12 AGNES IRWIN MAGAZINE WINTER 2021 Years150 GirlsEmpoweringof Timeline
Research produced more events than could be displayed here, but the ordinary days between may be the most remarkable — days in which Agnes Irwin girls worked and played together, preparing for the opportunities and challenges of their time.
THE TIMELINE YOU WILL FIND ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES MAJORREPRESENTSMILESTONES OF THE AGNES IRWIN SCHOOL’S FIRST 150 YEARS.
The Agnes Irwin School historical timeline would not be possible without the 150th Anniversary Displays & Exhibits Committee. We are especially grateful to the following individuals for their dedication to this important Eliseretrospective:W.Artelt ’60
Laura Wheeler Golding ’64 Polly J. Staples ’78
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Andrew D. Connally John B. R. Faust
1860 1870 1880
Agnes Irwin
1865 Two years after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and just days after the Union declares victory in the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated; Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes 17th President of the United States.
Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross.
1885 Bryn Mawr College opens its doors as a liberal arts college for women.
1883 Agnes Irwin is sent a brochure about a new college for women opening in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania with strict educational requirements. In order to meet them, she restructures her school’s curriculum, adds a college preparatory program, divides the school into grades, and holds the first graduation ceremony (for the Class of 1883, pictured). From this time forward, the girls think of themselves as graduates of a certain class year.
1889 Mary Channing Wister, President of the Class of 1889, decides that the class needs a day of fun after all the hard work. On the first-ever Class Day — a tradition that later became Class Night — they award witty gifts such as a rattle for the “class baby” and a watch for the “10 o’clock scholar,” and perform a farce. Among the graduates is Agnes Irwin, Jr., the niece of Miss Agnes, who would head to Bryn Mawr College.
1868 Ulysses S. Grant is elected 18th President of the United States.
1886 The Statue of Liberty is unveiled in New York Harbor.
1875 Penn Square is chosen as the future site of Philadelphia’s new City Hall, and West Penn Square Seminary moves to a new location at 1834 Spruce Street, a building once owned by Agnes Irwin’s brother.
1875 West Penn Square Seminary is renamed Miss Irwin’s of Philadelphia.
1881 IrwinAgnesdecides her expanding school needs more space, and moves it to a large brick building at 2011 De Lancey Place, herSprucekeepingStreetashome.
Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone.
1876 America marks 100 years with the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the first World’s Fair held in the U.S.
1875 Agnes’ younger sister, Sophy Dallas, joins the faculty.
1869 The Transcontinental Railroad is completed.
1874 The first zoo in the United States opens in Philadelphia.
1881 James Garfield is assassinated; Chester A. Arthur is sworn in as 21st President of the United States.
Miss Agnes Irwin, the greatgreat-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, is 27 years old when she assumes the leadership of Philadelphia’s West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies. The first day of school is held September 22, 1869 at 5 Merrick Street in Philadelphia.
1877 At the behest of the Women’s Centennial Committee, Agnes Irwin and Sarah Butler Wister curate a series of essays about notable women titled Worthy Women of Our First Century This is the pair’s second writing collaboration, the first being a novel titled Brisée that they authored anonymously at 21 and 27 years old, respectively.
1879 Two years after inventing the phonograph, Thomas Edison invents the lightbulb.
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1880 Two of Agnes Irwin’s students, Harriet Ashurst and Caroline Lewis, take Harvard’s new exams for women who want to teach; the tests are said to be more difficult than Harvard admissions tests. Both girls pass “unconditionally.”
1890s The “Gibson Girl” illustrations debut, setting fashion trends for the next 20 years.
1914 1914,inpneumoniaIrwinAgnesdiesofDecemberatage73.
1891 Basketball is invented by James Naismith.
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1898 Spanish-American War; the U.S. annexes Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.
Sophy Dallas Irwin
1897 Elizabeth Elliott, Class of 1892, issues an invitation to graduates — and following a unanimous motion, the Agnes Irwin Alumnae Association is born. They adopt the motto Non Sibi Sed Aliis: “Not for ourselves, but for others,” suggested by Miss Agnes. True to their motto, the group focuses on needs in the Philadelphia community, as well as more global causes.
