The College as Legacy of JLN

A college named for Sophie had pressing and personal meaning to JLN, cementing past attachments in New Orleans and future hopes. By the fall 1887 opening and certainly in the few years afterwards, “Sophie’s College” became a place where other girls carried something of her daughter’s spirit living “again.” In her words, JLN was no longer “the wretched woman” of earlier, always focused on her own aloneness and grief, becoming instead, focused on the College.

But the College also had meaning to others. Even in JLN’s lifetime, students and their mothers especially wrote to her of their gratitude.

For a history of the college, see:

Newcomb College, 1886-2006: Higher Education for Women in New Orleans, an anthology of essays on the College (LSU Press, 2012).

Jesselyn Benson Zurik (1916-2012), Two Newcomb Students, Gouache on Paper. Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Newcomb Class of 1936. Newcomb Archives, Tulane University.