As the first of the Seven Sisters—the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League—Mount Holyoke established higher education for women as a serious endeavor. Our long, distinguished history of educating leaders arises from a powerful combination of:

Chemist and educator Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1837, nearly a century before women gained the right to vote. Today, her famous words—"Go where no one else will go, do what no one else will do"—continue to inspire Mount Holyoke students.

As the first of the Seven Sisters—the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League—Mount Holyoke has led the way in women's education. A model upon which many other women's colleges were patterned, it quickly became synonymous with brilliant teaching and academic excellence. In 1861 the three-year curriculum was expanded to four, and in 1893 the seminary curriculum was phased out and the institution's name was changed to Mount Holyoke College.