Smith College is a women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It is a private, independent, liberal arts college. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters group of colleges. In 2013, it was number 18 on U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Liberal Arts Colleges.

Smith is a member of the Five Colleges group. That means its students can go to classes at four other schools: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

History

Smith College was started in 1871 using money left by Sophia Smith. She left money in her will to start a women's college after her death. In her will, she said:

When Smith College opened in 1875, it had 14 students and six faculty. By 1915–16, there were 1,724 students and 163 faculty.

The Smith campus covers . It has more than 1,200 varieties of trees and shrubs.

The United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was a training ground for junior officers of the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve (WAVES). It was nicknamed "USS Northampton." On August 28, 1942, 120 women went to the school for training.

Smith has had 10 presidents and two acting presidents. (An acting president is someone who does the work of a president when there is no president or the president is not available to do the work.) Elizabeth Cutter Morrow was the first acting president of Smith College and the first female head of the college, but she did not use the title of president. For the 1975 centennial, the college had its first woman president, Jill Ker Conway. Since her term, all Smith presidents but one have been women.

On December 10, 2012, the Board of Trustees announced that Kathleen McCartney would be the president of Smith College starting on July 1, 2013. Her official inauguration was planned for October 2013.

Notable students

Many Smith students have become notable.  They include:

Barbara Adams, General Counsel of Pennsylvania
Tammy Baldwin, US Senator, D-Wisconsin
Barbara Bush (attended Smith but did not graduate), former First Lady of the United States
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, author
Penny Chenery, recipient of the Smith College Medal, owner/breeder of Secretariat
Julia Child, chef and author
Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixon
Caterina Fake (attended Smith but did not graduate), entrepreneur, founder of Flickr and Hunch
Margaret Farrar, crossword puzzle editor
Bonnie Franklin, actress
Betty Friedan, feminist, activist, author
Susan George, noted Franco-American political and social scientist, activist and writer
Molly Ivins, columnist and author
Madeleine L'Engle, award-winning author
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and aviator
Catharine MacKinnon, feminist, activist, lawyer
Ann M. Martin, author
Margaret Mitchell, award-winning author of Gone with the Wind
Sylvia Plath, poet and author
Nancy Reagan, former First Lady of the United States
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's Ambassador to U.S.
Gloria Steinem, feminist, activist, journalist (Class of 1956)
Niki Tsongas, Congresswoman, D-Massachusetts
Jane Yolen, award-winning author

Notes

References
 Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).

Other websites

 

Colleges and universities in Massachusetts
1871 establishments in the United States
Five Colleges, Incorporated
Oberlin Group of Libraries
1870s establishments in Massachusetts