Sweet Briar College is a liberal arts women's college in Sweet Briar, Virginia, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Lynchburg, Virginia. The school's Latin motto translates as: "She who earns the rose may bear it." The Admissions Office's current theme is "Think is for Girls." The school is named after the former Sweet Briar plantation, which was likely named for the sweet briar rose. Sweet Briar College is located on the former plantation of Elijah Fletcher and his family.

Fletcher was a 19th century teacher, businessman, and mayor of Lynchburg. His wife, Maria Crawford, is credited with naming the land Sweet Briar. By the mid-1800s, Fletcher had between 80 and 100 slaves at the plantation.

After their emancipation in 1865, several continued to work for pay and live at Sweet Briar. On Elijah Fletcher death, his daughter, Indiana, inherited the plantation. When she passed in 1900, she willed the land and much of her assets to starting a college for women.

The goal, as stated by Williams, was to prepare young women to be "useful members of society." The campus is situated on 3,250 acres (13 km2) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The college's architecture is dominated by the work of Ralph Adams Cram, who also lent his architectural expertise to the campuses of Princeton University and West Point, among others. The campus property also includes the Sweet Briar plantation burial ground, in which upwards of sixty slaves are buried; a slave cabin remains on the land.

Archaeologists have uncovered many slave artifacts that have helped to piece together local social history. Twenty one of the thirty buildings on campus were designated as the "Sweet Briar National Historic District" by the National Register of Historic Places.

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