1908 Henry Ford’s Model T introduced, the first affordable car to be mass produced.
1896 The Olympic Games are revived in Athens.
1901 President William McKinley is assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as 26th President of the United States. Five years later, Roosevelt becomes the first American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
1894 After 25 years as Headmistress of her own school, Agnes Irwin is recruited to serve as the first dean of Radcliffe College, Harvard University’s recently incorporated institution for women. When Agnes departs Philadelphia for Boston, sister and teacher Sophy Dallas becomesIrwinthe Philadelphia.SchoolofHeadmistressnewMissIrwin’sof
1914-1918 World War I 1890 1900 1910
1898 Through the years, The Irwinian features news about school happenings and sports, a joke column, an alumnae notes section, advertisementsand— and also provides a venue for budding writers to share their stories or poems.
1898 The first issue of The Irwinian is published. In her first editorial, editor-in-chief Margaret Wister writes that the goal of the student publication is “to encourage school spirit and amity, with the hope that the classes will take more of an interest in each other...”
1904 With more than 200 students in a single building, the school expands to 2027 De Lancey Place. Miss Sophy moves into the upper floor opening up the first floor for younger students. 2011 De Lancey is dubbed the “Big School,” and 2027 De Lancey the “Little School.” Within a decade, 2025 De Lancey is added to increase school space.
1905 The school begins to be referred to as The Agnes Irwin School on school stationery, a change initiated by Miss Sophy in honor of her sister — but the name does not become official until after the Irwin sisters die.
1910 Anne Shirk, Class of 1911, founds the Agnes Irwin Athletic Association, and names Sarah Elizabeth Putnam, Class of 1910, president. The motto is Bene Vincamus, Bene Vincamur: Win well, lose well. The group forms two teams, the Blues and the Golds, and holds relay races.
1906 During her tenure as Dean of Radcliffe College, Agnes Irwin is awarded three honorary doctorates: in 1895, an LL.D. from Western University of Pennsylvania; in 1898, a Litt.D. from the University of Pennsylvania; and in 1906, an LL.D. from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
1909 Agnes Irwin retires from her post at Radcliffe College and returns to Philadelphia. She assumes a new role as President of the threewhichAssociationHeadmistressesoftheEast,sheholdsforyears.
1912 The Titanic sinks; among the 2,200 passengers are several Philadelphiaprominentfamilies.
1913 The Class of 1913 publishes the first school yearbook, later called The Lamp. Prior to this, the June issue of The Irwinian celebrated the graduating class.
1903 The Wright Brothers design and fly the the world’s first successful airplane.
1915 As detailed in Miss Sophy’s will, Josephine Natt is named third Headmistress. A Board of Trustees — comprised of 14 women, 11 of them alumnae — is formed to oversee the school, and the school is incorporated as The Agnes Irwin School.
1921 The first scholarship is awarded to Nancy Pritchett, Class of 1924, the daughter of the architect who reconfigures the new school building, perhaps for partial payment for tuition.
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1922 First Student Council and the Cercle Français
1915 The Alma Mater is created. The Class of 1915 choose the tune, an old German air, and Marjory Taylor, Class of 1915, writes the accompanying words.
1928 After not missing a day of work in 38 years, Josephine Natt retires. Bertha Laws, Agnes Irwin Class of 1897 and Bryn Mawr College Class of 1901, succeeds Miss Natt as Headmistress, according to the stipulations laid out in Miss Sophy’s will. Laws is the first alumna to become a Headmistress of the school.
1927 Charles Lindbergh completes first solo transatlantic flight.
1929 Stock market crashes; Great Depression begins.
1923 The school purchases 3.5 acres in Bala Cynwyd for athletic use, which includes two hockey fields, three tennis courts, and a locker house. The facilities are overseen by Agneta Powell, an English athletic director who worked at AIS for 15 years.
1915 Miss Natt designs The Agnes Irwin School emblem, inspired by an old bookplate of a Mediterranean oil lamp that had belonged to Miss Sophy. The insignia also contains the new school motto, a quote from Dante’s Inferno: Se Dio ti lasci lettor prender frutto di tua lezione (“May God allow thee, reader, to take the fruit of thy reading”). The insignia is embossed on letterheads, plaques and other official documents.
1916 Class rings of varying designs first first emerge in 1910, but in 1916, Miss Natt and the sophomore class introduce a new class ring that represents the school as a whole: the rings, bearing the new school insignia, are still the same design that sophomores receive today.
Josephine Natt
Bertha Laws Class of 1897
1920 The 19th Amendment is passed; women win the right to vote.
1929 The first Student Government writes the bylaws for “Constitution.”itsThere are four departments: Publicity, Traffic, Study Hall and Lunchroom. The students are assigned committees to help keep other students quiet and orderly.
