Constitution Oria (1 results)

octavo, circa 1855, 4-page, unsigned manuscript, formerly folded, in very good, clean and legible condition. Mary Lyons founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837; it did not become a "college" until the 1880s. The 58 members of the 1855 graduating class started an alumni association called "Oria", an abbreviation of the religious phrase "Our Rest Is Above". Two of that class became missionaries abroad - some 60 Mt. Holyoke alumni were foreign missionaries before the Civil War - and another 40 were teachers in 14 different states. None became as famous as poet Emily Dickinson (Class of 1847) and one student of the 1855 Class who did become notable - future Suffragette Olympia Brown - dropped out before graduation because she found the religious and other rules of the school too restrictive. The Journal of Education for October 1856, contains an article describing the "Oria": "At the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, members of each class organize themselves in a society for given purposes among which is the perpetuation of their acquaintance and the strengthening of their ties of affection. Periodically they have a class letter, which contains a condensed report of every member of the class, a copy of which is furnished each member. Each class is designated by some name either selected or formed for that purpose. The class of 1855, adopted as their motto the suggestive words, OUR REST IS ABOVE, the initial letters of which compose the word Oria. In sound and in meaning it possesses surpassing beauty. Work is a condition to our accomplishment of the divine purposes in regard to our happiness ? All the truly great and good of earth have been distinguished for hard work. The Oria numbers 58 members; two of whom are missionaries in foreign lands and nearly forty are engaged in teaching in fourteen different states.".