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“G” is for Greenville Woman’s College

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  “G” is for Greenville Woman’s College. Chartered in 1854 by the South Carolina Baptist Convention, the Greenville Baptist Female College opened in 1855. By the 1870s “Baptist” was dropped from the name and the school became Greenville Female College—which included primary and preparatory departments. The college awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1893 and added several more in 1918.. By 1920, when enrollment peaked at 701 students, it was the second largest college for women in the state [next to Winthrop]. During the depression, the college faced severe economic and budgetary pressures. Trustees then agreed to coordinate with Furman University. Between 1931 and 1938 the schools gradually merged and Greenville Woman’s College became Furman University’s women’s college. After 1961 when women joined men on the new Furman University Campus, the buildings of Greenville Woman’s College were demolished.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.