One of the most influential women's colleges in the country, Wellesley has educated many illustrious women, from Katharine Lee Bates - author of America the Beautiful - to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Since its origins in the late nineteenth century, Wellesley has had an impact on American history and women's history. The college was unique in its commitment to an exclusively female faculty and much of its intellectual fervor can be traced back to that time. This book is an engrossing narrative history of that first generation of Wellesley professors.