A College of Noble Origin

Innovation and quality.

Founded in 1855, Elmira Female College was the first college in the world to grant a baccalaureate degree to women, equal to those granted to men. Elmira College is known as the "mother of women's colleges." (Elmira became co-educational in 1969.) Simeon Benjamin, known as "The Founder," was instrumental in the College's location in Elmira, the growing commercial and cultural center of the Finger Lakes region.

Benjamin also played a substantial role in the selection of Elmira's first president, Dr. Augustus Cowles, after whom the College's original building subsequently was named.

Jervis Langdon, a member of the founding Board of Trustees, purchased the East Hill property that became Quarry Farm. Elmira College alumna Olivia Langdon (Class of 1864) married Samuel Clemens and later, the Clemens family enjoyed many summers at Quarry Farm. During those summers, Clemens, writing as Mark Twain, penned the American classics The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and many great works. In 1952, Professor of English Literature Dr. Ida Langdon, on behalf of her family, presented the Mark Twain Study to Elmira College. In 1983, the Langdon family gave the study and the historic Quarry Farm to Elmira College

Now Quarry Farm is used as a residence for visiting Twain scholars from all over the world. The Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm offers year-round educational programs.

Elmira College, born of idealism and nurtured in success, remains a place where leaders come to learn.