The Holly Springs Female Institute was an early

female seminary A female seminary is a private educational institution for women, popular especially in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when opportunities in educational institutions for women were scarce. The movement was a sign ...

for white women, founded in

Holly Springs, Mississippi Holly Springs is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the southern border of Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was dep ...

in 1836. By 1838 the school had over 80 students and owned two pianos. The state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

granted the school a charter in 1839, at which time it had five faculty members including the Rev. C. Parish, president of the school. The charter was, evidently in error, assigned to the "Holly Springs Female Academy." By 1839, the school had a permanent building in the

Greek revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style. In 1841 the confusion over the name encouraged an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

clergyman named C. A. Foster to open a rival school also called the Holly Springs Female Institute. In early 1842, for reasons that are not clear, Foster replaced Parish as president of the original school. Holly Springs offered advanced academics, with a focus on the

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

instead of traditionally feminine subjects like

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

. Students were required to participate in public examinations, rather than demonstrating competency through written examinations or term papers. Instruction of the Italian language, which experienced increased popularity in the U.S. in the mid-1800s, was among the subjects offered. Although the curriculum was of high quality, girls as young as 10 years old were admitted. The school building was used as a hospital during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. The building was destroyed by the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

in 1864 and the school was unable to reopen.

References

Defunct private universities and colleges in Mississippi Education in Marshall County, Mississippi Former women's universities and colleges in the United States Educational institutions established in 1836 Female seminaries in the United States History of women in Mississippi Educational institutions disestablished in 1864 1836 establishments in Mississippi {{Mississippi-university-stub

See also

References