Sweet Briar College

Sweet Briar Collegein the Mary Reynolds Babcock Fine Arts buildinghouses music materials. The Martin C.Shallenberger library in the Anne Gary Pannellbuilding holds the Fanny B. Fletcher CollegeArchives, the Fergus Reid Rare Book collectionsand the College’s book arts collection.Older journals, microform resources, and governmentresources are housed in the WickClosed Stack facility. Together with Cochran,these resources provide students with one ofthe finest private college libraries in Virginia.The collections include over 250,000 volumes,400,000 microforms; subscriptions to morethan 1,000 current periodical titles; and 8,000audio-visual materials. The library system alsoprovides the College community with access toan enormous range of electronic databases andfull text resources through the library Web page.The 700-seat Murchison Lane Auditorium,located in the Babcock Fine Arts Center, is hostto cultural and intellectual events from studentdance and theatre productions to worldrenownedspeakers and the Babcock Season,which brings visiting performing artists, theatretroops, and music ensembles to campus.Rotating art exhibitions are research-, studio-,and community-based and are presentedin one of three galleries: Babcock, Benedict,and Pannell; the latter houses the Sweet BriarCollection and larger touring exhibitions.Located in the Boxwood Alumnae House,the Sweet Briar Museum contains an excellentteaching collection of 18th-, 19th-, and 20thcenturyAmerican decorative arts, includingartifacts of the College’s founders and memorabiliafrom throughout the College’s history.The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts(VCCA), the only artists’ retreat in the nationwith direct ties to a college or university, islocated adjacent to the Sweet Briar campus.Writers, visual artists, and composers workingat the VCCA come to the College to teach inits interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts program,and to take part in campus life.The Florence Elston Inn and ConferenceCenter complex, located on campus, providesa 10,000 square foot state-of-the-art conferencefacility and an inn featuring 38 comfortablerooms.The College is centrally located within thestate of Virginia, 50 miles south of Charlottesvilleand 165 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.,on U.S. 29.Sweet Briar College was founded in 1901,the legacy of Indiana Fletcher Williams,who left her entire estate to found an institutionin memory of her only daughter, Daisy,who died at the age of 16 in 1884. At thetime of Mrs. Williams’ death in 1900, herestate consisted of more than a million dollars,and over 8,000 acres of land, includingthe Sweet Briar Plantation. The first Board ofDirectors determined that the College shouldbe free from denominational control and thatit should maintain the highest academic standards.Sweet Briar would unite classical andmodern ideals of education and, in the wordsof its founder, prepare young women “to beuseful members of society.”Sweet Briar College opened formally inSeptember 1906 with 51 students, including 15day students. Its A.B. degree, granted for thefirst time in 1910, was immediately recognizedby graduate programs at leading universities.Three of Sweet Briar’s first five graduates wenton to pursue advanced degrees.By 1921, Sweet Briar held membershipin the Southern Association of Colleges andSecondary Schools, the American Associationof University Women, and the American