[1][2][3] Prior to that, she served as the principal of the West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies in Philadelphia (later renamed as the Agnes Irwin School).

[4] Born in Washington, D.C., on December 30, 1841, Agnes Irwin was a daughter of United States Congressman William Wallace Irwin (1803–1856) and Sophia Arabella (Bache) Irwin (1815–1904), a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was a daughter of Richard Bache, Jr. of the Republic of Texas Navy and Second Texas Legislature (1847), and Sophia Burrell Dallas, daughter of Arabella Maria Smith and Alexander J. Dallas, an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison.

Following the completion of his service to the United States in that role, she returned with her family to Washington, D.C., where she subsequently became a witness to the impact that the American Civil War had on the nation's capital during its first year (1861).

[6] In 1869, Irwin took over the administration of West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies (1869–1894) in Philadelphia and transformed it into an institution of disciplined teaching.

[21] In September 2015, English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall gave a presentation to the student body, explaining her pioneering research work with chimpanzees and discussing the continuing need for environmental activism.