I am researching Harvard’s First Female graduate. Would you have any suggestions where to start?

The status of women at Harvard has been a process of fits and starts since 1879. While women were allowed to take Harvard classes starting in 1943, they officially attended and graduated from Radcliffe College.  There will be differences of opinion about this, but it appears that the many women of both the undergraduate and graduate class of 1963 were the first to receive Harvard's diplomas. (Harvard Gazette March 22, 2001; GSAS Handbook, 2010-11). The twelve women who graduated from the Medical School in 1949 were the first to graduate from a Harvard professional school.  (Harvard A to Z, John T. Bethell, Richard M. Hunt, Robert Shenton.  Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, c2004.)   

For additional information, please contact the Harvard Archives.

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