| Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition | Public Domain via Project Gutenberg |
an institution of advanced learning for women, at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 5 m. W. of Philadelphia. The site occupies 52 acres and overlooks a broad expanse of rolling country. The buildings are of grey stone in the Jacobean Gothic style, and consist of an administration and lecture hall, a science hall, a library containing in 1908 about 55,000 volumes mostly for special study, a gymnasium, a hospital and six halls of residence. The requirements for matriculation are high; students are required to choose their studies according to the "group system," which permits them to specialize in two or more subjects; and instruction is given largely by means of lectures. The college is open to "hearers" who are not required to matriculate, to undergraduate matriculated students who are not studying for a degree, to undergraduate matriculated students who are candidates for the degree of B.A., and to graduate students who are candidates for the degree of M.A. or Ph.D. The government rests in a board of thirteen trustees and sixteen directors, all the trustees being members of the board of directors. The president of the college is a trustee and director. The institution was founded by Dr Joseph W. Taylor (1810-1880), a member of the Society of Orthodox Friends, and he provided that the trustees also should be members, but otherwise Bryn Mawr College is non-sectarian. It was incorporated in 1880, and was opened for instruction in 1885. In 1908 it had 419 students.