Please note a comment submitted by Robin which corrects some of the information provided here. Specifically, Rutgers University in New Jersey was not connected to Rutgers Female College in any way.
By 1883 there were four colleges in New England and the Middle Atlantic states specifically founded in order to provide education for women.1 Of these four, Rutgers Female College no longer exists.
| Vassar College | Poughkeepsie NY | 1865 | Yale |
| Rutgers Female College | New York NY | 1867 | |
| Wellesley College | Wellesley MA | 1875 | MIT, Harvard |
| Smith College | Northampton MA | 1875 | Amherst, Yale |
Rutgers Female College
Rutgers University — the main campus located in New Jersey — opened a college for women opened on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1867. The college moved to a new building at 54-58 West 55th Street in 1882 and closed in 1895.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. (1857 – 1862). [Excerpt from Plate 78: Map bounded by West 42nd Street, East 42nd Street, Fourth Avenue, East 37th Street, West 37th Street, Sixth Avenue.]
The college was located directly across the street from the Croton Reservoir. The first photo below is taken looking south on Fifth Avenue from the intersection at 42nd Street. Both the reservoir and the college are clearly visible.
Rutgers Female College on Fifth Avenue, across from the Croton Reservoir, looking south
Compare the two photos below. The upper photo was taken at the intersection of 41st Street and Fifth, and probably from the walkway along the top of the reservoir and facing northeast. The lower photo was taken looking due north from the intersection at 42nd Street at ground level. The red dot on the building at the northeast corner of 42nd and Fifth should make the different in perspective clear. The two photos provide a very different sense of what Fifth Avenue was like in the mid 1880s.
Curriculum
The curriculum was an odd mixture of organic chemistry and advanced math (on one extreme) and Bible studies and decorative botany (on the other). Greek and German were taught (but not required); French and Latin seem to have been unavoidable.
| Author | Rutgers Female Institute (New York, N.Y.) |
| Publisher | Agathyrian Press, 1867 |
| Original from | the University of California |
Rutgers Female College
Rutgers University in New Jersey was never been affiliated with this college. Rutgers Female College opened in 1839 as Rutgers Female Institute on Madison Street in the Lower East Side before receiving its charter from the New York State Board of Regents and renaming as Rutgers Female College. The article below states both Rutgers University and Rutgers Female Institute were established by endowments from Col. Henry Rutgers, but they were not affiliated with each other.
https://rutgersclassics.com/2018/07/16/rediscovering-the-classical-element-at-nycs-rutgers-female-institute-college-1838-1895/
Robin – thank you so much for providing this information. I know that there are incomplete and incorrect items on this site, and I am thrilled to be able to correct and update wherever a reader knows more than I have been able to uncover. I will add the sources you’ve provided to the article itself. Thanks again.