Anna Head

Contributions and Distinctions

Anna Head was a pioneering educator and one of UC Berkeley’s first women graduates, earning her bachelor’s degree in Education Administration in 1879 at a time when women were a significant minority of the student body. She founded Miss Head’s School for Girls in Berkeley in 1887, a rigorous academic institution that broke barriers in women’s education and helped prepare generations of young women for higher learning and leadership. Her school became a model of progressive education and laid the groundwork for what eventually became the Head‑Royce School, a respected K–12 institution. The original Berkeley campus of her school on Haste Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains an important part of the city’s architectural and educational heritage.

Biographical Sketch  

Anna Head (1857-1932) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and moved to California with her family as a child. After graduating from Oakland High School in 1874, she studied music in Boston for a year and then returned to the Bay Area to attend the University of California, Berkeley. In 1879, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Education Administration, graduating as one of only 23 women in a class of 177. In the decade after graduation, she traveled extensively in Europe, especially Greece, where she developed a progressive philosophy of education emphasizing rigorous academics, science, the arts, and physical activity. In 1887, she opened Miss Head’s School for Girls in Berkeley, initially near the UC campus; under her leadership, the school offered a broad curriculum including English, mathematics, foreign language, history, natural science, art, and physical education, all designed to prepare students for outstanding colleges and universities. She taught many subjects herself and led the school for 22 years, retiring and passing leadership to a colleague in 1909. Anna Head’s educational vision helped shape opportunities for women at a time when formal academic training for girls was rare, and her legacy endures through the continued prominence of the school she founded and its historic Berkeley site.