July 1–July 12, 2013

This program seeks to engage you in understanding women's history and also in discovering what it was like to be a young woman in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to handle Sylvia Plath's and Gloria Steinem's personal papers and get an intimate feel for the time in which they lived, we invite you to join us!

A Typical Day

Your typical day will involve lots of collaboration with Smith faculty, Smith undergraduates who serve as teaching assistants, and other high-achieving teenage girls like you. Your first course meets from July 1 to 5, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with an hour break for lunch, followed by an activity period from 4 to 5:15 p.m. Your second course meets from July 8 to July 12 with the same daily schedule.

During the day, you'll move between your classroom and a variety of local sites. On campus, you'll work in the Smith College Archives—which houses one of the world's largest collections of women's history documents—and the Smith College Museum of Art. You'll also take field trips to places like Old Sturbridge Village and stops on the underground railroad, and learn to perform 19th-century "women's work," like cooking over a hearth.

After Classes

After classes are over, you'll participate in a variety of activities. You might take a lesson in 19th-century dance, go on a historic ghost walk or join other Smith summer program students for organized athletic and artistic activities.