Smith College

Smith College
Motto	Ἐν τῇ ἀρετῇ τὴν γνῶσιν (Greek)
Motto in English	In Virtue [One Gains] Knowledge
Type	Private liberal arts college; Women's college
Established	1871 (opened 1875)
Endowment	$1.875 billion (2018)
President	Kathleen McCartney
Academic staff	285
Students	2,903 (Fall 2018)
Undergraduates	2,502 (Fall 2018)
Postgraduates	401 (Fall 2018)
Location	Northampton, Massachusetts, United States
Campus	Small-town
Colors	Blue with gold trim
Athletics	NCAA Division III – NEWMAC
Affiliations	NAICU; Five Colleges; Seven Sisters; Annapolis Group; Oberlin Group; CLAC
Website	smith.edu

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Smith College is a women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It is a private, independent, liberal arts college. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters group of colleges. In 2013, it was number 18 on U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Liberal Arts Colleges.^[6]

Smith is a member of the Five Colleges group.^[7] That means its students can go to classes at four other schools: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[8]

History

Lt. Harriet Ida Pickens and Ens. Frances Wills, first African-American Waves to be commissioned. They were members of the final graduating class at USNR Midshipmen's School (WR) Northampton, Massachusetts on December 21, 1944.

Smith College was started in 1871 using money left by Sophia Smith. She left money in her will to start a women's college after her death. In her will, she said:

"I hereby make the following provisions for the establishment and maintenance of an Institution for the higher education of young women, with the design to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our colleges to young men."^[9]

When Smith College opened in 1875, it had 14 students and six faculty.^[10] By 1915–16, there were 1,724 students and 163 faculty.

The Smith campus covers 147 acres (0.6 km²). It has more than 1,200 varieties of trees and shrubs.

The United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was a training ground for junior officers of the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve (WAVES). It was nicknamed "USS Northampton." On August 28, 1942, 120 women went to the school for training.^[11]

Smith has had 10 presidents and two acting presidents. (An acting president is someone who does the work of a president when there is no president or the president is not available to do the work.) Elizabeth Cutter Morrow was the first acting president of Smith College and the first female head of the college, but she did not use the title of president. For the 1975 centennial, the college had its first woman president, Jill Ker Conway. Since her term, all Smith presidents but one have been women.

On December 10, 2012, the Board of Trustees announced that Kathleen McCartney would be the president of Smith College starting on July 1, 2013. Her official inauguration was planned for October 2013.^[12]

Notable students

Many Smith students have become notable. They include:

Barbara Adams, General Counsel of Pennsylvania
Tammy Baldwin, US Senator, D-Wisconsin
Barbara Bush (attended Smith but did not graduate), former First Lady of the United States
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, author
Penny Chenery, recipient of the Smith College Medal, owner/breeder of Secretariat
Julia Child, chef and author
Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixon
Caterina Fake (attended Smith but did not graduate), entrepreneur, founder of Flickr and Hunch
Margaret Farrar, crossword puzzle editor
Bonnie Franklin, actress
Betty Friedan, feminist, activist, author
Susan George, noted Franco-American political and social scientist, activist and writer
Molly Ivins, columnist and author
Madeleine L'Engle, award-winning author
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and aviator
Catharine MacKinnon, feminist, activist, lawyer
Ann M. Martin, author
Margaret Mitchell, award-winning author of Gone with the Wind
Sylvia Plath, poet and author
Nancy Reagan, former First Lady of the United States
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's Ambassador to U.S.
Gloria Steinem, feminist, activist, journalist (Class of 1956)
Niki Tsongas, Congresswoman, D-Massachusetts
Jane Yolen, award-winning author

Smith College Media

A view of Smith's campus c. 1900
Smith's campus as it appears today
Ada Comstock, class of 1897
The Smith College School for Social Work is housed in Lily Hall.
The Julia McWilliams Child '34 Campus Center at Smith College.
The Botanic Gardens at Smith College
- Description: Photograph of Smith College Ivy Day Seniors in Massachusetts, USA. * * Source: Photograph taken by [Andrea Maurizio] May 2004.Copyright: © Andrea Maurizio. Licensed under the [Creative Commons] license by photographer Andrea Maurizio(myself).
Paradise Pond with portion of athletic fields visible (center left)
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margaret Mitchell