Indiana University’s Office of the Registrar added the first 200 women to earn degrees at IU to its First 200 website earlier this month.
After the original First 200 website project, which only has the first 200 male IU graduates, Kelly Kish, deputy chief of staff for former IU president Michael McRobbie’s, suggested adding the first 200 women.
The first 200 IU graduates, who were all male, are from 1830 to 1857. The first 200 female graduates are from 1869 to 1895. IU accepted its first female student in 1867, Sarah Parke Morrison.
The First 200 website stems from a larger on-going website project, the Degree Compendium, which has the records of all IU graduates since 1830.
It took six years to complete the First 200 women project, said Ethan Bernhardt, senior associate director of Reporting Services at the Office of Enrollment Management. The website includes the women’s biographical details, life experiences, and marriage and family information.
“It gives a voice where perhaps there hasn't been as much of a voice,” Bernhardt said.
He said it was a challenge to expand on the women’s life experience section. There was more information available about the men on where they served in war and their careers. For the women, more research had to be done on the women’s families.
“Looking at all the relations to the students -- not just parents, but siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents -- suddenly the story got much richer,” Bernhardt said. said. “Always, you know, focusing back to the students, but you could see how this person was connected to all of these other people, doing all of these things that had an effect on the state of Indiana, the U.S. and the world in general.”
David Johnson, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Engagement, said this provides a more profound history of IU. And it’s able to connect to people’s lives today.
“To think about the impact that IU has today, and it all began with these firsts, and so it builds off of that in the history,” Johnson said. “It's a wonderful history project, but it's also a living history because it is living in today with our alumni, and we have alumni who are connected back to these alumni from early years.”