Mount Vernon Seminary and College Commencement Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection contains programs, invitations, correspondence, speeches and addresses, memoranda, notes, personal files, newspaper clippings, playbills, class songs, and photographs. The materials date from 1877 to 2000. These are the commencement, baccalaureate, convocation, and other special event programs and files of Mount Vernon College, which includes Mount Vernon Seminary, Mount Vernon Junior College, and Mount Vernon Preparatory School. Programs from most years between 1877-1999 are represented, which include lists of the graduates in each class year. This collection includes personal files of Mount Vernon College Presidents, Peter D. Pelham, Victoria Schuck, and M. Jane Evans, from 1968-1987, relating to commencement and other event planning, which were maintained in the Presidential Office of the College.
Dates
- Creation: 1877-1999
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1877 - 1999
Creator
- Pelham, Peter (Contributor, Person)
- Mount Vernon Seminary (Organization)
- Mount Vernon College (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.
Biographical / Historical
The Mount Vernon Seminary was officially established by Elizabeth Somers in 1875; she named it after her brother’s church in Baltimore, Mount Vernon Place Methodist. The Seminary began as a six year preparatory school, with four years of high school level classes, and two years of post-high school curriculum, calling it a “Family and Day School for Young Ladies.” In order to graduate, students had to complete a formal process of “Senior Essays” in which they completed primary research and wrote on a current political or social topic, including such provocative issues as child labor, prohibition, poverty, and women’s suffrage. In the 1920 graduating class, eight women continued their education at universities such as the University of Wisconsin, Stanford, Northwestern and the University of Texas; by 1923 graduates were going to such other prestigious universities as UC-Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Smith College and the University of Chicago. Such advancements in higher education were uncommon for women of the day, but Mount Vernon was one of the premier preparatory institutions in the country.
In 1927, Mount Vernon established a Junior College, and with its establishment, students no longer had to complete six years of courses to receive a diploma; they graduated from the Seminary after four years and could continue on to the Junior College for two more years of college preparation. After World War II began, the U.S. Navy took over the campus as a part of the war effort; in 1945 the school purchased 21 acres on Foxhall Road and surrounding areas, and had applied for accreditation to award Associates of Arts Degrees after completing two years of the Junior College.
Despite its expansion, by 1965 the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to dissolve the Seminary by 1969, as it could not financially support both institutions. During the 1960s, the Junior College developed new academic concentrations such as government, international relations and political science to reflect its location in the nation’s capital. At the same time, it began to phase out its vocational training such as home economics and secretarial skills to make room for these higher education courses.
By 1973, the Board of Higher Education licensed the college to award Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees such as Public Affairs, Government, Business Administration, Childhood, Special Education, and the Visual Arts, as well as honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and Juris Doctor Degrees; in 1976, the college received initial accreditation as a four-year college and was reaccredited ten years later. However, by 1996 the college announced a plan to affiliate with George Washington University; in 1999 the last class of Mount Vernon College graduated. Today, as an affiliated campus of GWU, Mount Vernon offers special living accommodations, as well as learning and leadership programs for female students.
Extent
6 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection contains programs, invitations, correspondence, speeches and addresses, memoranda, notes, personal files, and photographs. The materials date from 1877 to 2000. These are the commencement, baccalaureate, convocation, and other special event programs and files of Mount Vernon College, which includes Mount Vernon Seminary, Mount Vernon Junior College, and Mount Vernon Preparatory School. This collection includes personal files of Mount Vernon College Presidents, Peter D. Pelham, Victoria Schuck, and M. Jane Evans, from 1968-1987.
Arrangement
Organized into 2 series: Commencement and baccalaureate programs and Presidential Office commencement planning files.
Physical Location
Materials may be stored off-site, and may require additional retrieval time. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection acquired by GWU upon merger with Mount Vernon College. Collection transferred to Foggy Bottom campus in 2009.
Bib#
8588728
- Title
- Guide to the Mount Vernon Seminary and College Commencement Collection, 1877-1999
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
- Date
- 2011
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Repository
George Washington University Gelman Library
2130 H Street NW
Washington DC 20052 United States of America
speccoll@gwu.edu