1881
Spelman was founded by Miss Sophia B. Packard and Miss Harriet Giles; location, basement of Friendship Baptist Church; starting funds - $100; enrollment - 11.

1882-1883
Windfall option to purchase property of current site presented; purchase made, leaving a $15,000 balance; title transferred to the "Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary;" relocation to current cite.

1884
Celebration of third anniversary of Spelman's founding on April 11th; Mr. John D. Rockefeller paid off remainder of the aforementioned $15,000 property debt; name changed to "Spelman Seminary" in honor of Mrs. Rockefeller's mother; birth of the "Spelman Messenger."

1885-1887
Building of Rockefeller Hall, the first major edifice constructed on the site (funds donated by Mr. Rockefeller); construction of Packard Hall.

1891-1909
Miss Harriet Giles served as President, conferring the first college degrees in 1901; the twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated in 1906; Spelman served the needs of thousands of black women from grade school through trade school and college; Miss Giles died November 12, 1909.

1910-1927
Miss Lucy Tapley served as President; the name was officially changed to "Spelman College" on June 1, 1924; the reality of Spelman as an all-purpose academy gradually changed and Spelman became known as a training ground for teachers; the Board of Trustees voted to discontinue the elementary school by the end of Miss Tapley's administration in 1927; Sisters Chapel was dedicated in May, 1927.

1927-1953
Miss Florence Matilda Read reigned as President; Spelman established an endowment fund which eventually totaled more than $2 million; the commitment was made that Spelman would become a first-rate liberal arts college rather than a training ground for teachers; an "Agreement of Affiliation" between Spelman, Morehouse, and Atlanta University was signed in April, 1929 forming a university system; the addition of Morris Brown and Clark Colleges, and Gammon Seminary later changed the system to the "Atlanta University Center;" Miss Read retired on July 1, 1953.

1953-1975
Dr. Albert E. Manley became the first Black, as well as the first male to serve as President of Spelman; the College survived the unrest of the civil rights movement, campus unrest and revolution, the youth revolution, the feminist and sex revolutions, rounds of runaway inflation, among other chronic survival tests for independent education; the young women were encouraged to become leaders and to enter non-traditional areas of employment, as well as prepared and encouraged to enter the best graduate and professional schools in the country; travel and study abroad opportunities were created; Dr. Manley retired in 1976; Dr. Manley died in 1997.

1976-1986
Dr. Donald M. Stewart became the sixth President of Spelman College; the academic program was strengthened with the development of a full-fledged Chemistry department; the curriculum was reviewed and revised; a writing workshop was developed; the Honors Program, the Continuing Education Program for the non-traditional student, and the Computer Literacy Program which impacted on all members of the campus community were initiated and implemented; two buildings were erected, the Donald and Isabel Stewart Living- Learning Center and the Academic Computer Center; the endowment increased significantly from $9 million to $41 million; Dr. Stewart retired in December 1986 to become President of the College Board.

1987-1997
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, former professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and Director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the City University of New York, became the first African American female President of Spelman College on July 1, 1987; a mentorship program was added; a Physics Department, the International Affairs Center and the Dow Jones/Spelman College Entrepreneurial Center were established; an Office of Community Service and The Corporate Partners Program were instituted, along with the completion of the largest capital campaign in the history of Spelman; the College earned the distinction of having the second highest endowment of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in this country while under Dr. Cole’s leadership; Dr. Cole retired in 1997.

1997-2002
Dr. Audrey Forbes Manley was the first alumna to serve as President of Spelman College. Upon accepting the position as the eighth President of the College, Dr. Manley stated her desire to prepare it for the 21st century and beyond. She acknowledges having fulfilled her promise; but admits that she could not have done so without the help of many others. Specifically, Dr. Manley’s accomplishments include the following: successful accreditation efforts, faculty salary enhancements, increased enrollment and retention rates, implementation of the Cosby Endowed Professorship Program, improvement of the infrastructure by acquiring additional property and mounting an aggressive renovation program, raising the needed $7.5 million dollars to meet the significant shortfall for the proposed science center (total cost of $30+ million dollars) to be later named the Albro-Falconer-Manley Science Center, significant enhancements in information technology, doubling the Annual Fund dollars to $20 million, and a $60 million increase in the endowment (to $228 million). Dr. Manley retired June 2002.

2002-Present
Scholar, teacher, author, administrator and clinical psychologist Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum was appointed the ninth President of Spelman College in the spring of 2002. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Tatum was the Acting President of Mount Holyoke College. At her March 2003 inaugural, she launched Spelman ALIVE – the strategic focus of her administration: Academic Excellence, Leadership Development, Improving Our Infrastructure, Visibility of Our Achievements and Exemplary Customer Service. In October 2003, the College hosted the official opening of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, affectionately known as LEADS, which has five key areas of emphasis: Leadership Development, Economic Empowerment, Advocacy Through the Arts, Dialogue Across Difference and Service Learning and Civic Engagement. The focus of Dr. Tatum’s administration is ensuring that Spelman has the resources it needs to continue the mission of preparing Black women for leadership with excellence in the 21st century.