The Seven Sisters, also sometimes called the "Female Ivy League," are a group of seven women's colleges that have educated some of the brightest minds in American history. Today, five remain as women's colleges, while one (Vassar) has become co-educational and one (Radcliffe) has merged with its "brother" institution.

Known for their exceptionally strong alumnae networks, both as individual colleges and as a group, the Seven Sisters are also well-represented on Geni due to their many famous alumnae.

The Seven Sisters

• Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts (1837 - present)
• Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (1865 - present; coed since 1969)
• Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts (1875 - present)
• Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1875 - present)
• Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1879 - 1999)
• Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1885 - present)
• Barnard College, New York, New York (1889 - present)

Note: Since this project is focusing on alumnae of the colleges as women's colleges, Vassar women post-1969 should not be added.

Adding Profiles

Any women who attended a Seven Sisters institution -- before their closing or coeducation dates, in the cases of Radcliffe and Vassar -- should be added to the project. Please note that this includes non-notable/celebrity alumnae as well.

Lists of famous alumnae from each institution can be found on Wikipedia:

• List of Barnard College people
• List of Bryn Mawr College people
• List of Mount Holyoke College people
• List of Radcliffe College people
• List of Smith College people
• List of Vassar College people
• List of Wellesley College people

Other Notes on Adding

At this time, this project does not cover faculty and staff. Please do not add non-alums who may have taught or worked at a Seven Sisters college.

We do, however, welcome non-graduates who left early or transferred; no diplomas necessary here!

Why Not Separate Projects?

At this time, making separate projects does not make much sense because the majority of alumnae were alive during the 20th Century and therefore have private profiles. Individual college projects can be considered at a point in the future if necessary. In addition, the aforementioned strong ties between all seven institutions makes the Seven Sisters a natural fit for a collaborative project such as this.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ashley Odell (MHC alumna) or, even better, use the "Discussions" link at the upper-right-hand corner.

Profiles Already In Project

Barnard College

• Naomi Gyllenhaal (1946 - ), Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning screenwriter
• Barbara Lamb (1929 - ), journalist and mother of actor Christopher Reeve
• Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978), American cultural anthropologist
• Hope Somoza Portocarrero (1929 - 1991), former First Lady of Nicaragua [private profile; not added yet]
• Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger (1892 - 1990), wife of New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger
• Jane Wyatt (1910 - 2006), film and television actor

Bryn Mawr College

• Olivia "Susy" Clemens (1872 - 1896), writer, literary critic, and famed daughter of author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
• Edith Finch, Countess Russell (1900 - 1978), writer, biographer, educator, and wife of Bertrand Russell
• Josephine Goldmark (1877 - 1950), social reform and labor/children's rights activist
• Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003), Academy Award-winning actor and AFI's "Greatest American Female Star"
• Elaine Hammerstein Kays (1897 - 1948), Golden Era musical stage and film performer

Mount Holyoke College

• Virginia Apgar (1909 - 1973), pioneering pediatrician and scientist who developed the Apgar score for newborns
• Janet Huntington Brewster (1910 - 1998), philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster, and relief worker
• Rachel Fuller Brown (1898 - 1980), chemist who co-developed first useful antifungal biotic, Nystatin
• Olympia Brown (1835 - 1926), suffragist and first female full-time ordained minister
• Edna Miner Cobleigh
• Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), famed American poet
• Helen Pitts Douglass (1837 - 1903), suffragist, abolitionist, editor, teacher, and historical association founder
• Grace McKinley Heidt (1878 - 1943), international teacher and Mistress of the White House
• Marion Newton (1901 - ?), educator and Mount Holyoke valedictorian for her class
• Kathrina Cobleigh Quick
• Elizabeth Knowlton Starr (1825- ?)
• Lucy Stone (1818 - 1893), prominent American abolitionist and suffragist
• Louisa Maria Taft (1827 - 1907), mother of successful Taft family
• Maude Usher Trumbull (1874 - 1963), former First Lady of Connecticut
• Lillian Mateer Walker (1858 - 1897], Baptist missionary to China, teacher, lecturer
• Charlotte Wilder (1898 - 1980), poet

Radcliffe College

• Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 - ), famed science-fiction author and gender philosopher
• Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg (1957 - ), author, attorney, philanthropist, and daughter of President John F. Kennedy
• Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946), writer, poet, feminist, and art collector
• Princess Christina of Sweden (1943 - )

Smith College

• Mattie Dickinson Bianchi (1866 - 1943), accomplished pianist, poet, novelist
• Barbara Bush (1925 - ), universal literacy activist and former First Lady of the United States
• Julia Child (1912 - 2004), famous chef, author, and television personality
• Yolanda King (1955 - 2007), human rights activist, actor, daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Nancy Davis Reagan (1923 - ), actor, stem cell research activist, former First Lady of the U.S.
• Olive Prouty (1882 - 1974), novelist, women's rights activist
• Gloria Steinem (1934 - ), famed American feminist, journalist, and political activist
• Marion Webb Strauch (1895 - 1980), community servant
• Ellen Sulzberger Straus (c. 1926 - 1995), communications industry executive, social activist, philanthropist, journalist

Vassar College

• Ruth Benedict (1887 - 1948), famed anthropologist and university professor
• Harriot Stanton Blatch (1856 - 1940), writer and suffragist
• Janet Lee Bouvier (1907 - 1989), American socialite and mother of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
• Hettie Shields Jarnagin (1872 - 1908), librarian of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
• Barbara Lamb (1929 - ), journalist and mother of actor Christopher Reeve
• Margaret Livingston, mother of women's rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Helen Harrison Morris (1863 - 1939), higher education trustee and supporter
• Ruth Reardon O'Brien (1931 - ), ground-breaking American attorney and mother of entertainer Conan O'Brien
• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1929 - 1994), photographer, book editor, former First Lady of the United States
• Jean Webster (1876 - 1916), American author and humanitarian

Wellesley College

• Sophonisba Breckinridge (1866 - 1948), lawyer, first woman admitted to Kentucky bar, educator, progressive activist
• Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947 - ), U.S. Secretary of State, former U.S. Senator from New York, lawyer
• Helen Keller (1880 - 1968), progressive activist, founding member of the NAACP, first hearing- and visually-impaired person to graduate from an American college
• Ruth Baker Sears Pratt (1877 - 1965), first Congresswoman elected from New York
• Cokie Roberts (1943 - ), Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author