Did you ever wonder if an ancestor attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland when it was a female seminary? Or wanted to know who was voted “cutest girl” by her classmates in 1925? And did you know that seminary alumna Emily Louise Clayton Bishop (1900) was a prize-winning artist who studied under Rodin in Paris?
The St. Mary’s College of Maryland Archive is actively compiling a list of all known St. Mary’s Female Seminary and Junior College alumni up to the year 1940. Due to a fire in Calvert Hall in 1924, many records are lost to history. In an effort to recreate a list of alumni, extant commencement programs were transcribed and information was gathered from the alumni office. Other sources used include the 1925 Pepper Pot yearbook (another yearbook would not appear until 1948), and J. Rederick Fausz’ 1990 book Monument School of The People.
Students of the female seminary having fun in 1904. The seminary initially had students of all grades before becoming a high school, later a junior college, and finally a public honors college (P1905-004)
Commencement programs sometimes listed salutatorian or valedictorians, which are also noted in the alumni list. Occasionally, lists of prize-winners were also available, sometimes from the notes of M. Adele France herself (principal/president from 1923-1948), and these are also noted. For example, Dorothy Hope Hodgkinson of Piney Point won the 1929 Goerge Narbury Mackenzie Prize Essay award. Known photographs, surnames of husbands, and other informational tidbits are also included in this new online resource.
St. Mary’s Seminary students in costume sitting on the steps of Calvert Hall, photo taken about 1930. Three are holding musical instruments (P1930-015 © St. Mary’s College of Maryland)
Future additions to the list will include: information gleaned from searching the St. Mary’s Beacon newspaper for evidence of 19th Century alumnae, names from the historic photos database, and further investigation of the scant student records.
List of Known Alumni from St. Mary’s Seminary and Junior College to 1940
If you have any additions or corrections to this resource, please email ask@smcm.libanswers.com or leave a comment below. You can visit the archives main website at https://library.smcm.edu/archives/.