The article touches upon the problem of reproduction of scientific personnel at the historical and philological department (since 1906 — faculty) of the Higher Women’s Courses (abbreviated as VZhK), which existed in St. Petersburg — Petrograd (1878–1918). Contemporaries called the courses Bestuzhev Courses. The novelty of the study lies in the study of the tradition of retaining female graduates of the historical and philological faculty at the Courses for scientific purposes based on an extensive source field. Based on the materials of the annual “Reports of the Society for the Delivery of Funds to the Higher Women’s Courses”, the data on female students of the faculty of history and philology who were retained to prepare for scientific work were analyzed for the first time. It was concluded that since the 1880s, there was practically no accounting of such students, but since the second half of the 1890s, on the contrary, it was systematic. For the first time, the materials of Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg (TsGIA SPb) and Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) were introduced into scientific circulation, containing information from the 1880s to the 1910s on graduates retained in the courses, their scientific and pedagogical work, business trips, and scientific schools at the Bestuzhev Courses. It was revealed that initially the decision to retain female students in the courses was made by the Pedagogical Council, since 1906 — the Faculty Council. For the first time, personal information was systematized about 124 Bestuzhev female students (philologists, historians, philosophers, and art historians). By the 1900s, a stable tradition of reproducing scientific personnel had developed within the walls of the Courses.