• Source: Philadelphia High School for Girls

The Philadelphia High School for Girls, also known as Girls' High, is a public college preparatory magnet high school for girls in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Established in 1848, it was one of the first public schools for women. It is a magnet school in the School District of Philadelphia with a competitive admissions process. Vincit qui se vincit (she conquers who conquers herself) is the school's motto. The school is located at Broad Street and Olney Avenue in the Logan section of Philadelphia.




History



In 1848, the Girls' Normal School was established as the first secondary public school for women in Pennsylvania. It was also the first municipally supported teachers' school in the U.S. The first instructional session was held on February 1, 1848. By June 1848, there were 149 enrolled students, an incredibly large enrollment for a school at that time. The school continued to grow, forcing a move in 1854 to Sergeant Street between 9th and 10th Streets.
In April 1854, the name of the school was changed to the Girls' High School of Philadelphia. By June 1860, 65 graduates had received diplomas bearing the Girls' High School name. In 1860, the name of the school was again changed to The Girls' High and Normal School to better define the "design of the institution" as a school for an education confined to academic subjects and for future teachers.
In October 1876, a new school which "for convenience and comfort will probably have no superior" was constructed at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets. At the time it was surpassed in size only by Girard College and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1893, the High School and Normal School were separated into two distinct institutions. It was at this time that the institution became known as the Philadelphia High School for Girls. The school offered three parallel courses: a general course of three years with a possible postgraduate year, a classical course of four years, and a business course of three years. In 1898, a Latin-Scientific course "was designed to prepare students for the Women's Medical College, Cornell University, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Barnard, or such courses in the University of Pennsylvania as were open to women."
In the early 1930s, the school survived attempts to merge it with William Penn High School. Alumnae, faculty and friends of the school dedicated themselves to its preservation.
In 1933, a new school was erected at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets to replace the one which had stood on the site since 1876. This historic building, now the site of Julia R. Masterman School, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
In May 1976, Vice Principal Dr. Florence Snite sued Katherine Day for libel because she had organized a demonstration protesting the administration's policy which barred lesbian alumnae from attending the prom.
In 1958, the school again outgrew its location and moved to its current site at Broad Street and Olney Avenue. Located down the street at Ogontz and Olney Avenue is Central High School, which, until 1983, was an all-male school. Prior to Central turning co-educational, the two schools had a partnership.




Traditions



Big Sister, Little Sister – Seniors are paired with incoming freshmen and act as their "big sisters". The "big sisters" provide transitional support to their "little sisters".
Freshman Day, Sophomore Day, Junior Day – Each class is given a day to honor it. Students of the honored class generally sport flowers in their class color, host an auditorium show, and have a tea or other social gathering.
Senior Day – Graduating seniors are given awards for their academic and extracurricular achievements. After the awards ceremony, they have lunch, often on the Spirit of Philadelphia or at the Chart House.
Contest – started in 1913 and has evolved over the years. The seniors and freshmen team up to compete against the sophomores and juniors in a variety of competitions that span a few weeks.
County Fair – A schoolwide all-afternoon fair in which each advisory class contributes food, games, and entertainment. All the money earned during county fair is given to a charity of choice by the winning advisory.
Songs of the Season – The school's holiday show. The program begins with the procession of members of the school's Treble Clef Choir through a completely dark auditorium. Each choir member carries a single lit candle and chants "Hodie Christus Natus Est" by Benjamin Britten. The show continues with holiday performances by the school's various extracurricular groups and ethnic clubs. Jill Scott (a Girls' High alumna) made an appearance at Songs of the Season in 2006.
Graduation – ceremony at the Academy of Music, and now at the Kimmel Center. All graduates wear white dresses and carry a bouquet of red carnations.




= School song

=
The school song has two parts. Alma Mater was written by Grade Gordon (1906) with music by F. Edna Davis (1906). Fidelitas was written by Emily Loman in June 1915.




