The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow, one of the oldest women's colleges in India!!

Isabella Thoburn College on a 2012 stamp of Indiaen.wikipedia.or

Isabella_Thoburn college, Lucknow, UP. google.co.in/

 The Isabella Thoburn College that had its origin  in a small school for girls  in Aminabad, part of Lucknow town (now it is a big city), Uttar Pradesh, is one of the oldest women's  educational institutions in India.   It was opened on 18 April 1870  by Isabella Thoburn,  American missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Now, this college is a famous one in Uttar Pradesh,  informally referred to as IT College.  On 12 July 1886 the college was renamed as  the Lucknow Women's College  Presently,  this old women's college bears the name of its founder Isabella Thoburn who settled in India during the early period of the British Raj with a view to spreading  Christ's  Gospel of Love, strictly following Methodist tradition. Realizing the  women's status in the conservative society  and their high illiteracy,  she made up her mind to focus fully on their school and college education  so that in the future they could  spread their knowledge and work for their welfare  and as well as society's.

Methodist Episcopal missionary Isabella Thoburn en.wikipedia.org

Above image:  Isabella Thoburn (March 29, 1840–Sept. 1, 1901), an American Christian missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church established educational institutions and  carried on missionary work in North India. She landed in India at a time when the British government in London took over the administration of the subcontinent from the repressive rule of the greedy East India company.  Born in 1840 near St. Clairsville, Ohio, USA,  she attended Wheeling Female Seminary in Wheeling, Virginia (now in West Virginia). She came to India at the  invitation of her brother
James Mills Thoburn, a Methodist Episcopal missionary in India,
In 1866, she taught at  the college  established by her and later she also founded  a Methodist High School in Kanpur, UP. These two educational institutions  were among the first in colonial India,  serving the  religious and educational needs of  the Anglo Indian  community in the kingdom of  Awadh (now part of UP).............

Isabella Thoburn College. Lucknow, UP.YouTube

 At the very early stage, the college had just six girls as  in the Indian society they  were not allowed to venture out of home and pursue education.  The school gradually expanded and by  1871, it moved over to a house called  Lal Bagh,  where the treasurer of the last Nawab of Awadh had lived. 
-In July 1886,  the college introduced  Fine Arts classes under the supervision of the University of Calcutta and  after 1894 the college was affiliated to the newly formed  Allahabad University by the British India government. Upon the death of  Miss Thoburn in 1901, the College was again renamed  after the founder Ms. Isabella.  It was in 1923 the college moved from the present location at Lal Bagh to the new location  Chand Bagh estate, comprising 32 acres of prime land. This place was once a royal garden under the Nawabi rulers of Lucknow.  The college then got ample support from one Nirmal Chandra Chaturvedi, an educationist of great repute and  member of the university Executive Council.

On 12 April 2012 the Postal deptt. of government of India issued a Rs. 5 postal stamp honoring this institution. Now affiliated  to Lucknow University, the college offers several undergraduate and post-graduate courses in various fields for women.  Isabella Thoburn College is being  run by the Isabella Thoburn Society of the Methodist Church in India  and hr name is firmly etched in the pages of History of Indian women's education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Thoburn_College
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Thoburn
 https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2016/11/isabella-thoburn-american-missionary.html