Academy and College: The History of the Woman's College of Furman University.

By Judith T. Bainbridge. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2001. Pp. [xiv], 290. $39.95, ISBN 0-86554-736-X.)

Academy and College traces the story of the Woman's College of Furman University from its beginnings as the Greenville [South Carolina] Female Academy in 1819, through its various administrative and academic metamorphoses as the Greenville Baptist Female College, the Greenville Female College, the Greenville Woman's College, and the Greenville Woman's College of Furman University, to its ultimate "coordination" (p. 219) with Furman University in 1938. Drawing on official records, newspaper reports, student publications, alumnae scrapbooks, private correspondence, and personal interviews, Judith T. Bainbridge, a professor of English and director of educational services at Furman, examines the school's relationships with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, community and business groups in Greenville, and Furman University. The book highlights the various personalities who shaped the institution's development--individuals such as President David Ramsay, who "improved both the campus and the college's academic standing" (p. 137), and Lady Principal Mary Camilla Judson, who "taught nearly every course the college offered, organized and managed the day-to-day operations of the school, and inspired its students to excel" (p. 72). The last chapter considers the impact of coordination on the identity of the Woman's College, contending that despite the legal merger with Furman a distinctive woman's culture remained until the advent of full coeducation and the move to the Poinsett Highway campus in 1961. Although Bainbridge frames her discussion in the wider context of southern, women's, and educational history, demonstrating the contested nature of higher education for women in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century South Carolina, her primary audience is the "students, alumni, friends of Furman, and the graduates of Greenville Woman's College (GWC), their children, and grandchildren ..." (p. x). Thus the text contains numerous descriptions and pictures of the campus, faculty, and students, and the book's appendixes include lists of principals, trustees, presidents, and graduates, as well as the words to the "Alma Mater" and "The Daisy Chain Song."

Despite its institutional specificity, Academy and College should garner the interest of historians of South Carolina, southern women, and higher education generally. Bainbridge has done a superb job utilizing a wide range of traditional and nontraditional sources, even to the extent of delving into the intricacies of nineteenth-century bookkeeping and legal briefs. In detailing administrative developments, she also enumerates the academic implications of various changes in organizational structure and institutional leadership. Nor does she ignore the student organizations, publications, activities, and rituals that provided a sense of community. But historians looking for a critical analysis of educational practices and policies will not find it in this book. Bainbridge treats the college administration, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the town and citizens of Greenville generously. As she explains in her preface, this project was "a labor of love" (p. x).

AMY THOMPSON MCCANDLESS

College of Charleston