HISTORY OF THE OREAD COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE ~ 1st/1st 1905, First US Women's Univ

  HISTORY OF THE OREAD COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ~ By Martha Burt Wright and Anna M. Bancroft ~ First Edition / First Printing, 1905 Luxury Edition Hardcover with Slipcase ~ First All-Women's University in the United States!

 Publisher: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., New Haven (1905)

Very rare, luxury first edition, first printing (with slipcase) of The Oread Collegiate Institute (Worcester, Mass) with Biographical Sketches of the Students, 1849-1881, by Martha Wright and Anne Bancroft. The Oread Institute in Worcester, MA was the first all-women's higher education institute to offer a collegiate curriculum in the United States, founded in 1849 and closing in 1881. The boards and binding would be in near mint condition save for a chip to the top of the spine. Bookplate paste-down on inside front board. The three-sided gilt pages are in mint condition with beautiful illustrations of the college and students. The slipcase is in very good condition, with a soft leather interior lining which served to preserve the book. Please see below for more information and history on the Oread Institute!

History of the Oread Collegiate Institute

The Oread Institute was a women's college founded in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1849 by Eli Thayer. According to the Worcester Women's History Project: "The Oread offered three levels of instruction: primary, academic and collegiate. The four-year collegiate program offered a classical, college-level curriculum and is thought to be the first institution of its kind exclusively for women in the country. It was modeled after the program at Brown University, Thayer’s alma mater." Two graduates of Oread, Sophia Packard and ornamental music teacher Harriet Giles, would eventually found Spelman College, named after Oread graduate Laura Spelman Rockefeller. Laura Spelman was the future wife of John D. Rockefeller, having attended Oread while her future husband, who dropped out of Cleveland's Central High School in the 1850s, worked as a clerk. Thayer constructed an enormous Gothic-style castle for his new college, complete with turrets. The college closed in 1881.