History of Brown Women

An important undertaking of the Pembroke Center Associates is the preservation and celebration of the history of Brown women. In addition to our work to develop the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archives, we are pleased to share other efforts related to this goal.

Digital Archives

The digital archives of the Pembroke Record are now online!

From 1922 to 1970, the Pembroke Record documented and commented upon life at Pembroke College in Brown University. Although the Pembroke Record ceased publishing decades ago, it has remained a valuable archival resource and an irreplaceable part of the history of women at Brown University. Unfortunately, the physical, bound copies of the Pembroke Record are deteriorating with age and extensive use. The Pembroke Center Associates undertook this effort, in partnership with the Brown University Library, to digitize the entire run of the Pembroke Record. We are pleased to make it digitally accessible to scholars and alumnae/i and thank the support of our members for making this project possible.

	Video: Remembering Pembroke Hall The original dedication of Pembroke Hall, the new Women's College, was held on November 22, 1897.
	Video: Pembroke Hall Rededication Pembroke Hall was the first building erected for the use of Brown’s fledgling Women’s College. On October 17, 2008, historic Pembroke Hall was rededicated by President Ruth J. Simmons as the new home of the Cogut Center for the Humanities and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.

The Search for Equity is a book about the history of women's education at Brown was published as part of the celebration of 100 years of women at Brown.

Copies of this book are available through the Pembroke Center or by writing:

Alumni Relations Office
Box 1859
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912-1958

Following is an excerpt from The Search for Equity: Women at Brown University, 1891-1991, edited by Polly Welts Kaufman '51:

During the early 1930s, as financial strains of the Depression mounted, the Brown and Pembroke administrations permitted more and more women to take courses with men on the Brown campus, rather than organize additional sections for women on the Pembroke campus.

This change, although presumed at the time to have been a financial decision resulting from an increasing shortage of funds, nonetheless came at a point when educators were no longer insisting that women receive the same training as men, when it was increasingly understood that women students were not in competition with male students because they were not preparing themselves for the same careers as men. Simultaneously as an equal education for women was being defined in terms of a different education, the fears that had previously led to segregating the sexes lessened, and separation was cast aside with little feeling of regret (Search for Equity, p. 93).

Pembroke Center publications on the history of Brown women:

	Learn about the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women and the History of the Funding of Pembroke Hall. Click here to see the PDF.
	Please click here to see a PDF version of the Original Program from the Dedication of Pembroke Hall in 1897.
	Please click here to see a PDF of A Brief History of Women at Brown University. The building in this image is Pembroke Hall on Brown University's campus.
	Please click here to See a PDF version of a Timeline of Women's Sports at Brown.

Click here to download the free Adobe PDF reader