The Stauntonian

The Stauntonian

People & Culture

The Woman on the Diploma

Mary Julia Baldwin never married, never sat for a photograph, and turned a dying wartime seminary into one of the South’s most respected schools for women.

Aug 11, 2026
∙ Paid
MBU campus
Photo via MaryBaldwin.edu

Every diploma the university issues carries a name that belonged to a specific, difficult, remarkable person, and it deserves to be known before the institution absorbed her …

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