The Shipley School is a private, pre-K–12 college preparatory school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 10 miles west-northwest of Philadelphia.
Contents
History
Hannah Shipley, Elizabeth Shipley, and Katharine Shipley, all sisters, founded The Shipley School in 1894 as a preparatory school for Bryn Mawr College, a women's college located directly across the street. The Shipley sisters were strong-willed, highly educated Quaker women who created the school to pass on their values to similarly minded young women. The school opened in the fall of 1894 with six students and nine faculty members.
By the 1940s, Shipley had expanded the student body to 341 students. At this time, about half of all Upper School students were boarders hailing from all over the country and from Europe, Asia, Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Shipley discontinued its boarding department and began to admit male students. The last boarders graduated in 1983, and by 1984, the school was fully coeducational with equal numbers of girls and boys.
Campus
The Shipley School has three divisions: Lower School (pre-kindergarten through grade 5), Middle School (grades 6 through 8), and Upper School (grades 9 through 12).
Notable alumni
Robb Armstrong, author of Jump Start comic strip
Gavin Becker, American singer, songwriter and actor
David Corenswet, American actor, screenwriter, and producer
Alice Elliot Dark, American writer
Lydia Denworth, award-winning science writer and contributing editor for Scientific American
Helen Fisher, anthropologist
Tad Friend, journalist
Jessica Knoll, author
Victoria Legrand, of the dream pop duo Beach House
Dave Lieberman, chef and physician
Marshmello, American electronic music producer/DJ
Madeline Miller, author
Pamela Miller, American politician, first woman mayor of Lexington, Kentucky
Vinton Liddell Pickens, American county planner and artist
Roxana Robinson, American novelist and biographer
Happy Rockefeller, Second Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977
Nancy Schwartzman, documentary filmmaker and author
Nancy Talbot, American businesswoman
Heads of School
Source:
Hannah, Elizabeth, and Katharine Shipley, 1894–1916
Alice Howland and Eleanor Brownell, 1916–1941
Mildred and J. Russell Lynes, 1941–1944
Margaret Bailey Speer, 1944–1965
Isota Tucker Epes ’36, 1965–1972
Nancy E. Lauber, 1972–1979
Frederic L. Chase III, 1979–1985
Gary R. Gruber, 1985–1992
Steve Piltch, 1992–2019
Michael G. Turner, 2019–2024
Steve Lisk, 2024-2025 (interim)
Ian L. Craig, 2025–present