Mary A. Brigham was born in 1829, in Westborough, Massachusetts. She was a member of the Class of 1849 at Mount Holyoke Seminary, although she left without graduating to pursue her studies elsewhere. She returned to teach at Mount Holyoke from 1855-1858 and served as Principal of the Brooklyn Heights Seminary from 1863-1889. She was elected President of Mount Holyoke Seminary and College in 1889, but died in a railway accident before she could take up her appointment. In 1897 a dormitory, Brigham Hall, was dedicated to her by the New York Alumnae Club, of which she had been President in her lifetime.