Instantiating Vision at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Abstract

This article examines the how the educational ideals of Mary Lyon, founder of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, were instantiated in the built environment of the seminary she founded in the early nineteenth century. It is an exploration of how Lyon's vision of place contributed to the creation and transformation of gendered lives for middle‐ and lower‐class women from rural New England. While working within the restraints of a male‐dominated social and economic climate, Lyon both conforms to and resists the accepted gender roles that expected women to be subservient and obedient. Intent on changing the nature of women's educational and professional lives, Lyon refashioned notions of what it meant to be dependent yet dedicated to developing a life of the mind. Specific attention is given to how the built environment of the seminary served to further inculcate Lyon's belief in order, routine, and familial harmony all in the service of educating young women in preparation for both domestic and professional lives.