Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth Century Beginnings to the 1930s

by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

An examination of the founding and development of the Seven Sisters colleges--Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard-- Alma Mater focuses on the ideas behind their establishment and the colleges' architectural, academic, and social histories, as well as those of their twentieth-century successors--Sarah Lawrence, Bennington, and Scripps.

Genres: History, Education, Nonfiction, Gender, Feminism, American History, Womens Studies

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1984

About the author

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz is professor of history and American Studies at Smith College.

Reviews

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book. I'm not off-put by academic tomes, I'm a history major, and, as a current student at one of the Seven Sisters, I'm particularly enchanted with the early history and importance of women's colleges. Nevertheless, I was disappointed, and to be quite honest, I found much of this book to be a slog. Horowitz pays attention to every minuscule detail of architecture and every man or woman who played a role in building the Seven Sisters. Some of the detail is necessary, and illuminating, and reveals the variety of attitudes held regarding all-women's educational institutions. Much of those details bored me. I guess I was really rather hoping for that same, studious research to be applied to the lives of students rather than the men and women who raised funds to build these colleges. It IS important to know about where those people were coming from when they designed parlors and dorm rooms and libraries, and although I'd gladly read a book about that, I would have rather read a 350+ page book solely documenting student lives (what did they study? eat? socialize? romance men - and each other?) and only a 50 page piece on important founders and college architecture.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horowitz capably presents a book that examines the student life and academic challenges of the "Seven Sisters", the early female colleges, and three later examples. She resoundingly manages to blend academic, social, and structural examinations of the institutions and, perhaps equally importantly, represents the institutions as colleges that had similar challenges to other educational endeavors. In this work, the reader is granted a great opportunity to see parallels to other educational histories while also getting an in depth look at both student life and social and political structures of the time.

For any student of education or history, this book provides meaningful and engaging insight into not only women's education and colleges in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but deep and inclusive insight into student life, engagement, and campus structures and mores. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in educational history or the history of social movements.

[TJ]

It was one of the joys of my college career to take a class from Dr Horowitz. and I loved the book at well.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing treatment of architectural, sociological trends.

[Amy-Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

traces history of women's colleges

[Aviva]

My undergraduate advisor wrote this book. I picked up a copy she signed for me off our bookshelf a few weeks ago. I think I read it at the time, but I was reading a lot of books then and long-term memory wasn't really where they went. So, I'm trying it again. So far, it's interesting.

Now that I've finished the book, I'm forced to acknowledge that i didn't read it in the nineties. But I know know a lot more about the founding and evolution of my Alma Mater, the other six sisters and the twentieth century women's colleges.
Thank you Helen.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable and engaging survey of the history of the Seven Sisters and a few other women's colleges with similar beginnings in the nineteenth century. Recommended to anyone interested in the history of higher education and those who have studied at women's colleges.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks at the Seven Sisters (as well as Sarah Lawrence, Bennington and Scripps) and traces their foundings and goals.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this for a paper on Radcliffe's origins, many years ago, and enjoyed it both for the commentary and the pictures.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would've liked more coverage of general women's experience in college, rather than one in each college through an era. But this text still serves its purposes.

[Suzannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting look at the founding and development of women's colleges in the late 1800s, through the lens of architecture, buildings, and institutional awareness.