Wesleyan University history

Chartered as the Georgia Female College on December 23, 1836, Wesleyan was founded through the efforts of a group of Macon citizens and the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as evidence of their concern for the education of women.

When did Wesleyan grant its first college degree? Wesleyan granted the first documented college degree to a woman (Catherine E. Brewer) on July 16, 1840.

In 1843, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church assumed responsibility for the College, and by an act of the state legislature changed its name to Wesleyan Female College.

Mills College in California was founded in 1852 as the first women’s college in the West.

Tennessee Wesleyan University was chartered in 1854 as Odd Fellows Female College but never opened due to financial difficulties.

First alumnae association, founded 1859.

In July 1860, during commencement week, the first annual reunion was held – and thus was established the first alumnae association of a degree-granting college.

In 1867, shortly before Ulysses S. Grant became President of the United States, he was solicited by President John Spence to make a cash donation to the school and became recognized as one the first donors in the school.

When Judd Hall, now home to the Psychology Department, was built in 1870, it was one of the first American college buildings designed to be dedicated wholly to scientific study.

First woman in Georgia to receive the Doctor of Medicine degree (Mary McKay, class of 1878).

Spelman College in Georgia was founded in 1881 as the first historically black college for women.

"If those students were judged by their zeal in applying to their studies and their ability to master them, and their ambition to qualify themselves for a successful and useful life, they would rank very high." From the diary of James A. Fowler, class of 1884.

Upon the death of Grant, President Spence renamed the school Grant Memorial University on what would have been Grant’s 64 birthday, April 27, 1886.

Since its founding, the university has been committed to nonsectarian education; its first non-Methodist faculty member (1888–90) was Woodrow Wilson.

Salem College in North Carolina was the earliest women’s school, originally established as a secondary school in 1772; it was chartered as a degree-granting college in 1890.

First woman elected to the Tennessee legislature (Sara Ruth Frazier, class of 1894).

In 1897 Wesleyan established a chapter of the Young Woman’s Christian Association (YWCA), which continues to this day as the Council on Religious Unity (CRU).

First woman to argue a case before the Georgia Supreme Court (Viola Ross Napier, class of 1901).

Early in Wesleyan's development, the administration had to balance their own scholarly and academic interests with those of the staff and students which transitioned from the previous Alden Partridge military academy. It built Judd Hall in 1909, which was named after alumnus Orange Judd, and was one of the earliest comprehensive science buildings devoted exclusively to undergraduate science instruction on any American college or university campus.

In 1911, some of Wesleyan’s alumnae helped to found the Connecticut College for Women in New London to help fill the void left when Wesleyan closed its doors to women.

Their 1913 successors titled their yearbook “Ku Klux,” and in later yearbooks they alternated use of Ku Klux Klan and Ku Klux Klass as their class name.

In 1914, the Wesleyan board of trustees, acting on faculty recommendation, voted to end all social sororities on campus.

By 1917, there were no longer sororities on campus.

In later years, “Golden Hearts” would shift from a social group of some members of the class to apply to the whole class. For example, the class of 1919 listed some of its members as “golden hearts,” drawing from the gold color of the center of their long-established class flower, the daisy.

Similarly, two class names inspired by medieval lore emerged in the 1920s.

Several buildings constructed later are the works of Macon architect W. Elliott Dunwody, whose wife, Mary Bennet, was a Wesleyanne, Class of 1925.

The Candler Library Building, now Candler Alumnae Center, was also completed in 1928 and designed by Atlanta architect Philip T. Shutze.

First American woman explorer to enter the rugged Tibetan-Himalayan area (Adelaide Su-Lin Chen Young, class of 1933), was part of the expeditions that led to the arrival of the first giant pandas in the United States.

In 1938, when Wesleyan was sold on the courthouse steps to a group of bondholders, Porter was one of the leaders of the movement to buy back the College.

