Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908)

The first female students to enroll in the university came to an 1877 summer session for teachers. Local journalist Cornelia Phillips Spencer wrote glowingly of the 107 women in attendance, expressing the hope that the state would some day "do as much for her daughters as she has done for her sons." At the next summer session, Emily Coe taught kindergarten education, the first course ever offered by a woman at the university.