1919
1921 In March 1921, the Board of Trustees buys both 2011 Delancey and the house next door, 2009, and an architect is hired to merge the two buildings into one schoolhouse.
1918 The 1918 influenza pandemic (“Spanish Flu”), one of the deadliest epidemics in human history, hits Philadelphia especially hard.
1920
The Agnes Irwin School celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
1920 First Art Club
1915 Sophy has been ill frequently from 1910-1914. She writes her will in June 1914, in which she details arrangements for the school’s continuation. She dies in January 1915 after a fall — just one month after her sister, Agnes.
1918 Miss Natt requires all students to join the Athletic Association, after she hires a full-time athletic coach, Miss Arnold.
1917 Miss Natt decides that the curriculum needs more extracurricular activities, and the first choir and orchestra are formed. Over the next few years, other activities start.
1919 First Debating Club
1917 Several Irwin’s alumnae, including Dora Kelly Lewis, arrested in front of White House while peacefully advocating for women’s right to vote. Leads to “Night of Terror.”
1926 Alumnae Association president Eleanour Biddle Barnes, Class of 1889, is adamant that she will solve the problem of Agnes Irwin teachers having no retirement fund. In 1918, she arranges an invitation for the school to join the Teacher’s Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA). By 1926, the school board and Alumnae Association raise the $75,000 necessary to join; in the future, each teacher will be required to contribute 5% of their salary to the fund, which the school will match.
1933 Prohibition is abolished.
16; Miss Laws has the equipment and books moved from Delancey on Sept. 20; and on Sept. 25, The Agnes Irwin School opens its doors for the first time outside of the city.
The Agnes Irwin School celebrates its 75th Anniversary.1944
1948 Edith Murphy retires; Anne Bartol becomes sole Headmistress. Under Anne Bartol’s leadership, the senior talks that began as an offshoot of the drama curriculum become the thisthatSeniorresearch-basedAssembliescontinuetoday.
1935 AIS assumes the management of Kyneton, a small school in Villanova that is a feeder school for AIS, and runs it as its Lower School. 1940 1950
Edith Murphy Anne Bartol
1932 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1935 Mrs. W.W. Montgomery (Fanny Brock, Class of 1899) purchases the Clothier Estate for The Agnes Irwin School, putting the school in a secure economic position.
1939 With the school’s enrollment increasing, Mrs. Helen Dechert, Class of 1917, purchases the Eugene Thayer Estate in Wynnewood for AIS. Thanks to the expanded facilities, in Fall 1939, The Agnes Irwin School is able to offer continuous K-12 education for the first time. Elizabeth Lukens is named the first Lower School Headmistress.
Nazis come to power in Germany. The following year, Hitler becomes chancellor and the first concentration camp is opened.
1934 A formal uniform is introduced in four colors: blue, green, maroon, and a “dreadful brown,” as one alum describes it. The latter two unpopular colors are discontinued, and the school retains blue and green as choices. Later, the uniform becomes variations of blue and yellow, eventually evolving to include white and plaid.
1930
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1943 Through the purchase of war bonds and stamps as part of the “Schools-at-War” campaign, the school community raises enough money to finance the purchase of three jeeps, four “quacks” (amphibious jeeps), and three grasshoppers (observation aircrafts) in support of the war effort.
1945 World War II ends
1940s Yellow and navy uniforms become the custom.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is elected 32nd President of the United States; he is reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944.
1933 The school moves to the suburbs. In Fall 1933, the school rents “Ballytore,” the Isaac Clothier estate, in Wynnewood. The contractors complete their work Sept.
1946 The first mass produced television set called the RCA 630-TS is sold
1942 The first May Fair is held to raise money for a war orphan through the Foster Parents’ Program.
1943 Partial scholarships are awarded to students whose fathers are in the armed forces.
1944 After 16 years as Headmistress, Bertha Laws retires. Beloved teacher Edith Murphy and Anne Bartol become Associate Headmistresses.
1950 Lucetta Sharp Alderfer, Headmistress of the Lower School since 1947, establishes the first maypole dance. She makes long streamers out of ribbon strengthened by carpet binding, and dyes them blue and gold. The tradition of weaving the maypole at May Fair continues to this day.
1947 Cold War begins, continuing until 1991
1931 Empire State Building is completed; for the next 40 years, it is the tallest building in the world.
1950 Korean War begins 1953 Korean War ends
1941 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, spurring US entry into WWII.
1939 World War II begins with German invasion of Poland
1961 The Upper and Middle Schools officially open in Rosemont in Fall 1961, which marks the first time that the entire school has been on the same campus.
