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)

[Harvard] Cambridge on the Charles (Harper's Monthly, 1876A)

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)

Going Abroad for an Education (Century Magazine, 1882B)

An argument in favor of foreign study for American college students.

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.

Academical Degrees, by Theodore D. Woolsey (Century Magazine, 1884B)

Academic degrees, and especially honorary degrees, in the US.

What Is a Liberal Education? by Charles W. Eliot (Century Magazine, 1884B)

An argument for changes to the requirements for a BA degree.

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)

Education and Social Progress, by T.T. Munger (Century Magazine, 1887B)

An interesting essay as to what constitutes actual progress, and the dangers of turning the university into a shop class.

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

Education and the Working Man, by Leonard Noble (English Illustrated Magazine, 1890A)

Higher education and working-man's colleges.

The College Gymnasium, by Eugene Lamb Richards (Century Magazine, 1894B)

Its purpose, says the author, is not to teach feats and exploits, but to teach physical health and body-building.

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

Shall We Send Our Boy to College?/Substitutes for a College Training, by Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, DD (Ladies Home Journal, 1896)

Some pros and cons on college education.

The Most Interesting Sunday-School in America, by William Perrine (Ladies Home Journal, 1898)

A Presbyterian church school for adults in Philadelphia.

Physical Training at Harvard, by Dr. Dudley A. Sargent (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)