Lutherville Female College
 Lutherville Female College was founded by
Drs. John G. Morris and Benjamin Kurtz in 1853, and was located near
Baltimore. The charter granted by the legislature authorized the
conferring of diplomas of graduation. In 1856, an amendment to the
charter authorized the institution to confer the usual collegiate
degrees on women of merit and distinction in literature and science.
Dr. David Bittle, a leading Lutheran
educator in Maryland and Virginia, brought the issue of higher education
for women to the Maryland Synod in his 1851 “ Plea for Female Education”
to awaken the church “to her true position and responsibility in the
great educational movements of the age.” This period, just before and
after the Civil War, saw the founding of over 30 seminaries for women,
most in the South.
In 1909, the Lutherville school, called
Maryland Female College since 1895, was no longer listed in the Lutheran
Almanac. None of the women’s schools exist today, although all ELCA
colleges are co-educational. |
