1854 Graduating Class, Wesleyan Female Institute, Murfreesboro, North Carolina

As the nineteenth century progressed, more schools and academies for women opened across the United States. Founded in 1836, Georgia Female College in Macon (now Wesleyan College) was the world's first college for women, closely followed in 1837 by Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. New York's Cornell and Ohio's Oberlin were early experiments in coeducation. Some female schools "finished" young ladies for society by stressing "accomplishments" like music, art, and needlework. Opened by Methodists in 1846, Greensboro Female College was among those that also offered history, mathematics, and science.