1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
1959 Hawaii and Alaska become states, making an even 50.
1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
1960
1963 Patty Pittman, Class of 1963, approaches Anne Lenox with the idea of creating a school mascot in order to sell stuffed animals at the Christmas Bazaar. The owl is first pictured in the 1963 yearbook and is dubbedeventually“Gus.”
John F. Kennedy is assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as 36th President of the United States and is elected to a full four-year term in 1964.
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1962 Mrs. Bartol retires Headmistress.servingSands,AdeleHeadmistress,Lenoxschoolthroughhalfwaytheyear.AnnebecomeswithM.GriffinClassof1937,asAssociate
1960 Ground is broken in 1960 for a new building on the Grace Estate in Rosemont, which will house Grades 5-12.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis heightens tensions between U.S. and USSR
1955 A nursery school is added at Remington Road at the request of numerous parents. Sally Orcutt leads the nursery program until 1958 when plans for the school’s move to Rosemont necessitate its closure due to space constraints.
1958 The Lower School moves from Wynnewood to the Grace Estate at Ithan and Conestoga Roads in Rosemont, where it remains to this day. The Grace Estate is an old Revolutionary War inn, first called the Horse and Groom, and later, the Sorrel Horse Tavern. It is said that George Washington and General Lafayette had “often” stayed there.
Anne Lenox
1956 The township plans to build a road through the upper field on the Wynnewood campus, which necessitates moving the school. The Charles B. Grace Estate in Rosemont is obtained as a partial gift on behalf of his second wife, Patricia Taylor, Class of 1934.
1967 Agnes Irwin’s a capella group, the Bel Cantos, is formed — preceded in the 1950s by “The Special Group” and in the 1960s, “The Agnes Irwin Chorale Group.”
1965 US officially enters the Vietnam War
1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” Speech at Lincoln Memorial
1966 Janine Stewart, Class of 1973, is the first African American student to enroll in the school. She is elected president of her 5th grade class.
1969 The Stonewall Riots; the gay rights movement takes shape in the U.S. Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
1968 American Studies Program begins with Independent Study, limited to 16 seniors. The next year, all seniors participated in the Program.
Mid-1960s Women’s Liberation Movement emerges in the U.S.
1954 Brown v. Board of Education rules that racial segregation in public schools is illegal.
1957 Launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union begins the space race between the U.S. and USSR.
1964 The school begins receiving foreign exchange students as part of the American Field Service. The first student to come is from South Wales.
1968 Mimi Ogden, Class of 1968, studies abroad in India as the first AIS student to participate in the American Field Service Program.
1973 Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade 1974 Two years after Watergate breakin, Richard Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment; Gerald Ford is sworn in as 38th President of the United States
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor becomes first female Supreme Court Justice1970 The school holds its studentsDay,Grandparents’firstinwhichbring their grandparents to school for the day.
1969 The thedocumentsJoanneCentennial.celebratesschoolitsNeelschool’sfirstone hundred years of history in Miss Irwin’s of Philadelphia, and the school successfully completes a $1.45 million fundraising campaign to undertake capital improvements.
1981 Anne Lenox retires; Adele Sands, Class of 1937, becomes Headmistress, having already worked as an administrator at AIS for 18 years. She is the second alumna to become headmistress of the school.
1971 Parents’ Council’s first Winterfest is held. The fundraiser includes dinner and dancing, with an auction and drawing for special prizes.
1972 First Volleyball Team 1980
1981 The Lenox Arts Center — with theatre, gallery, art and dance studios, music rooms, and photography laboratories — is completed.
1980 Agnes Irwin is included at the top spot in the bestselling cultural phenomenon The Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach. She describes the school has having straight arrow behavior, “Where the idea of good time is not sneaking cigarettes, but singing school songs.” Birnbach added, “Field hockey team plays for blood.”
1969 The school gets its first computer, and students are introduced to computer basics.
Adele M. Griffin Sands Class of 1937
1970
1971 The first Medieval Day, conceived of by history teacher Mary Poor, is held in the Upper School courtyard. Two legs of lambs are cooked on a spit, and the food is consumed without utensils. Parents and students alike dress in medieval costumes and enjoy skits, juggling and tumbling. This tradition eventually becomes Medieval Night, continueswhichtothis day.
1978 Lower School fathers team up and build a playground for the Lower School students.
1971 The first Special Studies Program (SSP), conceived of by Adele Sands for the sophomore and junior classes, takes place the two weeks following midterms. It is “designed to offer students an opportunity to plunge themselves into a single activity,” whether it be a trip, an Outward Bound experience, or shadowing someone in a possible job interest area.
