustee Frederick Wait. | Finances Gifts Building |
| 1892 | Students organize Undergraduate Association | Student Life |
| 1894 | Emily James Smith, a PhD from the University of Chicago in Greek, becomes Barnard’s first dean, upon death of Ella Weed | Administration |
| 1894 | Publisher George A. Plimpton (1855-1936) succeeds Jacob Schiff as Barnard treasurer; holds position until death in 1936; the College’s principal fundraiser for four decades. | Finances Fundraising |
| 1895 | Barnard trustees buy one city block of land at Broadway between 119th and 120th Street, adjacent to the northwest corner of planned Columbia campus and southwest of the planned Teachers College campus, for $160,000. Anonymous gift of $100,000 [from Elizabeth Milbank Anderson ] provides the matching funds for a total of $200,000 to build two buildings. Anderson’s interest in Barnard stimulated by her minister, the Rev. Arthur Brooks, an original Barnard trustee. Anderson insisted on the use of her architect, Charles Rich. | Campus Gifts Buildings |
| 1895 | Seth Low anonymously used some of his own personal wealth to establish three endowed professorships at Barnard College, which would be held by Columbia professors who would provide instruction at Barnard . | GiftsFaculty |
| 1895 | Chairs financed by Low filled by John Bates Clark (political economy), James H. Robinson (history) and Frank N. Cole (mathematics). | Faculty History Political Economy Mathematics |
| 1895 | Graduates of classes of 1893 and 1894 organize Associate Alumnae of Barnard College | Alumnae |
| 1896 | May—Barnard fundraising efforts just meet the 4-year matching requirement of the Brinkerhoff gift. | Fundraising |
| 1897 | May — Martha (Mrs. Josiah ) Fiske gives Barnard $140,000 to fund the third wing of the new building. | Gifts Building |
| 1897 | October — Columbia officially moves from its second campus in mid-town to its new campus on Morningside Heights | Campus |
| 1897 | The yearbook, Mortarboard, begun by class of 1898. | Student life |
| 1897 | Columbia’s Faculty of Pure Science opens some of its graduate courses to Barnard seniors. | Columbia professional schools |
| 1898 | October — Barnard moves from Madison and 45th into its new U-shaped building named “Milbank Hall,” in honor of Anderson’s parents. “Brinckerhoff Hall” its east wing housing science labs and a theatre, with “Fiske Hall” its west wing. Fiske serves as dormitory for next four years. | Campus Buildings |
| 1898 | December – Barnard in debt almost $130,000, with no plans to fund it. A fund to eliminate the debt is created by board chairman Abram S. Hewitt, with his $10,000 gift. Over the next year the remaining $120,000 is given by Elizabeth Milbank Anderson ($34,000), John D. Rockefeller ($10,000; his wife on the board) and J. P. Morgan ($10,000). | Finances Gifts |
| 1898 | Barnard trustees agree to have alumnae trustees on the board. [Columbia does not do so until 1909] | Trustees |
| 1900 | January 19 – Dean Emily James Smith (now Emily James Smith Putnam following her marriage ion 1899) and president Low reached intercorporate agreement by which Barnard becomes the “the undergraduate institution for women of Columbia University,” with its own board of trustees and faculty, some of whom could also hold Columbia appointments. | Barnard-Columbia relations |
| 1900 | February –Dean Smith/Putnam resigned upon announcing that she was pregnant. James Harvey Robinson became acting dean. | Administration |
| 1900 | Barnard drops Greek as an entrance requirement; those for Latin, English and Math remain in place. | Entrance requirements |
| 1900 | March 15 — Barnard faculty holds its first faculty meeting; to be comprised of professors “whose office is at Barnard College and whose interests are centered there.” Fifteen original members. Faculty organized a “Committee on Curriculum and Scheme of Attendance, later designated “Committee on Instruction.”” | Faculty |
| 1900 | Estate of Daniel B. Fayerweather gives $100,000 to Barnard College | Gifts |
