Reichel, William C. A History of the Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of the Bethlehem Female Seminary, with a Catalogue of its Pupils, 1785-1858. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1858. First Edition. [10868]
Royal blue cloth decorated in blind & gilt, edge-worn with light fraying at the ends & tips, 9 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches, 1858 signature on the ffep. Frontispiece engraving, "View of the Lehigh River, near Bethlehem." Fourteen additional plates. 468 pages with index; foxing. Good. Hardcover.
Running title: "Bethlehem Souvenir."
The 1858 signature is that of a graduate (1852) mentioned in the volume, Louisa Buckman, b. Feb. 19, 1836, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
"The object of this volume is to present to the friends of Bethlehem Female Seminary, and the public generally, a faithful record of whatever is of interest in connection with this Institution from its original foundation down to the present time." - Preface.
The Seminary was founded in 1742 as a Moravian school for young women, and was the first Protestant boarding school in the colonies which became the United States. It was later known as the Moravian Female Seminary and in 1863 became Moravian College. In 2021 it became Moravian University.