1970 The Stengel Study Center opens and includes the Upper School Library, as well as classrooms and seminar rooms.
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1969 Senior Core Program started, becomes a signature interdisciplinary learning program at the school. (Pictured: The Class of 1978)
1994 Lower School addition is completed, adding three new classrooms, the O’Neill Music Music Room, a computer lab, and the Laura Thomas Buck ’49 Pavilion.
1986 SwimFirstTeam
1983 The Inter-Academic League for Girls is founded and The Agnes Irwin School joins, along with peer institutions, in interscholastic competition.
1982 The science facilities in the Middle and Upper School are renovated; black lab tables are added for sciencecomprehensivework.
1991 First Squash Team
Mary Kesler
M. Penney Moss
1988 Faculty sabbatical program is created; Dr. George Barnett is chosen as the first participant.
1994 The Middle School Library and Arts and Science Center are renovated.
1990 First 100th Night Dinner is held. The event, which had previously been a luncheon sponsored by the Alumnae Board, begins in its current form, welcoming the current Senior Class into the Alumnae Association with a celebratory evening.
1991 School’s first Multicultural Day
1990
1988 Mary Kesler retires, and Penney Moss assumes leadership of the school, changing the title from Headmistress to Head of School. Penney began her tenure at AIS as an English teacher in 1966 and served in various roles over the years, including Headmistress.Associate
1987 The school launches Summer Session, a co-ed summer program.
1993 First Crew Season
1988 Space Shuttle Discovery takes off, the first launch since the Challenger Disaster
1986 Major campus enhancements are undertaken: Lower School expansion includes an art studio, fully equipped science lab, and new classrooms. The Sands Computer Center also opens in the Middle/Upper School, with student and faculty workrooms and computer-equipped classrooms.
1991 The Agnes Irwin chapter of the Cum Laude Society is formed, joining the national organization of secondary schools in honoring scholastic achievement; 11 seniors are inducted in the first year.
1986 Community Service Program initiated
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1983 First Middle School Stars and Stripes Competition, still held to this day.
1990 The World Wide Web is formed; the internet changes life as everyone knew it. Four years later, the school installs a schoolwide computer network to introduce internet and email.
1986 Headmistress Adele Griffin Sands retires; Mary Kesler becomes 8th Headmistress.
1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after take-off, killing seven crew members on board. Agnes Irwin science teacher Kathy Bartuska had been a finalist in the program that sent a science teacher on the mission.
1989 A series of revolutions in nearby countries cause a chain reaction in East Germany, ultimately resulting in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
1991 Cold War ends WWW
1986 Full day kindergarten begins
2001 Students gain access to wireless internet on campus. “No more moving to the library or computer lab to research a project on the Internet,” one campus publication wrote excitedly.
1999 Y2K hysteria hits public consciousness as the year 2000 draws closer.
2001 The first robot designed at the school is built as part of the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics program — affectionately named Penney II after Head of School Penney Moss.
2003 The first Kindergarten Invention Convention is held, an annual event during which kindergarteners present their prototypes that solve a problem they or their peers face — from tunic zipper-uppers to automatic pet feeders.
The Agnes Irwin School celebrates its 125th Anniversary.
2002 The Varsity Field Hockey team commemorates the one-year anniversary of 9/11.
2001 9/11 terrorist attack on U.S. soil; President George W. Bush declares a War on Terror. U.S. troops invade Afghanistan in search of those responsible for the attacks.
1995 First Cross Country Team
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Events at Columbine High School shock school communities nationwide.
2003 Fourth graders present the first Women in Wax Museum. An ongoing tradition, the project invites girls to identify a notable woman from history, research her life, and perform first-person monologues — in costume! — to peers and families. U.S. invades
1997 The film Titanic is released, as is the first book in the Harry Potter series.
1998 Upper School Library undergoes a renovation, and is renamed the M. Penney Moss Library in honor of the current Head of School.
2000
1994 2008
2000 isschoolFirstwebsitelaunched
Iraq 2018 2013
2017
1994 The school celebrates its 125th Anniversary. Just as the school had celebrated its centennial with an ambitious fundraising campaign, the 125th Anniversary is marked by generous support from the community that enables major additions to both the Lower and Middle Schools and a renovation of the newly named M. Penney Moss Library.
