Hamilton College was a private

women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...

in Lexington,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, operating from 1869 to 1932. It was taken over in 1903 by

Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern ...

and operated as an affiliated junior college until its closing during the Great Depression.

History

Hamilton was founded by banker James M. Hocker in 1869 as the Hocker Female College. In 1878, a substantial donation by William Hamilton was recognized by the school changing its name to Hamilton College. In 1889, the nearby Kentucky University, which later changed names to

, bought a stake in Hamilton, taking total control in 1903. The school became a junior college for women, the state's first, still with its own president and faculty, though affiliated with Transylvania. By 1912, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Henry Crossfield, Jr., Transylvania incorporated the College of the Bible (later Lexington Theological Seminary) - also affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. Seals of Transylvania University merged

Under Crossfield's leadership, Transylvania continued to gather up new faculty and students through assimilation with struggling private schools around the state, including Bourbon Female College in

Paris, Kentucky Paris is a home rule-class city in Bourbon County, Kentucky. It lies northeast of Lexington on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River. Paris is the seat of its county and forms part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. As ...

. Some presidents of Hamilton College were: * Robert Graham (founding president of Hocker Female College in 1869) * Dr. John Thomas Patterson (served as president from 1876 until he retired sixteen years later) * Josiah Burnsides Skinner (1848-1898) * Barton Campbell Hagerman (president from 1898 to 1902 whereupon he started his own rival college for women four blocks away, the Campbell-Hagerman College) * Luella W. St. Clair (later Moss, was recruited from Christian College in Columbia, Missouri, serving as president from 1903 to 1909 when she returned to her previous appointment in Missouri) * Dr. Hubert Gibson Shearin (1909-1914) * Ida Van Arsdell Thomson (1914-1918) * Errett W. McDiarmid (1918) * Thomas A. Hendricks The school closed in 1932, during the Great Depression, when the number of students declined. The main building was used as a women's dormitory for students at Transylvania until it was demolished in 1962. The only remaining building from Hamilton College is the Graham Cottage Alumni House, the alumni reception center on the Transylvania campus. Built in 1863 for James M. Hocker, it was acquired by the college in 1869 as a residence for Robert Graham, its first president. Graham took on this role after leaving his previous position as the president of Kentucky University's College of Arts and Sciences. A notable alumna of Hamilton was

Maurine Dallas Watkins Maurine Dallas Watkins (July 27, 1896? – August 10, 1969) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Early in her career, she briefly worked as a journalist covering the courthouse beat for the ''Chicago Tribune''. This experience gave her th ...

, the

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and playwright who wrote the play ''

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'' (1926). It served as the basis for the musical of the same name, first produced in 1975."About People"
, Transylvania University Another notable alumna was actress

Isabel Jewell Isabel Jewell (July 19, 1907 – April 5, 1972) was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some of her more famous films were '' Ceiling Zero'', ''Marked Woman'', ''A Tale of Two Cities (1935 film), A Tale ...

, who played the seamstress in ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...

'' (1935) and Emmy Slattery in ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'' (1939).

References

External links

Hamilton Female College Collection
Kentucky Room Digital Archives, Lexington Public Library
Transylvania University Virtual Tour: Graham Cottage Alumni House

Churches of Christ Educational Institutions: Hamilton College Postcard
Educational institutions established in 1869 Defunct private universities and colleges in Kentucky Universities and colleges affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Universities and colleges in Lexington, Kentucky Educational institutions disestablished in 1932 History of women in Kentucky 1869 establishments in Kentucky Transylvania University Former women's universities and colleges in the United States {{Kentucky-university-stub

History

See also

References

External links