Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30305
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Notes
Spelman College was founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary by Harriet E. Giles and Sophia B. Packard, two white New England missionaries who recognized the need for higher educational opportunities for African American women in the South. In 1884, John D. Rockefeller donated the funds necessary for the purchase of nine acres of land west of downtown Atlanta for the school's campus. The institution was subsequently renamed Spelman Seminary in honor of Rockefeller's mother. In 1924, the name of the institution changed again to Spelman College to reflect its status as a liberal arts college. Today, Spelman is part of the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of African American institutions of higher education in Atlanta.
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