= School seals

=

















Notable alumnae



Erika Alexander - actress and producer
Gloria Allred - attorney
Leslie Esdaile Banks - novelist
Deborah Batts - Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Becky Birtha - poet and author
Susan Braudy - author, journalist and Pulitzer nominee
Elaine Brown - first woman head of the Black Panther Party
Vanessa Lowery Brown - Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who was convicted of bribery
Blondell Reynolds Brown - politician; only woman to serve as Philadelphia City Councilmember At-Large 1999-2015
Bebe Moore Campbell - author
Mary Schmidt Campbell - president of Spelman College
Barbara Chase-Riboud - artist, sculptor, bestselling novelist and award-winning poet
Constance Clayton - first woman and first African American Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia
Mae Virginia Cowdery - poet
Maria Donatucci - PA State Representative of the 185th District & current PA Chairwoman of Civil Service Committee (1972)
Reed Erickson - philanthropist; transgender man who provided early support to the LGBT movement
Jessie Redmon Fauset - Harlem Renaissance novelist; editor of The Crisis
Eileen Folson - Grammy-nominated musician, Broadway composer (1974)
Shirley Clarke Franklin - first woman mayor of Atlanta, GA
Vanessa Northington Gamble - physician; authority on public health; chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee
Julie Gold - Grammy-winning songwriter, singer (1974)
Tina Sloan Green - athlete
Edith Grossman - translator of modern Latin American literature
Helene Hanff - author, wrote 84 Charing Cross Road
Barbara Harris - first woman ordained a bishop of the Episcopal Church
Lillian Hoban - American illustrator and children's writer; published in over 1,400 publications; Lewis Carroll Shelf and Christopher Award winner
Minnie Kenny - cryptologist; early NSA employee; former Chief of Language and Linguistics for the Office of Techniques and Standards of the NSA
Milly Koss - computing pioneer
Virginia Knauer - economic advisor to President Nixon and President Ford; first Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs
Pinkie Gordon Lane - first African American poet laureate of Louisiana
Carol Lazzaro-Weis - professor of Italian and French, translator and scholar
Lisa Lopes - member of the best-selling female American group of all time, TLC
Frederica Massiah-Jackson - President of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas
Jeanette DuBois Meech – evangelist and industrial educator
Pauline Oberdorfer Minor - one of the founders of Delta Sigma Theta sorority
Wanda Nesbitt - U.S. Ambassador to Namibia (1974)
Barbara Nissman - pianist in the grand Romantic tradition
Ann Hobson Pilot - principal harpist, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Howardena Pindell - artist, first African American curator at MoMA, activist for minorities in the arts, researcher, and author
Rebecca S. Pringle - president, National Education Association
Liza Redfield - American conductor, pianist, and composer; first woman to be the full-time conductor of a Broadway pit orchestra
Katherine Gilmore Richardson - politician; Philadelphia City Councilmember At-Large
Lisa Richette - Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge, legal pioneer, social activist, and author
Judith Rodin - first woman President of the University of Pennsylvania; President of the Rockefeller Foundation
Jill Scott - singer and actress
Dolores Sloviter - first woman named Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Marion Stokes - civil rights activist, founding Board member for the National Organization for Women, and philanthropist. Data and media archivist who recorded every news broadcast for decades. Her 70,000 tapes are being digitized by the Internet Archive.
Zoe Strauss - photographer; nominee member of Magnum Photos
C. Delores Tucker - politician and civil rights activist
Mary L. Washington - politician
Helen L. Weiss - composer and pianist
Lisa Yuskavage - artist
Erin Kelly - physician




Controversy


Hafsah Abdur-Rahman, a Muslim student, was denied a diploma on stage by the school principal after performing the Griddy dance during the graduation ceremony on June 9, 2023.




Notable faculty


Ida Augusta Keller - plant physiologist; taught at the school, 1893–1930




References






Sources


The Public Schools of Philadelphia: Historical, Biographical, Statistical by John Trevor Custis, Burk & McFetridge Co. Publisher, 1897, Pg. 153&c.: Girls' Normal School, Girl's High School, Girls' High and Normal School




External links



Official website
Girls' High School at the Wayback Machine (archived January 28, 2018);
Girls' High School at the Wayback Machine (archived November 2, 2007)
Alumnae Association Alumnae Association of the Philadelphia High School for Girls

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