Graduate Liberal Studies, founded in 1953, is the oldest program of its kind, and grants the master of arts in liberal studies (MALS) and the master of philosophy in liberal arts (MPhil) degrees.

In 1954 the W. C. and Sarah H. Bradley Foundation of Columbus, Georgia, purchased 66 acres adjoining the northwest side of campus that included a two-story Georgian-inspired brick house.

Butterfield proved effective at fund raising: by 1960 Wesleyan had the largest endowment, per student, of any college or university in America, and a student-faculty ratio of 7:1.

Sandra Deer, class of 1962, playwright and consultant for Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre.

In 1963, she served as the first president of the Georgia Council of Architects.

In 1968, the five women who would become the college’s first Black alumnae began their first year at Wesleyan.

First Phi Kappa Phi chapter at a college in Georgia (1969; although chapters had previously been established at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia).

Candler Alumnae Center, originally used as the College library, was renovated in 1971.

Referred to as “The First Five,” Sonya Tomlinson Holland, Marvette Baldwin Jenkins, Christine Everett, Dyleane Tolbert Taylor, and Carolyn McClinton Woodard graduated in 1972.

First woman staff director for the United States House Ways and Means Committee (Janice A. Mays, class of 1973), first woman to serve in the roles of democratic chief counsel and chief tax counsel.

In 1975, League became the first Macon architect to receive the AIA-Georgia Association’s Bronze Medal for service to the profession.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, (born January 16, 1980, New York, New York, United States), American actor, composer, lyricist, and writer who created and starred in stage productions that blended modern musical forms with classic musical theatre.

The Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies was established in 1987.

Despite these efforts to distance the class name from the Klan and despite various intimations in board of trustees minutes and student newspaper articles that it might have been desirable to change the class name, the name of the class was not officially changed until 1991.

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote his first musical, In the Heights, when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan University in 1999.

Miranda graduated (2002) from Wesleyan and embarked on an acting career, appearing in films and on television.

After reading Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography about Alexander Hamilton, Miranda began creating a musical about the Founding Father.

An addition of the Freeman Athletic Center opened in 2005 with the 1,200-seat Silloway Gymnasium for basketball and volleyball, the 7,500-square-foot Andersen Fitness Center, and the Rosenbaum Squash Center with eight courts.

Fall 2007 marked the opening of the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan University Center and the adjacent renovated Fayerweather building, which retains the towers of the original Fayerweather structure as part of its façade.

In the Heights had its Broadway debut in March 2008 and won four Tony Awards, including those for best musical and best original score.

son of Luis A. Miranda, Jr. son of Luz Towns-Miranda married to Vanessa Nadal Miranda (2010–present) father of Sebastian Miranda (b.

The renovation of Taylor Hall in 2011 produced Wesleyan’s first LEED-certified (Gold Level) building and, according to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) project directory, the first LEED-certified project in Macon, Georgia.

In winter 2012, the historic squash courts building (41 Wyllys Avenue) on College Row was renovated; now named Boger Hall, it is the state-of-the-art home for the Gordon Career Center, the Paoletti Art History Wing, and the College of Letters.

First women’s college to join the Confucius Institute worldwide network (2013). First dual degree liberal arts program established in China. (2013.

Dignitaries from Wesleyan College joined Guangzhou University Chinese officials on the platform as more than GU 8,000 students were welcomed to the new academic year. (Friday, September 12, 2014)

In January 2015 the musical opened Off-Broadway at New York City’s Public Theater, where its huge success led to an early move to Broadway in July.

In 2016 Hamilton was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and that year it received an unprecedented 16 Tony nominations, with Miranda earning several nods, including best actor in a leading role in a musical.

The first class of dual degree students graduated in May 2018 at Guangzhou University)

Miranda then starred in the TV series His Dark Materials (2019– ), which was based on Philip Pullman’s best-selling fantasy trilogy.

A filmed performance of Hamilton aired on television in 2020.