Mary Lyon, born in 1797 in the small rural township of Buckland, Massachusetts became a school teacher at the age of 17. Inspired by her own struggles to obtain an education, she worked hard to expand academic opportunities for young women. An American pioneer, she was a remarkable woman who founded the worldwide model of higher education for women–Mount Holyoke College in 1835, the first all women’s institute of higher education offering the same curriculum as its male counterparts. Mary Lyon proved that women were as intellectually capable as men, and that an institution for women offering a college curriculum could survive financially.
See more at her Wikipedia page.
Room #1, The Red Room, is named after Mary Lyon.