Historical Context

Hope College was founded in coordination with the Reformed Church of America (RCA) [1]. The 1916 Semicentennial Catalog reveals the intention behind the creation of the college as it says

They wanted a Christian school to prepare, in a general way, for high grade American citizenship and the intelligent development of Christian character; but, more specifically, they wanted a school to serve the three-fold purpose— to equip competent teachers, to train ministers, and to prepare missionaries for the foreign field [2].

Teaching, missionary work, and ministry were the three vocational pillars that guided the founders in creating the school curriculum. As a result, emphasis was placed on classical training in Greek, Latin, and English. Classical curriculums were often elemental parts of higher education for male colleges in the United States since it was meant to prepare men for the public sphere. This included politics, work, and law. Moreover, knowledge of Greek, Latin, and English were required for admission to graduate programs. As a result, classical training was seen as disciplined and masculine [3].
The importance of classical training to Hope is evident in the 1866 Course Catalog where the only three options for courses of study were normal (teaching), English, and classical. The two men who took normal and English courses were temporarily absent from the school. Therefore, the classical course was the only active option for students [4]. This analysis does not include the Junior College or the School of Music. We only looked at Hope College. As the school expanded, more departments and courses of study opened up. By 1916, the semicentennial, there were six courses of study open to students - classical, philosophical, natural science, modern-language English, modern-language mathematics [5]. 

By 1925, the first year analyzed in this study, there were six courses of study available - classical, science, modern language-English, mathematics, history, and Latin [6]. Those remained the same six courses available until 1930. There is no available data on majors recorded in 1931 since the course catalog does not list available courses and no Milestone was published. In 1932, eight courses were offered - business administration, classical, English, history, Latin, mathematics, modern language, and science [7]. These same courses were offered until 1936.
From 1931-1932, the four year course schedule for each major that had been in the bulletins was no longer included. They were reintroduced in 1933 but only for Freshmen and Sophomores rather than Upperclassmen. After 1933, formal recommendations for four year plans were no longer included in the bulletin. However, in 1945, four year plans were listed for those on pre-professional tracks like nursing, dentistry, law, forestry, journalism, engineering, theology, social service, library science, and business administration. These plans were listed under “suggested professional curricula” [8]. This continued after the 1950 school year which is out of the scope of this research. No schedule recommendations were given during this time for majors. It is important to clarify that women could take different tracks like the pre-medical track or pre-professional tracks without them qualifying as their primary major. These would not be listed in the Milestone sometimes. Therefore, the lack of women in these fields during this time period (1925-1950) does not necessarily mean that they did not take them. For example, stenography was a certification that women could get but could not major in.

Moreover, lists of available majors were not included in 1931 but were reintroduced in 1932.  This could have been due to the expansion of available majors. However, a more likely theory is that the college wanted to save money on printing costs or felt that it was unnecessary to include the information. By 1936, only “groups” were specified that students could take courses in rather than majors. These groups were English, foreign languages, science, and social studies in 1936 [9]. After 1936, music was added to the list of groups. Departments and majors fit under these umbrella categories but were not individually listed [10]. 

The option of three science and math courses in the 1916 Semicentennial catalog (philosophical, natural science, and modern-language mathematics) reveal a significant shift towards incorporating hard sciences in addition to classical courses [11]. In 1942, a science building, Lubbers Hall, was opened which allowed room for physical expansion of the science department [12]. In 1943, the Army Specialized Training Program began at Hope. The College provided engineering courses for the troops, so Hope split into the Army College with an emphasis on mathematics and science and the other was civilian with an emphasis on liberal arts education [13]. More information on the creation of the STEM departments can be found on our page about the Founding of STEM at Hope and Women in STEM.

References:
[1] 1916. V54.01. May Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1916), 15, https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/49.
[2] 1916. V54.01. May Bulletin., 13-14.
[3] Linda Eisenmann, Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in the United States (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998), 350, EBSCOhost.
[4] 1865-1866. Catalog (Holland: Hope College, 1865), 31-33, https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/2/.
[5] 1916. V54.01. May Bulletin, 105.
[6] 1925. V63. 03. November Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1925), 10-11, http://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/86.
[7] 1931-1932. V70.01. February Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1931), 28, http://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/99.
[8] 1944-1945. V83.01. February Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1945), 35, http://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/112.
[9] 1935-1936. V74.01. February Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1935), 30, https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/103.
[10] 1936-1937. V75.01. February Bulletin. (Holland: Hope College, 1936), 28, https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/catalogs/104. 
[11] 1916. V54.01. May Bulletin., 105.
[12]  Milestone 1943 (Holland: Hope College, 1943), 70, https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/milestone/24.
[13] Correspondence between Hope College and Army, July 1943-September 1943,  Military Training Programs, records, 1917-1951, (H88-0266), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.