Meredith College
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Meredith College. An independent women's college chartered 1891 as Baptist Female University. Named 1909 for education advocate Thos. Meredith. Campus here since 1926.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Chartered in 1891 as Baptist Female University, this independent women's college was renamed in 1909 to honor Thomas Meredith, a Baptist editor and advocate for women's education. It settled on its present Raleigh campus in 1926. From its founding it was devoted to giving women a full college education in an era when many doubted the need.
Why it matters
Meredith joined a wave of women's colleges that expanded higher education for women across the South, reshaping expectations of what women could achieve.
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Related people
- · Thomas Meredith
Related events
- · Chartering as Baptist Female University, 1891
Themes & tags
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Jane McKimmon
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Fannie E. S. Heck
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From this house, Fannie E. S. Heck emerged as a leading social activist and writer in turn-of-the-century North Carolina. She led the Baptist Woman's Missionary Union after 1892, organizing women for religious and charitable work on a broad scale, and became a benefactor of what is now Meredith College. Her career shows the growing public leadership of women in the era before suffrage.