The college was founded by the Rev. Tryon Edwards and the Rev. James W. Wightman, pastors of Presbyterian churches in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland, and Greencastle, Pennsylvania. The original charter was granted by the Pennsylvania Legislature on March 24, 1869. First named Wilson Female College, it took its present name in 1920. Wilson was one of the first colleges in the U.S. to accept only female students. Its 1870 promotional materials stated that the college was a place for women "to be leaders, not followers, in society". Instruction begin in 1870, with the first academic degree awarded in 1874. The college was modeled after Vassar College. It was named for Sarah Wilson, whose donations were used to purchase the campus land. Wilson's donation made her the first living American woman to endow a college.
1900–2000
Anna J. McKeag was inaugurated as Wilson's first woman president in 1911, and served until 1915 when she was succeeded by Ethelbert Dudley Warfield. In 1967 the Wilson College sailing team won the first Intercollegiate Sailing Associationnational championship held in a women's event. In the 1970s, two tropical storms, Agnes in 1972 and Eloise in 1975, caused flood damage to low-lying buildings on campus. Although it nearly closed its doors in 1979, a lawsuit organized by students, faculty, parents and an alumnae association succeeded in allowing the college to remain open, making it one of the few colleges to survive a scheduled closing. It subsequently adopted the Phoenix as its mascot, to symbolize the college's survival. In 1982, Wilson began offering a continuing studies program to meet the needs of adults seeking post-secondary education. In 1996, the college was one of the first in the nation to offer an on-campus residential educational experience for single mothers with children.
2000–
Beginning in summer 2006, Wilson offered its first graduate-degree program, a Master of Arts in Teaching for certified elementary school teachers. The college currently offers six graduate degree programs. The first men to attend and to graduate from Wilson entered at the end of World War II. Men later became able to earn degrees from Wilson through the Adult Degree Program, although the traditional undergraduate college remained a College For Women. In January 2013, the college's board of trustees voted to extend coeducation across all programs; male commuter students were admitted in fall 2013, with the first male residential students beginning in fall 2014.
Campus
The Wilson College campus is located at the edge of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on both sides of the Conococheague Creek. The property was originally bought from Alexander McClure, whose home Norland, had been burnt in 1864 by Confederates under the orders of General Jubal Early. The home was rebuilt before being sold to the college.
Academics
The college offers 34 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors, and master's degrees.
