Framingham State University

1839 Normal School opens in Lexington with Cyrus Peirce as principal. Model School opens in a single room. 1840 First class of twenty-five women graduate, including Mary Swift Lamson, teacher to Laura Bridgeman and a founder of the YMCA in Boston (1867); and Rebecca Pennell Dean, first woman professor in the U.S. (Antioch, 1853). 1842 Samuel J. May becomes principal and conducts the first survey of schools hiring Normal graduates.