Wesleyan Female College, Hamilton

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 3

WESLEYAN LADIES' COLLEGE, HAMILTON: The building was originally occupied by the Anglo-American Hotel. It contained 170 rooms, much too large for the Hamilton of that day, and consequently proved an unprofitable venture. It became a young ladies' boarding and day school, and in 1861 it was opened "for the education of female youth •.. in various branches of literature and science upon Christian principles," with the Rev. Samuel D. Rice as governor and chaplain, and Miss Mary E. Adams as lady principal. Its curriculum covered the equivalent of two years of university work, and its graduates could enter the third year of Victoria College. The college at Hamilton was open to all denominations, and more than two thousand young women attended its various courses of study, forming a body of liberally educated women whose influence added greatly to the cultural life of Canada.