Student Helen Campbell studying radio science in a program started at Hunter College in 1917 by the National League for Women's Service to train female radio operators during World War I.ĭuring Thomas Hunter's tenure as president of the school, Hunter became known for its impartiality regarding race, religion, ethnicity, financial or political favoritism its pursuit of higher education for women its high entry requirements and its rigorous academics. (Today, the elementary school and the high school still exist at a different location, and are now called the Hunter College Campus Schools.) In 1887, a kindergarten was established as well. The school incorporated an elementary and high school for gifted children, where students practiced teaching. At the time most women's colleges had racial or ethno-religious admissions criteria.Ĭreated by the New York State Legislature, Hunter was deemed the only approved institution for those seeking to teach in New York City. The school, which was housed in an armory and saddle store at Broadway and East Fourth Street in Manhattan, was open to all qualified women, irrespective of race, religion or ethnic background. Founded by Irish immigrant Thomas Hunter, who was president of the school during the first 37 years, it was originally a women's college for training teachers. Hunter descends from the Female Normal and High School (later renamed the Normal College of the City of New York), established in New York City in 1870. Hunter College has its origins in the 19th-century movement for normal school training which swept across the United States. New York Normal College seen from Park Avenue (1874) drawing from a photo by George G.

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