Sesquicentennial Series: First Female UK Grad Was Belle C. Gunn

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 24, 2012) − In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial, the first of 150 weekly installments on UK's history highlights the institution's first woman graduate. Women students at the institution reached a milestone on June 4, 1888, as the college faculty reviewed the candidates for degrees. They concluded that "Cadets G. G. Bryan, E. E. Curtis, R. Payne and F. V. Bartlett and Miss Belle C. Gunn" had "creditably finished the course prescribed for the degree of Bachelor of Science, it was unanimously resolved to recommend them to the Board of Directors for that degree."

Even though women received certificates from the Normal Department as early as 1884, Gunn became the first woman student at State College of Kentucky eligible for a baccalaureate degree.

Arabella Clement Gunn, a Lexington native, spent her childhood on a farm near Shelbyville, Ky. While living in Shelby County, she attended the well-respected Science Hill Academy for girls. Her family returned to Lexington in the early 1880s and Gunn attended the public schools of Lexington and Sayre Institute.

At State College, classmates remembered Gunn as "well above average in scholarship, but not so brilliant as to inspire envy and jealously." She participated fully in the limited social life available, including the literary societies.

Before the commencement exercises that year President James K. Patterson summoned Gunn to his office. He asked the only woman graduate, "I suppose you will not want to sit up on the platform with the young men on Commencement Day, will you Miss Gunn?"

Gunn's reply was brief and pointed: "I've been through four years in classes with them and I don't see why I shouldn't sit on the platform with them now."

At commencement the president was reportedly "most gracious" to the first woman graduate, who he referred to as the "Eldest Daughter of the Institution."

This story in UK's history was provided by UK Special Collections. Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, Kentuckiana, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press and the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center. The mission of Special Collections is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.