| 1901 | May — Laura Gill, Smith College and Sorbonne graduate (in mathematics) becomes Barnard’s 2nd dean. Her deanship a bumpy one, especially in her dealings with Teachers College. | Administration |
| 1901 | November — John D. Rockefeller promised a gift of $200,000, if the trustees could match it within 18 months. Again, the match was made with great effort (and from 77 separate donors). | Gift Finances Fundraising |
| 1902 | Barnard Bulletin commences publication as a weekly student newspaper. | Student Life Publications |
| 1903 | Barnard trustees purchase two blocks immediately south of original campus, between 116th and 118th Street, from New York Hospital, for $1,000,000. Again, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson provided the money to do so. The trustees designated the property “Milbank Quadrangle.”Campus now measures 200’ east/west and 725’ north/south, or 145,000 square feet (3.33 acres). | CampusGifts |
| 1905 | Barnard modified its curriculum in company with Columbia College. Requirements include 2 years of science, a half-year of logic and courses from 16 departments. | Curriculum |
| 1907 | First building on southern part of the campus, the dormitory Brooks Hall, under construction. Funds provided by Mrs. Anderson and named for her minister and original Barnard trustee, the Rev. Arthur Brooks. Building backed onto 116th Street with west side fronting Claremont Avenue, which had yet to be built upon. | Campus Buildings |
| 1906 | Gill resigns as dean after dispute with Columbia’s president Nicholas Murray Butler; English professor William T. Brewster becomes acting dean (1907-10) | Administration |
| 1907 | Barnard had eight Greek sororities. | Student life |
| 1908 | Brewster and Barnard faculty produce a “Tentative Report” on College’s mission; establish a Committee of Instruction. | Curriculum |
| 1910 | Barnard College endowment $1,000,000. Operating budget of $160,000. Enrollments of 500 | Finances Enrollments |
| 1911 | February — Virginia C. Gildersleeve, a 34-year old lecturer in the Columbia and Barnard English Departments , graduate of Barnard College (1899, majored in history)and Columbia PhD (1908), becomes Barnard’s 3rd dean. Had Butler’s backing. | Administration |
| 1911 | Dean Gildersleeve inherits a Barnard with a $200,000 budget, a $33,000 deficit, and 514 students. | Finances |
| 1911 | John S. Kennedy gives Barnard $150,000 at start of College’s “Quarter Century Fund,” which was seeking to raise $2,000,000 in endowment by 1914. Did not do so until 1920. | Gifts Fundraising |
| 1912 | Student Freda Kirchwey (BC 1913) launches campaign against sororities at Barnard. All closed by 1915. | Student life |
| 1914 | Twice-a-week required Chapel eliminated | Student Life |
| 1915 | Barnard treasurer George A. Plimpton persuaded retiring Barnard trustee Horace W. Carpentier to give Barnard a $100,000 gift for scholarships, ostensibly for Chinese students, but with the unused interest reverting to the general fund of The College. | Gifts Finances |
| 1915 | Tuition raised from $ 150 to $200. | Finances |
| 1916 |
Jacob Schiff gives $500,000, in celebration of his 50 years in America, to help underwrite the construction costs of a new “Students’ Hall,” which faced the Columbia campus |
Gifts Buildings Curriculum Departments |
| 1917 | February – Barnard Undergraduate Association voted against University’s statement favoring intervention in the war in Europe. | Student life |
| 1917 | October – University decisions about what constitutes support for war prompts resignations of Charles A. Beard and Henry D. Mussey. | Public service Faculty |
| Barnard geologist Ogilvie heads up wartime Women’s Agricultural Camp in Bedford, NY, where Barnard students engaged in farm work. | Public service | |
| 1917 | November — Presence of a gymnasium in new building led to creation of Department of Physical Education. | Departments Physical Education |
| 1917 | Columbia medical school admits its first Barnard applicant, Galli Lindh, ’17. | Columbia professional schools |
