Did you know that Anderson University's creation was inspired by an earlier all-female school? Founded in late 1847, the Johnson Female Seminary was named after Rev. William B. Johnson, a leading Baptist minister, and an advocate for female education. Students studied subjects like Latin, Greek, and calculus. Students even published their own periodical, Le Bas Bleu, one of which is on display in our education exhibit. 

Under the pressures from the Civil War the school was closed in the 1860s. The buildings later acted as a Confederate treasury, a Freedmen's School during Reconstruction, and eventually Patrick Military Institute before being demolished in the 1920s. 

Below, a picture of the university painted in 1856 and an image of an 1854 account for Stephen McCully showing the tuition cost for his three children to attend the school.