Lasell College

Lasell College (LC) is a private, non-sectarian, coeducational college located in the Newton, Massachusetts, United States, village of Auburndale. Lasell offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in the liberal arts and professional fields of study.

History

Lasell was founded in 1851 as the Auburndale Female Seminary by Williams College Professor of Chemistry, Edward Lasell, after he took a sabbatical from his job in Williamstown to teach at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, where the experience inspired him to invest more personally in women's education. He died of typhoid fever during the first semester, but his school proved highly successful as a first-rate educational institution and was soon renamed Lasell Female Seminary in his memory. As a nationally respected ladies' academy, its students came from all over the United States and were often courted by students from Harvard College.

Its name later changed to Lasell Seminary for Young Women and, in 1874, governance was given to a board of trustees and Principal Charles C. Bragdon. Bragdon further expanded the faculty to make Lasell renowned as a more academically rigorous women's institution, a prestigious finishing school with a highly scientific approach to domestic work, art, and music. As an innovative institution, known for a radical approach to women's education at the time, Lasell also administered the Harvard exams and offered law courses for women.