2003
1998 The Laurel Society, comprised of individuals who have included the school as a beneficiary in their estate plans, is established by Annabelle Pierson Irey ’53 and Pat McPherson ’53.
2007 Martha Cutts retires; Helen Marter (pictured below, center) becomes Interim Head of School
2009 Mary Seppala becomes 12th Head of School
2007 First iPhone introduced Nancy Pelosi is elected the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
2008 Financial crisis in the U.S. leads to the Great Recession, affecting markets worldwide
2004 Arts and Science Center renovated
2011 Agnes Irwin launches its Center for the Advancement of Girls, which infuses relevant girl-centered research into the Agnes Irwin educational experience. The launch is celebrated with fanfare at the newly opened National Constitution Center.
2004 Agnes Irwin’s Athletic Hall of Fame is launched, with five inductees in the first year.
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2014 Mary Seppala retires; Wendy Hill becomes 13th Head of School.
2005 AIS/EA Day is thetogetherschoolbringinglaunched,thecommunitytorootforblueandgold!
2013 Peer Active Listening (PAL) begins, pairing upper schoolers with lower schoolers for ongoing mentorship
2004 Social media platform Facebook is launched, and is at first only open to select university students.
Mary Seppala
Martha Cutts
Barack Obama is elected 44th President of the United States, the first African American to be elected to the presidency.
2005 Penney Moss retires; Martha C. Cutts becomes 10th Head of School, and is the first to live in the newly acquired Head of School House.
2012 Groundbreaking for major campus expansion is held on May 11; seniors sign a beam to be installed in the new addition.
2010
2010 Instagram launched 2011 Snapchat launched
2013 “Open the Door” Celebration marks completion of a new school expansion, funded by the largest fundraising campaign in school history ($40M). The campus expansion includes a new entryway, lobby named after 6th Head of School Anne S. Lenox, an expanded dining and Student Life Center, and a 55,000-square foot Athletic Center complete with squash courts, meeting rooms, and rowing tanks. Outside of the Athletic Center, four new tennis courts, a new turf field, and a new softball field flanked the additional buildings.
Wendy Hill
2006 PreKindergartenFirst class
2019 The school celebrates its Sesquicentennial with festivities on campus and around the country. On September 22, 2019 — the exact day that Miss Agnes Irwin opened the doors to her school 150 years ago — 10 decades of Irwin’s women gather on campus to commemorate this milestone. The Convocation Ceremony includes remarks from keynote speaker Ann Vauclain Klotz ’78, the awarding of the inaugural Agnes Irwin Medal to Pat McPherson ’53, and a selection from Agnes Irwin:The Musical! written by music teacher Murray Savar.
2016 Donald Trump elected 45th President of the United States
2020
2016 Upper School CommUnity in Action Day is established, during which students, faculty, and parents lead workshops that promote meaningful conversations around the themes of community, understanding, diversity, and inclusion.
2015 The Junior Coating Ceremony is established: in the spring, every member of the junior class receives a navy blazer embroidered with the school seal, symbolizing their growing leadership role in the Upper School.
2020 Joseph Biden elected 46th President of the United States; Kamala Harris becomes the first female vice president elected in U.S. history.
The Agnes Irwin School celebrates its 150th Anniversary.2019
Sally Keidel
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2020 In July, Agnes Irwin hosts its Summit on Racial Justice, a threeday virtual gathering of faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumnae focused on strengthening the community’s collective commitment to anti-racism. The Summit ended with a Rally for Healing and Walk for the Lives of Black Women, led by middle and upper school student leaders.
2017
2019 The Upper School Triple Crown is launched, combining the existing traditions of the Hallway Competition and Field Day with the newly minted Super Bowl Flag Football games.
2015 The school acquires 672 Conestoga Road, a Trumbauer estate, and moves administrative offices to free up space for academic use. “672” has become home to a variety of school-related events, including the Laurel Society Brunch, rAISe, and student traditions such as the Senior Class Brunch.Commencement
2016 A balloon parade, featuring the creations of the second grade class, becomes a joyful annual addition to the All-School Thanksgiving Assembly.
2020 Wendy Hill retires in June; Sally B. Keidel becomes 14th Head of School, ushering in the school’s 151st year. In her first 100 days, Sally leads a large campus undertaking to ensure a safe and successful reopening of Agnes Irwin’s campus for in-person learning in Fall 2020.
2020 In March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Agnes Irwin transitions to all-virtual school for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. Major milestones, including 4th Grade Moving Up Day, 8th Grade Closing Ceremony, and Commencement, move to creative hybrid formats.
