First "geological excursion" was initiated by Professor Orton during the spring vacation. The party visited Mauch Chunk and other coal producing districts of Pennsylvania, followed by visits to Philadelphia and Washington.
The Associate Alumnae of Vassar College was organized. The first motion was to raise a scholarship fund; the first committee appointed was to investigate and report on the advisability of alumnae representation on the Board of Trustees.
H. Lyman died. Harriet W. Terry selected Lady Principal.
The students' magazine was renamed Vassar Miscellany.
The Laundry, Main Building kitchen and dining room extension were completed; James S. Post, architect. James S. Post erected Pardee Block, corner of Main St. and Garden St. Iron front, long article on structure in Poughkeepsie Eagle, Thurs Ap. 11, 1872.
Prior to 1872 German and French taught by assistant teachers under a Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages. In 1872 Modern Languages became independent and professorship limited to German and Latin.
The horse car route from Poughkeepsie was extended to the college, the end of the line.
To somewhat relieve crowded conditions in the library, newspapers and periodicals moved to an adjoining room in Main Building on the third floor. Students complained about it, saying "It is poorly ventilated and only half the would-be readers can enter. Those inside can scarcely thread their way out through the crowd. [Vassar Miscellany, Nov. 1872]
Wendell Phillips lectures on "Lost Arts."
Special German language tables were set up in the dining room.
The Jubilee Singers of Fiske University, Nashville, Tennessee, visited the college and gave an impromptu concert.
Article in Poughkeepsie Eagle on Vassar grads.
Annual college trips by ferry and carryall to Lake Mohonk were inaugurated. They were the gift of Trustee Frederick Ferris Thompson, the students' beloved "Uncle Fred", later famous for the "Vassar spoon" which he presented to each senior on graduation.
Frederick Ferris Thompson, b. 1836, trustee of Williams, Teacher's College and Vassar. Grad Williams '56, married Mary Clark, d. governor of NY, "prohibition governor". 1857. Founded National Currency Bank of NYC, portrait by Augustus St. Gaudens. Gave chapel at Williams, library at Vassar College. "The true man of business is not the spectacular manipulator of fortunes, etc. James E. Russell, LLD, Frederick Ferris Thompson, a Chapel Address, Feb. 5, 1907. NY Irving Press, 1907. He wanted students to have a good time.
Extraordinary meteoric display at Vassar.
Vassar musical led by Prof. Ritter.
The Seniors and the Sophomore elocution class were permitted to listen to Edwin Booth in Hamlet, in the Collingwood Opera House in Poughkeepsie. "He was miserably supported by a company from Troy... Booth himself was so nearly perfect that the audience were tolerably successful in restraining their risibles at the utter comicality of some of the acting... Vassar Miscellany, July 1872.
The first Senior Parlor was set up, a room in the Main Building reserved for the use of the senior class. The room was furnished and decorated by the students.
Emily Faithfull of Great Britain, editor of the Victoria Magazine, lectured at Vassar. She returned for a second visit ten years later.
Phillips Brooks, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, made the Founder's Day address on "Discipleship of Life".
The telegraph line of Western Union was extended to the college. The wires entered at the north end of the building, passed through the first corridor close to the ceiling, and into the college office where a lady operator was in constant attendance. "We hear that she sends, on an average, seven or eight messages daily, and probably receives more. The students cannot fail to appreciate highly the change from the old annoying and sometimes agonizing delays, to the present promptness and despatch." Vassar Miscellany.
President Raymond's daughter, Mary, a graduate in the Class of 1873, was married in the college chapel to Mr. William J. Richardson. When Dr. Raymond's elder daughter, Harriet, married Harlan P. Lloyd in 1869, the students were given only a half-holiday. Mary demanded and gained for them a whole holiday.
The Art Gallery moved to the Museum of Natural History, formerly the Riding Academy and Calisthenium, built in 1866.
Following five years of requests for additional space, trustees finally approved the Library from the third to the fourth and fifth floors in Main Building, where the Art Gallery was formerly housed.
Charles Kingsley, Canon of Westminster, novelist and poet, lectured on "Greece in the Day of Her Glory".
Edward Everett Hale, Unitarian minister and orator, was the Founder's Day speaker. His subject was "What Is the Work of a Person Devoted to Letters". He also spoke at Founder's Day in 1886.
