History

Go Where No One Else Will

Chemist and educator Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1837, nearly a century before women gained the right to vote. Today, her famous words-"Go where no one else will go, do what no one else will do"-continue to inspire Mount Holyoke students.

As the first of the Seven Sisters-the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League-Mount Holyoke has led the way in women's education. A model upon which many other women's colleges were patterned, it quickly became synonymous with brilliant teaching and academic excellence. In 1861 the three-year curriculum was expanded to four, and in 1893 the seminary curriculum was phased out and the institution's name was changed to Mount Holyoke College.