| 1917 | Upon Horace Carpenti er’s death, Barnard received from his residual estate a second gift of $1,500,000, which provided most of Barnard’s financial aid funding into the 1950s. | Gifts Finances |
| 1917 | One year of Latin no longer required. Students must earn 120 points to graduate. 52 points of requirements; 24 points in major; 12 points in minor | Curriculum |
| 1920s | Enrollments steady at 1000; upwards of 40% of students started college elsewhere. | Enrollments |
| 1920 | Tuition raised from $200 to $250; full professor salary range from $6000 to $8000 | Tuition Faculty compensation |
| 1922 | Columbia and Barnard switch arrangements from swapping hours of instruction to swapping tuition fees to cover cross registrations | CU-BC relations |
| 1923 | William T. Brewster steps down as provost; the office eliminated. Chief academic officer thereafter the Dean of the faculty. | Administration |
| 1924 | A second dormitory, Hewitt Hall, named for original trustee Abram Hewitt, under construction linked on its southern side to Brooks Hall and extending along Claremont Avenue. The last building to be built on Barnard campus for thirty years. At opening of Hewitt only one in five Barnard students lived on campus. | Campus Buildings |
| 1924 | Department of Anthropology organized; overseen by Columbia professor Franz Boas | Academic departments Anthropology |
| 1924 | Department of Government organized upon appointment of Raymond Moley. | Academic departments Political Science |
| 1925 | Tuition charge changed to $8.00 per point to increase income by $30,000. | Tuition |
| 1926 | Students’ Hall renamed “Barnard Hall.” | Buildings |
| 1926 | Department of Fine Arts organized with appointment of Norman Haring | Academic departments Art History Department |
| 1926 | Barnard revised its curriculum to emphasize its discipline-specific character, in contrast with Columbia College’s increased emphasis on general education in the “Core.” | Curriculum |
| 1927 | Columbia law school admitting its first Barnard graduates. | Columbia professional schools |
| 1927 | Summer School for Women Workers in Industry opened; continued until 1933 when closed because of expense | Public service |
| 1927 | “Seven Women’s College of the East” organized; later referred to as ‘the Seven Sisters.” | Women’s higher education |
| 1928 | Music Department organized with the appointment of Douglas Moore as Professor under the Joline Foundation. | Academic Departments Music |
| 1930 | Tuition raised from $8.00 a point to $10.00. Full professor salaries in $7,500 to $12,000 range. | Tuition Finances |
| 1933 | Depression left Barnard dorms under occupied; financial aid needs up substantially; $60,000 spent annually | Finances |
| 1934 | Federal Emergency Relief Administration funds used to employ students assisting faculty and staff | Financial aid |
| 1934 | Alumnae launch first Annual Fund | Fundraising |
| 1934 | Effort by trustee Annie Nathan Meyer to rename Barnard Hall after its donor, Jacob Schiff, rejected by Barnard trustees amidst charges of anti-semitism directed at trustees and administrators. [Not mentioned in Marian Churchill White’s book] | Trustees |
| 1935 | Barnard acquired lot across from Milbank Hall on northeast corner of Claremont and 120th Street for future expansion. “50th Anniversary Fund” undertaken to raise the needed $1 million by 1939. |
Campus Fund raising |
| 1936 | Treasure George Plimpton died; College assets then $9.25 million | Finances |
| 1939 | 50th Anniversary Fund meets its goal of raising $1 million. | Fundraising |
| 1939 | Barnard celebrates its 50th anniversary; marked by publication of Barnard College: the First Fifty Years, by Alice Duer Miller and Susan Myers. | Celebration Publications |
| 1939 | Barnard pioneers in establishing interdepartmental majors in Medieval Studies and American Studies. | Curriculum American Studies Medieval Studies |
| 1941-45 | Faculty serving in military include | Faculty Public service |
Last updated: January 2, 2014
ram31@columbia.edu