In 1872, the Board of Trustees of Delaware College voted to allow the admittance of women students. Women who enrolled could take any course the College offered, but a three-year literary program of study was also created with female students in mind.
A third literary society was organized at Delaware College in 1876 by nine female students and named the Pestalozzi Society after a Swiss educational reformer, Johann Pestalozzi (1746 — 1827). This society met weekly, held debates, sponsored speakers and established their own monthly manuscript journal, the "Pestalozzi No Name." The Pestalozzi Society was disbanded in 1885 when coeducation was discontinued at Delaware College, due to lack of trustee support and dwindling numbers of female students. Female students did not return to campus until the establishment of the Women's College of Delaware in 1914.