Yarbrough Court

Surrounded by buildings bearing the names of successful and prominent men from the school’s history, such as Peele, Leazar and Holladay, Yarbrough Court stands as a beautifully manicured landscape on North Carolina State University’s North Campus. The person for whom this court is named for holds an equally important spot in the school’s history. In 1927, Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough was the first woman to receive a Master’s degree at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering.

Born in 1904 to Louis T. Yarbrough and Lula Ellis Yarbrough, Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough grew up with a connection to North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering. Louis Yarbrough, her father, was a member of the first graduating class of the school in 1893. His daughter would make history on the school’s campus thirty four years later. The Yarbrough-Ellis family lived just down the road from the college on Hillsborough street, while Louis Yarbrough worked as a United States Postal Inspector, and before that an engineer. Mary Yarbrough grew up walking the campus with her family and meeting university administrators and seeing students; she even attended some of the courses and lectures provided at the school during the summer time as a young girl. 

She attended Saint Mary’s School, a private Episcopalian school for girls close to downtown Raleigh for high school but when it came time for her to go to college, Mary Yarbrough could not attend the college she had grown up so close to because of the university policy against admitting female students. During the summer of 1899, the Board of Trustees at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering made the decision to admit women to the school but the ruling was met with protests and controversy so Trustees reversed the decision at their next meeting. Mary Yarbrough ended up attending Meredith College, just down the road from North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, where she received Bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and mathematics in 1926. While attending Meredith, Yarbrough was allowed to take some courses at State College as a “Special Student,” meaning she was not fully enrolled as a student there but she was allowed to take a few classes alongside the male students at the school.

After graduating from Meredith College in 1926, Mary Yarbrough applied to State College to pursue a graduate degree in chemistry. Shortly after her application was sent the Faculty Council at the school made the decision to allow women into specific programs on campus. By June 1927, a decision had finally been reached by the Faculty and the Board of Trustees to allow women to receive degrees that year. In early June 1927, Mary Yarbrough, Jane McKimmon and Charlotte Nelson became the first female students to receive degrees from North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, with Yarbrough being the first to earn a Master's degree. Between 1927 and 1931, more women gained degrees with the establishment of the North Carolina system but women were told they could not attend State College as freshmen and sophomores due to a ruling made in 1935. At the time Yarbrough was obtaining her Masters degree, on-campus housing for female students did not exist. It was not until the 1960s that the number of degrees earned by women at the school increased drastically. In September of 1964 the first on-campus residence hall for women was opened at Watauga Hall and all undergraduate single women were required to live there. Mary Yarbrough furthered her education at Duke University where she received a PhD in 1941. Yarbrough returned to Meredith College after receiving her PhD and she remained there as a professor and as the head for the school’s Department of Chemistry and Physics until 1972. In 1930, Mary Yarbrough became the first woman to be an officer of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering Alumni Association, an organization that is still around today. 

Mary Yarbrough passed away in 1984 and the university thought that the best way to memorialize her and her impact on the university was to name a piece of campus after her. As a part of their centennial celebration in April 1987, North Carolina State University dedicated the courtyard on the university’s North Campus to Yarbrough. Chancellor Bruce Poulton resided over the dedication ceremony along with Doris King, a professor from the school’s history department. This space became the second spot on campus to be named after Yarbrough’s family. Yarbrough Drive was named after Mary Yarbrough’s father and his legacy of being one of the school’s first graduates. To commemorate the family’s legacy, the university also curated an exhibit containing memorabilia and photographs collected by the Yarbrough-Ellis family to be put on display as part of the centennial celebration for the university throughout the month of April. To commemorate her legacy at Meredith College, a chemistry research laboratory was named in her honor. Yarbrough Court stands today as a beautiful piece of land on North Campus that bears the name and honors the memory of an outstanding scholar in North Carolina State University’s history.

Original Source References

Celebrating One Hundred Years of Women at NC State University - 1920s. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/archivedexhibits/women/1920.htm.

North Carolina State University, Office of Public Affairs, News Services Records, UA 014.011, Carton 6. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua014_011. 

North Carolina State University, University Archives Reference Collection, University Buildings, Sites, Landmarks Files, UA 050.004, Box 9. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua050_004. 

North Carolina State University, Office of Finance and Administration, Office of the University Architect Records, UA 003.026, Flat box 10. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua003_026.

Ibid, Flat Box 12.

Mary Yarbrough Papers, MC 00552, Carton 2. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00552.

Ibid, Carton 9.

Ibid, Carton 13.

“Women.” NCSU Timelines. Accessed December 4, 2019. https://historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu/timelines/women.

“Yarbrough, Mary Elizabeth, 1904.” NC State University Libraries' Rare and Unique Digital Collections | NC State University Libraries' Rare and Unique Digital Collections, https://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/names/2708-yarbrough-mary-elizabeth-1904.

Secondary Source References

Bystydzienski, Jill M. and Sharon R. Bird, eds. Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Feldman, Saul D. Escape from the Doll’s House: Women in Graduate and Professional School Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973.

Reagan, Alice E. North Carolina State University, A Narrative History. Raleigh: North Carolina State University Foundation and North Carolina State University Alumni Association, 1987.

Solomon, Barbara Miller. In the Company of Educated Women: a History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.