Lydia Moss Bradley

Lydia Moss Bradley, founder of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute now called Bradley University; she was a pioneer in many fields.

She was the first female member of an American national bank board in the United States when she joined the Board of Directors of Peoria’s First National Bank in 1875, and the first woman ever to draft a marriage contract (later called a 'pre-nuptial agreement') protecting her assets.

She gave land to the Society of St. Francis to build a hospital, now known as the St. Francis Medical Center. In 1884, Lydia built the Bradley Home for Aged Women to care for widowed and childless women, and funded the construction of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Peoria, Illinois.

Lydia also helped to establish the first park system in Illinois.

But the project dearest to her heart was the school, which she established to honor her husband Tobias and her six children, all of whom died at an early age.

Originally organized as a four-year academy, Bradley University became a four-year college in 1920 and has continued to grow ever since.

Today the university is a fully accredited institution that supports undergraduate and graduate education in engineering, business, teacher education, nursing, physical therapy, and the liberal arts.