Bryn Mawr College is a private liberal arts institution for women in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1885 by Joseph Taylor, a New Jersey physician and member of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Taylor’s goal in founding Bryn Mawr was to provide Quaker women with a high level of academic training that was, at that time, available only to men. The school modeled its curriculum on those of Oxford, Yale, and Princeton universities. The noted educator Martha Carey Thomas helped Bryn Mawr achieve academic excellence, first as dean and later as college president (see Thomas, Martha Carey). Bryn Mawr was one of the original members of the “Seven Sisters,” a regional conference of seven women’s colleges that also included Barnard, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley.
The college has a cooperative arrangement with nearby Haverford College, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania. Under this arrangement, Bryn Mawr students can take courses at any of the other three colleges with no increase in tuition fees. Well-known graduates of Bryn Mawr include actress Katharine Hepburn, children’s author Cornelia Lynde Meigs, and poet Marianne Moore. Bryn Mawr’s sports teams are nicknamed the Owls.
The college’s website at https://www.brynmawr.edu/ offers additional information.
