Italian was first offered as an optional course of study at Mount Holyoke College in the 1893/1894 academic year. In 1901, a permanent professor of Italian was brought to the College. Professor Mary Vance Young taught Italian at Mount Holyoke until 1928. The department was later established as the Department of Italian Language and Literature. This remained until the 1975/1976 academic year when it merged with the Spanish Department to become the Department of Spanish and Italian.