Barnard College

Barnard College, founded in 1889, is an independent college of liberal arts and sciences for women, located in the borough of Manhattan, in New York, New York. Though affiliated with Columbia University, Barnard has its own campus, faculty, administration, trustees, operating budget, and endowment. The college has occupied its four-acre Morningside Heights campus since 1898. This Manhattan neighborhood is at times referred to as the Academic Acropolis, because the Manhattan School of Music, Teachers College, Bank Street College of Education, Union Theological Seminary, and Jewish Theological Seminary are also situated here.

Barnard’s original 1889 home was a rented brownstone at 343 Madison Avenue, where a faculty of six offered instruction to 14 students in the School of Arts. When in 1900 Barnard was incorporated into Columbia University’s educational system, it continued to be independently governed, while making available to its students the instruction, the library, and the degree of the university.

The College gets its name from Frederick A.P. Barnard (1809-89), an American educator and mathematician, who served as then-Columbia College’s president from 1864 to 1889. Frederick Barnard advocated equal educational privileges for men and women (but preferably in a coeducational setting).

Barnard College was one of the Seven Sisters schools paired with seven of the Ivy League schools. It was the sister school of Columbia College, now Columbia University. Barnard is one of the few Seven Sisters that remains single sex (female). It maintains financial independence from Columbia University.

Notable Alumnæ

Laurie Anderson '69, musician, NASA's first artist-in-residence
Natalie Angier '78, author and science writer for The New York Times, who won the Pulitzer prize for beat reporting in 1991.
Rose Marie Arce ’86 author who with Suzanne Bilello '77 was a member of a Newsday team in 1992 that shared the Pulitzer for spot news reporting.
Suzanne Bilello '77, see Arce, above
Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum '52, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge presiding over Martha Stewart's trial
Edwidge Danticat '90, writer
Cristina Garcia '79, writer
Mary Gordon '71, writer
Lauren Graham '88, actress, plays Lorelai Gilmore on the TV show Gilmore Girls
Francine du Plessix Gray '52, writer
Melani Hoell '74, Director of University College, University of Montana
Zora Neale Hurston '28, writer
Erica Jong '63, writer
Judith Kaye '58, chief judge of the State of New York
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Elizabeth Lawrence '26, writer
Jhumpa Lahiri '89, writer, Pulitzer winner
Eileen McNamara ’74, author who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for commentary in The Boston Globe.
Margaret Mead '23, anthropoligist, writer
Judith Miller '69, writer, Pulitzer winner
Janna Levin '88, cosmologist
Cynthia Nixon '88, actor
Anna Quindlen '74, author and columnist for Newsweek, who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992
Joan Rivers '54
Ntozake Shange '70, writer
Susan Stamberg '59, writer
Martha Stewart '65, home and living media empire
Twyla Tharp '63, choreographer, dancer
Suzanne Vega '81, singer, songwriter
Robin Wagner, figure-skating coach

External links