The Junior Class gave the seniors a moonlight excursion down the Hudson on the steamer Mary Powell, in place of the usual reception. This became an annual custom until the faculty discontinued it in 1885. The reasons given for discontinuance were expense, danger from wandering ferry boats and detrimental remarks of newspaper men.
Charlotte Finch, Organist and Teacher of Music, played every evening from 9:45 until "silent time". The Chapel was lighted only by gas jets on each side of the organ.
The first decade of Vassar was celebrated by the formal opening of the new Museum of Natural History, housed in the former Riding Academy. The Art Gallery was transferred from Main to new quarters in the Museum where it remained for forty years. Among the guests were Peter Cooper, founder of the Cooper Union, and Louisa M. Alcott. Miss Alcott was pursued by students seeking autographs.
Julia Ward Howe, guest of Maria Mitchell, lectured in the Observatory on "Is Polite Society Polite?" Mrs. Howe was a frequent guest at the college. In her journal for January 1883 she speaks of "a peaceful day at Vassar College". She was also present at the dedication of the chapel, Nov. 4, 1904.
Three baseball clubs were formed, the Sure-pops, the Daisy-clippers and the Royals.
The Choir was organized under the direction of Charlotte Finch, Organist and Teacher of Music. From 1895, when George Coleman Gow was appointed chairman of the Department of Music, until 1920 when E. Harold Geer became conductor, Professor Gow directed the choir.
1876, June 15 Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, visited the college. "I had imagined the Emperor of Brazil to be a dark, swarthy, tall man, of forty-five years; that he would not really have a crown upon his head, but that I should feel it was somewhere around, handy-like, and that I should know I was in royal presence. But he turns out to be a large, old man, say sixty-five, broad-headed and broad-shouldered, with a big white beard, and a very pleasant, even chatty, manner. Once inside of the dome, he seemed to feel at home; to my astonishment he asked if Alvan Clark made the glass of the equatorial..." Maria Mitchell; Life, Letters, and Journals.
An elevator was installed in the Main Building.
"Among the distinguished visitors this fall we mention Lyel Playfair, M.P., Mrs. Bright, sister-in-law of John Bright, and Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell." Vassar Miscellany.
Professor Maria Mitchell and five of her students in Astronomy were official observers of the total eclipse of the sun near Denver, Colorado.
President Raymond died. Professor Mary W. Whitney wrote in the Vassar Alumnae Monthly, June 1911: "My impression, as I look back, is of a struggle to keep up the standard of Vassar to a fairly collegiate grade, against the unfortunate opinions prevailing in the public mind, and against the pressing pecuniary needs of the time. In this struggle the personality of the president and his teachers was the strong factor. The wise but never narrow conservatism of President Raymond combined with the enthusiastic ambition of Professor Mitchell, Dr. Avery, and many of the instructors, are the forces which moulded my Vassar loyalty. The curriculum was very scanty then, as the catalogues showed, and it was the character of our teachers that built up the early Vassar more than a definitely formed policy of education."
Samuel L. Caldwell was elected President of Vassar. He was a graduate of Waterville College, later Colby University, and Newton Theological Seminary, and at the time of his election Professor of Church History at the Seminary.
Shige Nagai, later Baroness Uriu, entered the School of Art. She studied music as a special student, 1878-1881.
The educational exhibit sent by Vassar to the Paris Exposition was awarded the Silver Medal.
Christine Ladd-Franklin, '69, logician and psychologist, was granted a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, the first woman to receive one. She was the only person to receive an honorary degree from Vassar, the LL.D. which was awarded to her in 1887.
"The Lawn Tennis has arrived, but at present the devotees exhibit more energy than grace in the game." Vassar Miscellany.
"The Sophomores have founded a Political Club which they called the T. and M. Club. Diligent inquiry has failed to discover the signification of their mysterious letters." Vassar Miscellany. The Class of 1884, in its sophomore year established a club called Qui Vive, for the discussion of current literature and historical topics. These debating societies ceased in 1917/18 when the Vassar Debating Society was organized.
Vassar Brothers Laboratory was completed, Benjamin Silliman, architect, It was the first separate laboratory building at a college for women, the gift of Matthew Vassar, Jr. and John Guy Vassar, charter trustees and nephews of the Founder.
