Bradford College traces its origins to Bradford Academy, which was founded in 1803, making it the 3rd oldest post secondary institution in Massachusetts behind Harvard University and Williams College prior to becoming defunct in 2000. The academy incorporated in 1804. Many of Bradford's early graduates became Christian missionaries. The first president of Bradford was Katharine Denworth, a graduate of Swarthmore with a doctorate from Columbia. Her tenure from 1927 to 1939 oversaw the transformation of Bradford in 1932 to a liberal arts junior college for women leading to a bachelor's degree. With degrees in classics from Oberlin and Smith, scholar Dorothy M. Bell became president in 1940. Over the ensuing 27 years Bell led Bradford Junior College through World War II and to national and international prestige as a two-year liberal arts private women's college, retiring in 1967. The college became coeducational and the name changed to Bradford College in 1971.