Agnes Irwin

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Agnes Irwin (December 30, 1841-December 5, 1914) was an American educator, best known as the first dean of Radcliffe College, 1894-1909. In 1869, she became principal of the Penn Square Seminary (also known as the Young Ladies' School of Philadelphia), later re-named the Agnes Irwin School^[1], now a private PreK-12 school for girls in suburban Rosemont, Pennsylvania.

She was born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of William Wallace Irwin, former mayor of Pittsburgh and member of Congress. She was a great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin.

With Sarah Butler (Mrs. Owen J.) Wister, she was the editor of Worthy Women of Our First Century (1877).

She died of pneumonia in Philadelphia in 1914.

She was the subject of a 1934 biography by Agnes Repplier.

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