Friday, March 09, 2007

Women's History Month



March is Women's History Month, and Brockport has a long tradition of providing opportunity for women. Starting as an "academy" in 1841, then as a "Normal" school after 1866, Brockport was an opportunity for higher education for women when they were denied opportunity at most private colleges and universities because of their sex.

Some of the women educators here were known in their day for advancing opportunities for women, and one of our dorms is named after one of these women, Mary Mortimer, whose picture you see here. She was head of the "female department" of the school in the 1840s, and then went on to found Milwaukee Female Seminary. She was acquainted with and respected by many of the women educators of her day.

You can find out more about the college's history by visiting the college archive web site, or reading the histories written of the school:

  • Cherishing This Heritage by Wayne Dedman
  • State University of New York at Brockport by Mary Jo Gigliotti, W. Bruce Leslie, and Kenneth P. O'Brien

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