A Reading Room was established in the library for newspapers and periodicals. Some furnishings from the Art Gallery remained in the Reading Room, including folio tables and an oil portrait and marble bust of Matthew Vassar.
Telephone service was established at Vassar.
At the Founder's Day exercises in the chapel, speakers included Harriot Stanton, '78, and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, reformer and suffragist. "The custom introduced last year of having speakers from abroad, is surely an improvement upon the old style of employing exclusively home talent, when we can have speakers like Mrs. Livermore and the Rev. Robert Collyer..." Vassar Miscellany, May 1881. Mrs. Livermore had also lectured at the college in 1877.
The Trustees ruled that students and faculty might have steak for breakfast if desired.
The Associate Alumnae presented the first full scholarship, given in memory of Hannah Lyman, Lady Principal, 1865-1871.
The Rutgers Glee Club sang in the college chapel in the afternoon, and in the evening in the Senior Parlor, after their concert in Poughkeepsie.
"A glee club was organized in 1882 under the leadership of Professor Frederick Ritter, Director of the School of Music. The year of the club's establishment was marked by a visit to the Vassar campus by Walter Damrosch, then in his early twenties. He came to play the organ in the old chapel, and dedicated a madrigal of his own composition to the 'Young Ladies of Vassar College'. A joint concert of the combined banjo and glee clubs was held in 1890, the first event of its kind at Vassar." Vassar College Choir and Glee Club, by Homer Pearson. Professor George Coleman Gow, chairman of the Department of Music, directed the Glee Club until 1928 when Professor John Peirce became director.
Stematz Yamakawa, who later married Prince Oyama, graduated with honors. She and Shige Nagai, who also came to Vassar in September 1878, were in the group of five Japanese girls sent to the United States in 1871, at government expense, to be educated in the United States.
The Matthew Vassar Jr. Chair of the Greek and Latin Languages and Literature and the Matthew Vassar Jr. Chair of Physics and Chemistry were established through the bequest of Matthew Vassar, Jr., nephew of the Founder and a charter trustee, 1861-1881. The first members of the faculty to hold these chairs were Charles J. Hinkel, Professor of Greek and Latin, 1869-1890, and LeRoy C. Cooley, Professor of Physics, 1874-1907.
Matthew Arnold lectured on Emerson. The Vassar Miscellany noted: "We of to-day...have no desire to be led back into mediaevalism even by such cultured and classic teachers as Matthew Arnold."
Daisies were first used for decoration in the Chapel at Commencement. In 1889 they were used at the Class Day exercises.
Mark Twain gave two recitations on the twentieth Founder's Day. He said of his daughter's description of this visit, "How charitably she treats of that ghastly experience!" Autobiography, 1924.
The Trustees accepted the resignation of President Caldwell, who terminated his appointment after criticism from the alumnae.
Rev. J. Ryland Kendrick, trustee 1875 89, was Acting President and Professor of Moral Philosophy.
The chapel service was conducted by the evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey.
The Statue of Liberty, France's gift to the U.S., was unveiled in New York.
James Monroe Taylor accepted the presidency of the college. Dr. Taylor, a graduate of the University of Rochester, with a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Rochester Theological Seminary, was pastor of the Fourth Baptist Church in Providence when he accepted the post at Vassar.
The first annual lawn tennis tournament was held in the Circle. "Gold medals of dainty design were awarded to the winners." Vassar Miscellany, July 1886.
Frank R. Stockton, author of "Rudder Grange", with his wife, spent Saturday and Sunday at the College.
From the annual report of President James Monroe Taylor: "Few more helpful things could have happened to the College than the setting aside of the Library Fund for the purchase of books."
The Alumnae Maria Mitchell Chair of Astronomy was established through subscriptions of graduates. It was first held by Mary W. Whitney, '68, Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory, 1886-1912. "Standard-bearer of far other traditions was Professor Mitchell, whose home in the observatory was for many years a vivid center of college life. First on the faculty in reputation, and second to none in power, she stood for belief the most absolute in the cause of woman's education. The directness of her sincerity ignored all formal boundaries of intercourse, and brought even those who saw her but briefly into the circle of her vital personality. Stories of her oddities, her kindlinesses, her paradoxes, her unconventional sincerities, were rife in the college during the happy years of her service. But what remains of it all is the memory of a life of high seriousness of purpose, and of a direct and most human comradeship." Vassar Alumnae Monthly, June 1911.
