Ipswich Female Seminary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ipswich Female Seminary


Established	1828
Type	Female Seminary
President	Zilpah P. Grant Banister
Location	Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA

Ipswich Female Seminary in Ipswich, Massachusetts was founded in 1828 by Zilpah P. Grant Banister, making it one of the first major educational institutions for women in the United States. According to the United States Department of Education:

A powerful proponent of women’s higher education during the first part of the 19th century was Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Educated at a female academy in Byfield, Massachusetts, Lyon was befriended there by a teacher several years her elder, Zilpah Grant. Together, the two proceeded to found Ipswich Female Seminary in Massachusetts, where standards of personal conduct and discipline were emphasized, along with a rigorous curriculum. The seminary was distinguished by teachers’ emphasis not only on comprehension, but on questioning and analysis. [1]

Mary Lyon left as the principal in 1834. [2] The Seminary was discontinued in 1878. [3]

Helen Hunt Jackson attended the seminary.^{[citation needed]}