the giles sisters
By Mary Aline Fertin
Mary, Persis, and Theresa Giles were the first women awarded degrees by Trinity College in 1878, 52 years before the Women’s College was founded. Giles Residence Hall is named for them. As Mary Giles wrote, “Trinity was a male school and we were barred.”[1] For the most past, the sisters attended private “classes of three” with willing Trinity professors. They paid tuition, but never formally enrolled.[2] After they completed the requirements for graduation, the board of trustees recommended them for “full and regular graduation to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts.”[3] A reporter for the Wilmington Morning Star wrote that this “was unprecedented in the history of North Carolina colleges.”[4] Mary wrote, “We were very ambitious and we thought we could do anything anyone else could… I don’t think the word ‘modern’ was coined then, but I suppose we were curiosities.”[5]
[1]. Mary Zilpha Giles Papers, Box 1, Duke University Archives
[2]. Ibid.
[3]. Ibid
[4]. Wright, Margaret. “Misses Persis, Mary and Theresa Giles Were First Women Graduates of Trinity College for Men -- They Took A Diploma From a Man’s College When Such a Things Just Simply Wasn’t Done”, Mary Zilpha Giles Papers, Box 1, Duke University Archives.
[5]. Mary Zilpha Giles Papers, Box 1, Duke University Archives.
[2]. Ibid.
[3]. Ibid
[4]. Wright, Margaret. “Misses Persis, Mary and Theresa Giles Were First Women Graduates of Trinity College for Men -- They Took A Diploma From a Man’s College When Such a Things Just Simply Wasn’t Done”, Mary Zilpha Giles Papers, Box 1, Duke University Archives.
[5]. Mary Zilpha Giles Papers, Box 1, Duke University Archives.