The first alumnae trustees were elected at the request of the Alumnae Association. They were Florence M. Cushing, '74, Elizabeth E. Poppleton, '76 and Helen Hiscock Backus, '73.
"Quite a large number of teachers and students attended the reading given by Mr. Charles Dickens in Poughkeepsie." Vassar Miscellany, Nov. 1887.
Dr. Richard T. Ely of Johns Hopkins University gave a series of lectures on socialism.
"On the 12th and 13th of last month we felt somewhat as if besieged in our castle. The snow storm made it impossible for anyone to reach us from Poughkeepsie, nor could we go to the Laboratories for work. No mails were received for two days, and after that, it was some time before they all came regularly." Vassar Miscellany, Apr. 1888.
Hors d'Oeuvre, the first student yearbook, was published by the Class of 1888. In 1889 the title was changed to The Vassarion.
President Taylor in his annual report noted: "Miss Goodsell has been enabled, through the kindness of two trustees, to give employment in sundry services to needy students." Abby F. Goodsell, '69, had been on the faculty from 1871 to 1874. She was assistant to the Lady Principal, 1875-1877 and Lady Principal from 1881 to 1891. Through the gift of Trustee Frederick Ferris Thompson a Loan Fund for students was established. Dr. Taylor also reported that graduate courses were being offered: "Never before has the College offered advanced courses of work in the various departments and encouraged original study in them." One graduate student was employed half time in the Department of History in return for her board.
"For the first time in the history of the College it opened, in September 1888, without any preparatory students." Report of the President, 1888/89.
William Rainey Harper of Yale University, who conducted Bible Study on alternate Sundays, lectured on Amos. John D. Rockefeller, at Vassar for the day, for the first time met Dr. Harper, who later became the first president of the University of Chicago, founded by John D. Rockefeller.
Vassar was represented at the Exposition Universelle at Paris by an exhibition including photographs, building plans and curricula of study.
The Alumnae Gymnasium was completed. William M. Tubby, architect. It was built with funds collected from the alumnae and students of the college under the leadership of Achsah M. Ely, '68, Professor of Mathematics, 1887-1904, and was the first gymnasium in a woman's college. It included a swimming tank given by Trustee Frederick Ferris Thompson. In 1933 when a new gymnasium was built, the name of the old gymnasium was changed to Ely Hall. The Department of Physical Education was the first regularly organized department of its kind in an American college.
The Class of 1889 revived May Day customs with a May-pole and groups of revelers paying homage to a queen. This gradually became a tradition for the seniors. Even classes gave a May-pole dance, odd classes a dance with flower-covered hoops.
President Taylor told the trustees "A college is strong in proportion to the strength of its Faculty, its Libraries and its Laboratories."
The faculty granted the Students' Association limited self-government.
The first endowment fund campaign, started in 1887 by President Taylor, was completed, bringing the General Endowment Fund up to $100,000.
"It seemed fitting to the Board of Trustees of Vassar College to celebrate its twenty-fifth year of academic life, not merely as a recognition of its own work and history, but as recalling an event marking an epoch in the education of woman... In addition to the usual exercises of Commencement week, a day was set apart for the anniversary exercises... The festivities continued from Monday till Thursday night. There were present delegates from many universities and colleges, large numbers of former students, and hundreds of other guests." Addresses at the Celebration of the Completion of the Twenty-Fifth Academic Year. At the anniversary exercises in the tent President Taylor gave the Address of Welcome, followed by Benson J. Lossing, trustee, and George William Curtis, Chancellor of the University of the State of New York. Frederick L. Ritter, Professor of Music, composed a cantata for the occasion.
"Mr. John D. Rockefeller has kindly furnished the means for the erection of a skating-rink. The building has been put up east of the lake and it is supposed that by means of it the number of skating days will be increased. Two years ago Mr. Rockefeller provided the means for the hydrants about the lake." Vassar Miscellany, Dec. 1890.
Last updated: 10 November, 1999, by Jeremy R. Linden, '00.