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Members of he Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees are responsible for monitoring the overall welfare of the College by overseeing the institution's finances, admissions policies, curriculum, student life, development, and buildings and grounds. Board members also play a role in the selection of Presidents of the College as well as those who receive honorary degrees from Mount Holyoke. The Board was established in 1836 and consisted of several "benevolent gentlemen" who helped Mary Lyon plan a school for the higher education of women and would its own property and not be a for-profit venture. The original trustees were Joseph Avery, William Bowdoin, David Choate, Joseph Condit, Roswell Hawks, Edward Hitchcock, Heman Humphrey, Andrew W. Potter, Daniel Safford, John Todd, William Tyler, and Samuel Williston. The first woman trustee, Sarah Williston, was appointed to the Board in 1884. Mount Holyoke Principals and Presidents have also been members of the Board since that year. In 1892, in an effort to strengthen the cooperation between the Board and alumnae in planning for the growth and welfare of Mount Holyoke, the trustees invited alumnae of the College to nominate one individual annually to serve on the Board for a three-year term. The trustees changed this practice in 1899 by asking the Alumnae Association to submit names of three alumnae candidates to fill each vacancy on the Board. The practice of adding a Young Alumnae Trustee to the Board began in 1970. The trustees have diverse backgrounds and are primarily drawn from academia, human services, politics and government, and the corporate world. Notable individuals who have served on the Board include Virginia Apgar (Class of 1929), Germaine Bree, Barbara Cassani (Class of 1982), Mary Phylinda Dole (Class of 1886), A. Bartlett Giamatti, August Heckscher, Alice Stone Ilchman (Class of 1957), Henry Plimpton Kendall, Janet Brewster Murrow (Class of 1933), Frances Perkins (Class of 1902), Gloria Johnson Powell (Class of 1958), Joseph and William Skinner, and Henry A. Stimson.
The Mount Holyoke College Trustees Biographical Files date from circa 1836 to the present and contain biographical sketches, resumes, newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, lists, materials relating to the election of Alumnae Trustees, correspondence, genealogies, and photographs. Files for Mount Holyoke alumnae who have served on the Board also include biographical forms and questionnaires that they completed for the Alumnae Association as well as records from their years as students. There are also chronological lists and collections of biographical sketches for trustees, materials relating to Alumnae Trustees, historical information about the Board, and photographs of groups of trustees.
Material from this collection is available in an online digital format.
Arranged by form of material or alphabetically by the surname of each trustee.
Unrestricted except for student records. Such records may be open for use by researchers who sign a Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections Restricted Records Statistical and Quantitative Research Contract.
Use of the collection is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Mount Holyoke College. Trustees Biographical Files, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, MA.
Processed by Patricia J. Albright and Julie A. Singley, 2007. Peter Carini assisted with the arrangement and description of these records from 1997-1999.
Additional information about individuals who have served on the Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees is available in the