Commencement is just around the corner, and nearly 2,000 people are expected to graduate from a school or college at Case Western Reserve University—many among them women. But, unsurprisingly, women haven’t always been marching in the ceremony.
Here’s a quick look at the history of women graduates of Western Reserve University and the Case School of Applied Science/Case Institute of Technology, according to the University Archives:
In 1852, Nancy Elizabeth Talbot Clark became the first woman to graduate from Western Reserve University’s 9-year-old medical school—a major stride for women, as the first woman to receive a medical degree from an American medical school happened just three years prior.
But it was not until 24 years later—50 years after the establishment of Western Reserve University—that Viola Smith Buell became the first woman to graduate from Western Reserve University in 1876.
Western Reserve ended its undergraduate co-education program and adopted a coordinate system, establishing the College for Women—later Flora Stone Mather College—as its women’s college in 1888; Mary Louisa French became the first graduate of the women’s college in 1891.
In 1928, 48 years after its establishment, the Case School of Applied Science (later Case Institute of Technology) graduated its first woman, Edith Paula Chartkoff, when she earned a master’s degree.
Other female commencement firsts:
- 1895: Mary Chilton Noyes was the first woman to earn a PhD from Western Reserve University when its 3-year-old Department of Graduate Instruction awarded its first doctoral degrees
- 1898: Louisa F. Randolph became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Western Reserve University
- 1910: Lucy Gertrude Hoffman was the first woman Western Reserve University Dental School graduate, 18 years after the school’s establishment
- 1912: Birdie Rehmer became the first woman graduate of the Cleveland School of Pharmacy, four years after it became affiliated with Western Reserve University
- 1921: Hannah Mirsky was the first woman graduate of Western Reserve University’s 30-year-old law school
- 1935: Olive Baxter Stevens was the first woman to graduate from the School of Architecture, six years after its affiliation with Western Reserve University
- 1945: Laura Diehl was the first woman to receive an undergraduate degree from Case School of Applied Science
- 1960: Mei-Mei Wang was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree from Case Institute of Technology