The statement that opens the 1860 article in Godey's Lady's Book on "medical colleges for women" sums up one of the key differences between US and British universities: "These are as yet peculiar to our country." It would be another two decades before British women could easily attend university, let alone obtain an degree. That's not to say that women have always found it easy to gain access to a higher education even in America; however, by as early as 1833, women were being accepted into Oberlin College, and a number of all-female colleges had already been founded by the beginning of the Civil War. Such colleges - and such concepts - must have seemed very new and brash to our Victorian cousins across the pond, whose universities might date back to the 14th century!

Medical Colleges for Women (Godey's, 1860)

Women's Colleges (Godey's, 1868)

A look at the Michigan Female College and the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Free National Normal Schools for Young Women (Godey's, 1868)

"Normal Schools" were teacher-training colleges.

The Origin of Harvard (Godey's, 1873)

The New Cambridge: Being an Account of Harvard University (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1876)

Vassar College, by Anna C. Brackett (Harper's Monthly, 1876A)

Wellesley College, by Edward Abbott (Harper's Monthly, 1876B)

Cornell University (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

The Art Schools of Philadelphia (Scribners, 1879B)

What Instruction Should be Given in Our Colleges? by Alfred Bolles (Atlantic Monthly, 1883)

A discussion of the present state of American colleges and hopes for the future.

An Outdoor University, by Catherine Owen (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

Two American societies for learning.

[Yale] Life at an American College, by Walter Squires (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

College Fraternities, by John Addison Porter (Century Magazine, 1888B)

[Barnard College, NY] A New College for Women (Century Magazine, 1889B)

The First Female College (Century Magazine, 1890B)

The Georgia Female College, chartered in 1836.

On the Opening of the Johns Hopkins Medical School to Women, by James, Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore (Century Magazine, 1891A)

The author is very much in favor of having more female physicians.

Columbia College (Century Magazine, 1892A)

The Pratt Institute, by James R. Campbell (Century Magazine, 1893B)

A school for industrial and fine arts in Brooklyn.

A Day at Vassar, by Helen Marshall North (Demorest, 1896)

• See Higher Education for more information on Victorian colleges, adult education facilities, art and vocational schools, and higher education for women.