Important Furman University figure Mary Camilla Judson featured in Greenville Journal

Mary Camilla Judson, lady principal, Greenville Woman’s College. Photo: Furman Special Collections and Archives.

Mary Camilla Judson, sister of Charles Judson, a longtime professor at Furman University, is the subject of an article appearing in Greenville Journal. Mary Judson arrived in Greenville in the mid-19th century to become lady principal of Johnson Female University in Anderson, South Carolina. Beginning in the late 1850s, she taught subjects including art, French, English, botany, astronomy and more at Greenville Baptist Female College, which was led by her brother and was later named Greenville Woman’s College. In 1878, she was appointed lady principal of the Woman’s College and began her decadeslong career there (1878-1912) shaping the identity of the institution, and by extension, Furman University. The college merged with Furman in the late 1930s.