• "Edith Hatcher Harcum"
    "Edith Hatcher Harcum"
Images from "Harcum Junior College: 75 Years of Excellence, 1915-1990" calender
Images from "Harcum Junior College: 75 Years of Excellence, 1915-1990" calender
Images from "Harcum Junior College: 75 Years of Excellence, 1915-1990" calender
Images from "Harcum Junior College: 75 Years of Excellence, 1915-1990" calender

Images from "Harcum Junior College: 75 Years of Excellence, 1915-1990" calender


Permanent ID:
11515
Image Description:
These historical images were reprinted, respectively, for the months of February, March, June, and December in a 1990 calendar commemorating Harcum Junior College’s 75th anniversary.  The school for women, which opened in October 1915 as the Harcum Post Graduate School, expressed the vision of Edith Hatcher (1878-1958), a concert pianist, and her husband, Octavius Marvin Harcum (1866-1920). Combining her “talents as an educator and artist” and her husband’s “business vision and ability,” Edith sought to "start a school where the individual talent of each girl would be treated as an integral part of her education." Established as a preparatory school, Harcum’s curriculum soon expanded to include and eventually devote itself entirely to junior college-level courses. From an initial enrollment of three students (and five pianos), Harcum’s student body increased five-fold the second semester, along with a faculty of more than 20 members. As enrollment continued to grow, the college expanded from a single building to several on Montgomery Avenue in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, also known as the Philadelphia Main Line.  Octavius served as the college’s first president until his death in 1920, whereupon Edith became the president, a role she would occupy for the next thirty years.  In 1952, the school experienced financial troubles and declared bankruptcy.  The Junto Adult School, a non-profit educational corporation, purchased Harcum, and Philip Klein became the new president.  In 1956, Harcum became the first junior college authorized by the state to confer Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees. During the 1970s, Harcum began to admit male students, officially becoming co-educational in 2003.
 
Format:
Photographs
Collection:
Harcum Junior College Records
Related People or Organizations:
Harcum Junior College (creator)
Harcum, Edith Hatcher (depicted)
Library of Congress Subjects:
Harcum Junior College [info:lc/authorities/names/n85004342]