Mary Caffrey Low - Accomplishments at Colby College

Accomplishments At Colby College

In July 1875, Low became the first female graduate of Colby College, at 25 years of age. She was the valedictorian of her class. She was one of the first women in America to receive a full-fledged bachelor of arts degree. In those days, it was not customary for women to give public speeches, especially at solemn occasions such as graduation ceremonies, but Low gave the class prayer in Latin, but not the valedictory speech. Colby's website now calls her the "grandmother of coeducation at Colby."

In "The History of Colby College," Ernest C. Marriner wrote, "No small part of the agitation that arose later in regard to the retention of women in the College was prompted by the fact that they persistently ran away with the honors." In 1890, the president of Colby initiated a plan to divide women and men into separate classes at the college. Low, along with Louise Coburn and 17 other women who had graduated from Colby, sent a petition protesting the move. The letter declared, "The issue is not whether men and women can recite together, whether men and women shall study this or that. It is simply the issue whether the men are willing to take the risk of having women surpass them in scholarship." Although Low wrote the letter, she wrote it in a way to make it appear that Coburn had, since Coburn came from a prominent family and Low did not. In the end, Colby did not go back to being officially coeducational until 1969.

However, in honor of her achievements, Colby presented her with an honorary doctorate in 1916. By 1924, the school's student body consisted of two-thirds women, a fitting testimonial to Low's pioneering attitude for the school.