Smith College Years

Yellow-brick, Georgian style house. The windows and doors have white trim and the windows have green shutters. Window ACs are in the top, attic, windows.

84 Elm Street, the Benjamin Lyman House now known as Drew Hall built c. 1750 in the yellow-brick, Georgian style.

Photo by WindingRoad - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34783075

Edith Granger first appears in the October 1888 Smith College Annual Circular which was actually her second year at Smith. She is listed as residing at 84 Elm St. and as a "Special Student (44). A "Special Student" was generally a non-matriculated student taking courses not-for-credit and not a full course load. According to the 1888 Circular, these students "are admitted to special courses of study in connection with the regular classes of the College. Candidates for such courses must either meet the same requirements for admission as the classical students or offer for one (and only one) of the three branches, Latin, Greek and Mathematics, the French or the German required for the Literary Course" (5). Many entered as "Special" because they did not have adequate preparation to enter a degree program, but sometimes poorer students were "Specials" because their parents could not afford to send them for longer periods of time (from "Seelye's President's Report, 1882-1883" as cited in Gordon, 1975).


According to Edith's mother, Martha (as described in her autobiographical manuscript, Chapter 23) Edith was late in submitting her application and this may have resulted in her "Special" status. This would also explain why she is not listed in the 1887 Circular. "In the fall of 1887, she began attending Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts. She took a through train to Boston, where Sister met her and went with her to college to be entered, and to get addresses of good boarding places, as her application for entrance had been too late to get 'on the campus.' Sister found a satisfactory boarding place of a family on Elm Street, with whom she lived the first year, and her sophomore year was on West Street (though the 1888 Circular lists her as living at 84 Elm St.). The two following years she was on the campus, in the Washburn House. Since then the number of houses has increased wonderfully."


The price of tuition for all students in 1887 (31) and 1888 (29) was $100 a year.


  • The 1887 Circular, October 1887, No. 14 is viewable via the Internet Archive.

  • The 1888 Circular, October 1888, No. 15 is viewable via the Internet Archive.

  • Gordon, Sarah H. "Smith College Students: The First Ten Classes, 1879-1888." History of Education Quarterly 15, no. 2 (1975): 147-167. Accessed February 12, 2021. doi:10.2307/367978.

Edith wrote an article for her hometown in the Chicago Evening Call, 1 January 1888, "An Oakland Girl in the East" revealing her experiences in her first semester at Smith.

In 1889, Edith is listed in the Junior Class, living in the 22 Washburn House (38).

In a letter Edith wrote to her friend Helen on December 31, 1890, she was at the address 50 Elm Street, Northampton.

Edith is listed as a Senior in the 1890 Circular, living in 17 Washburn House and graduating in the class of 1891 (41).

According to a letter Edith sent to her friend Olivia in 1948, Edith's senior year was her only happy year at Smith.


Edith's Class Prophecy for 1891


"Not only has '91's book-learning gone forth to leaven the lump, but through Miss Granger, the exponent of her athletic skill, she has greatly advanced the physical culture of to-day. Chicago points with conscious pride to the tall and stately gymnasium, complete in its costly “furnishment” over which Miss Granger presides, mistress of the Sargent and Delsarte methods. Her terms are high--


$100.00 per quarter for fancy marching.

150.00 “ “ “ exercising the lower jaw.

500.00 “ “ “ teaching the theory of perfect composure, etc.


but absolute health and grace are insured. The January “Snow Fight,” given by the pupils in Hay-Market Square, is the chief society event of the season."


"Class of 1891: Granger, Edith" - Classes of 1891-1900 records, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-01022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Black and white with yellow or sepia tone of a large home with five visible chimneys at the roof peaks.

Image of a postcard depicting Washburn House, year unknown. Smith College Postcard Collection [ca.1900-1995].

Washburn House - Smith College

Washburn House was built by Smith in 1878 to house the incoming class of 1882 and was named for William Barren Washburn, one of the first trustees of the college.

When I started my research, I found many documents in the Smith College collection of the Five College Archives Digital Access Project. The original site is no longer being maintained and Smith College may be migrating content to their own digital repository. You can still view the original project on the web archive of the Internet Archive (and some content seems to only be available here currently).

For more information on Smith College Archives: