Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet, lectured on "La Cancion Espanola."
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, educator, lectured at Vassar on "Racial Segregation."
"Poetry and the Machine," a reading by Stephen Vincent Benet, author of John Brown's Body, was presented under the auspices of the Vassar Cooperative Bookshop.
Hallie Flanagan, Director of the Experimental Theatre, sailed for Europe in charge of a group of ten instructors, to study the theatres of Russia.
The Vassar College Choir made its New York debut with a concert in Town Hall.
The Classes of 1904 and 1930 gave a library fund in honor of Herbert E. Mills, Professor of Economics, 1890-1931. The income has been used to buy books by and about Robert Owen, one of the library's special collections. The Library has been enriched by many gifts including important collections given by Rebecca Lawrence Lowrie, '13, the Honorable Herbert Claiborne Pell and Francis Fitz Randolph, trustee.
Trustee plans for an arboretum on the banks of the Fonteyn Kill and the Casper Kill were carried out through gifts of the Class of 1875, supplemented with a gift from Mr. Paul E. Zehe, husband of Emma J. Chamberlain, '75.
The nine-hole golf course on Sunset Hill, the gift of students, faculty, alumnae and friends of the college, was formally opened with a golf tournament.
The Bimillennium of Virgil was celebrated. The speakers included Professor E. K. Rand of Harvard who lectured on "Virgil and the Middle Ages" and Professor Charles G. Osgood of Yale University, whose subject was "The Eclogues."
Andre Maurois lectured in French on "Le Roman et la Biographie."
Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet, later awarded the Nobel Prize, was visiting lecturer in the Department of Spanish for the second semester.
Mary Wigman, German dancer, gave a recital financed by the Ellen H. Richards Fund.
Arthur Garfield Hays, noted lawyer who had defended Sacco and Vanzetti, lectured on "Martyrs of Injustice."
Mills Gate, at the corner of Raymond and Collegeview Avenues, was dedicated in honor of Herbert E. Mills, Director of the Vassar Training Camp for Nurses and Professor of Economics, 1890-1931. It was the gift of members of the Vassar Training Camp for Nurses.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Governor of New York State and a trustee of the college, spoke at the 1931 Commencement exercises.
The Board of Residents was organized, replacing the Warden system. It assumed the "responsibility for maintaining the residential college as an indispensable part of the academic policy."
The annual fee for tuition and residence was raised to $1200.
Vassar was one of three United States colleges to receive the World Peace Medal from FIDAC, Federation Interalliee des Anciens Combattants.
Constance M. Rourke, '07, noted author, lectured on "What Is Humor? An Anglo-American Contrast" and "Humor of Our Soil."
Arthur H. Compton, Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, lectured on "Are Men's Actions Determined by Physical Laws," "What Are Things Made of?" and "What Is Light?"
The Hippolytus of Euripides was presented in Greek by the Experimental Theatre and the Greek Department, with the cooperation of the Departments of Music and Art. It was directed by Hallie Flanagan and Philip Davis. The performance is believed to be the first presentation in modern times in the tongue in which the play was first heard 2300 years ago.
The Belle Skinner Hall of Music was completed, Allen & Collens, architects. It was given by William Skinner in memory of his sister, president of the Class of 1887. The Music Library was included in the building.
The Dean's House was completed, Ruth Adams, '04, architect.
The Seven Women's Colleges started a combined drive for financial support. The group included Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley.
Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian violoncellist, gave a recital.
Archibald MacLeish, poet, lectured on "Anatomy of a Hero."
The German Department commemorated the centennial of the death of Goethe with lectures by Dr. Eugen Kuehnemann, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Breslau, and John Livingston Lowes, Professor of English at Harvard University.
Smoking was permitted anywhere on the campus except the library steps. Since 1925 it had been restricted to definite smoking areas.
Under the auspices of the Department of German, Professor Carl F. Schreiber lectured on the William A. Speck Collection of Goetheana in the Yale University Library. Professor Schreiber was curator of the collection after the death of Mr. Speck. Professor Marian P. Whitney, chairman of the German Department, was instrumental in Yale's acquiring this outstanding collection.
A memorial service for Laura J. Wylie, '77, Professor of English, 1895-1924, was held by the Women's City and County Club in Miss Wylie's former Poughkeepsie home, headquarters of the Club.
Henry Seely White, Professor of Mathematics, 1905-1936, and for many years chairman of the department, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science at Wesleyan University's one hundredth commencement.
"Dr. Hill Fears for Girls if Liquor Is Made Legal." Poughkeepsie Eagle.
Professor Bernard Fay of the University of Paris, gave two lectures, "L'Academie Francaise" and "The Share of France, of Great Britain and the United States in the Great Intellectual Revolution of the Eighteenth Century."
Evangeline Booth, Commander of the U.S. Division of the Salvation Army, led the evening chapel service and lectured the following day.
The Vassar College Choir gave the first performance in the United States of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Magnificat for contralto, flute, organ and choir.
The Helen Kenyon Hall of Physical Education was completed, Allen & Collens, architects. It was named in honor of the chairman of the Board of Trustees, a graduate of the Class of 1905. It was built with gifts of the alumnae and other friends of the college and with college funds.
Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, '94, Chairman of the Department of Latin, was elected chairman of the Advisory Council of the American School of Classical Studies in Rome, the first woman to hold this office.
The Experimental Theatre presented the Svapnavasavadatta of Bhasa (The Dream of Vasavadatta), written about the fourth century A.D. It was translated from the Sanskrit by Pauna Lall and A.G. Sherriff. The translators wrote the Theatre as follows: "So far as we are able to ascertain, your production will be the first play of Bhasa's to be done in modern times." Program note.
An exhibition lent by the College Art Association, "Italian Baroque Painting and Drawing - XVI, XVII, XVIII Centuries" was opened in Taylor Hail.
Baroness Keichi Ishimoto, leader of Japan's feminist movement, lectured on "The Women of Japan."
Professor Gaetano Salvemini of the University of Florence lectured on "Florence at the Time of Dante."
Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment resulted in the regulation "No beer or wine may be sold or consumed on campus."
The Experimental Theatre presented a mime sequence, Now I Know Love, which included the world premiere of T.S. Eliot's first play, Sweeney Agonistes. The other plays were three by Theocritus, translated by Professor Philip H. Davis, Penthouse by Mary Morley Crapo, '34, and Telephone by Dorothy Parker. The music was composed by Associate Professor Quincy Porter. Mr. Eliot was present and gave a poetry reading on the following day.
Vassar was the scene of Dutchess County's official welcome to President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, part of county-wide "Neighbors Day" celebration. Mr. Roosevelt spoke from the porch of the President's House, talking informally on Dutchess County history. This was an early use of the microphone. Over 6000 people attended.
The name of the Alumnae Gymnasium was changed to Ely Hall with the installation of the Health Center. The name honored Achsah M. Ely, '68, Professor of Mathematics, 1887-1904.
A cooperative apartment for 28 students was set up in Blodgett Hall. It continued until the opening of Palmer House cooperative in 1938. Raymond House, set up as a partial-cooperative, continued through the year 1942-43.
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom met at Vassar.
James Stephens, the Irish poet and philosopher, paid his second visit to Vassar, lecturing on the art of poetry writing and reading a few of his own poems. "He was a little man with a high, narrow head and long, thin hands. We felt that he looked very much as one of the philosophers in The Crock of Gold must have looked. At the end of his speech James Stephens made a hasty exit from the stage without waiting for the applause to die down. After him rushed Miss Peebles, who had introduced him. It seems that the poet is very shy, and on his former visit to Vassar it looked, at the end of his speech, as though he were going to be mobbed by an army of autograph seekers, so he rushed out through the wings and left Students' unnoticed. There was to be a reception for him in Main immediately after the lecture, and as it was assumed that he had gone there, the assemblage followed after. But no James Stephens did they find. After an interval a search was organized. Posses set out in all directions. At last the poet was found wandering bewildered in the Circle looking for an exit! Hence Miss Peebles' determination that he should not escape unaccompanied." Vassar Quarterly, Feb. 1934.
The Olive M. Lammert Laboratories of Physical Chemistry in the Sanders Laboratory of Chemistry, were dedicated and a memorial bronze plaque, the gift of an anonymous donor, was unveiled. Professor Olive M. Lammert, '15, had been a member of the Chemistry Department from 1915 to 1932 except for two years devoted to graduate study.
Guiomar Novaes, Brazilian pianist, gave a recital.
Art Week was observed with an exhibition and lectures by A.E. Austin, Jr., Director of the Hartford Museum, M. Jean Lursat, painter, M. William Lescaze, Swiss architect, Edward M.M. Warburg, art critic and Lincoln Kirstein, editor of Hound and Horn.
The faculty adopted a revised curriculum, with four courses instead of five for freshmen. Hygiene, the last compulsory course in the Vassar curriculum was no longer required.
The New York State law required an oath of allegiance from all teachers.
Gertrude Stein lectured on "Portraits I Have Written and What I Think of Repetition, Whether It Exists or No," under the auspices of the Department of English.
"80 Vassar Girls Rout Senators on Albany Trip." Poughkeepsie Eagle. Vassar students visited the State Senate to protest the student oath bill.
Dr. Robert A. Millikan of the California Institute of Technology spoke on "Some New Conceptions in Physics, and How They Are Arrived At."
The Experimental Theatre conducted a summer session for men and women actively interested in writing, acting and producing for the modern theatre. It was directed by Hallie Flanagan and Lester E. Lang. Productions included the American premiere of Auden's Dance of Death, given as a musical comedy entitled Come Out into the Sun.
The Annual Report of the President noted: "The work in Russian now recognized by the faculty for the degree is offered for two years." Vassar was the first woman's college to give instruction in Russian. Nikander Strelsky taught the courses in Russian, 1935-1946. Informal classes had been held previously.
Trolley cars of the Poughkeepsie & Wappingers Falls Railway Company made their last run. At a brief ceremony held at Vassar College, the end of the line, the trolley, its brakes exhausted, left the tracks. The cars, originally drawn by horses, were replaced by buses.
Ground broken for building to connect Taylor Hall and Thompson Memorial Library. Informal ceremony began with faculty and students gathering in front of Main and proceeding through Taylor Gate singing "Fling the Banner Wide."
Dr. George E. Vincent, former President of the Rockefeller Foundation, lectured on "The Role of Humor" under the auspices of the Mark Twain Lectureship for the Advancement of Humor.
Lecturers at the Conference of Departments of Social Science included Josephine Roche, '08, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Dr. Sidney Hook, Associate Professor of Philosophy, New York University.
Professor Alice D. Snyder of the Department of English represented the Vassar Chapter of the American Association of University Professors at a hearing before the Assembly in Albany, at which members of the faculty and student organizations urged repeal of the Ives law which demanded the oath of allegiance from teachers. Professor Henry S. White of the Department of Mathematics also attended the hearing. He reported "In fifty years of teaching I have never known any members of the faculty...to be guilty of seditious activities." New York Times, Feb. 19, 1936.
Warden Lewis E. Lawes of Sing Sing Prison addressed the Conference on Crime. Other speakers were: Dr. John Slawson, Jewish Board of Guardians, New York City; Professor Karl N. Llewellyn, Columbia Law School; Hon. Austin H. MacCormick, Commissioner of Correction, New York City; and Henrietta Additon, New York School of Social Work.
An exhibition of paintings by Courbet and Corot was held in Taylor Hall.
Nine hundred Vassar students and faculty members joined 350,000 students all over the world in a "peace strike" with a mass meeting in Students' Building.
"Rebels Gain in South Spain; Civil War Rages in Cities; Two Madrid Cabinets Fall." New York Times, July 20. Civil war had broken out on the 18th.
The first floor of the Main Building was remodeled, eliminating inside rooms and providing additional single rooms. The Vassar Cooperative Bookshop moved into new quarters designed by John McAndrew, Assistant Professor of Art, the first contemporary architecture on the campus.
Seniors took comprehensive examinations for the first time.
Frederic W. Goudy, printer and type designer, founder of The Village Press, talked on 'The Designing and Production of Printing Types." Mr. Goudy made frequent visits to Vassar and had lectured here in 1925 on "The Printer's Art." The Vassar Library has an outstanding Village Press Collection, the nucleus of which was presented by Mitchell Kennerley, New York publisher.
The Van Ingen Library was completed, connecting Taylor Hall and the Thompson Library, Allen, Collens & Willis, architects. The addition was named in honor of Henry Van Ingen, Professor of Art from 1865 to 1898, and was financed through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Mary Morris Pratt, '80, gave the cost of remodeling the South Gallery in Taylor Hall, now housing the permanent collection. The contents of 17,325 shelves (about 190,000 volumes) and pamphlet boxes and unbound material moved during the summer of 1937.
Dr. Lin Yutang, Chinese author and philologist, lectured on "The Chinese People and Democracy."
The Pushkin centennial was observed with a concert of music, exhibitions in the Library and Taylor Hall and a special college assembly, at which Nikander Strelsky of the Department of Russian spoke on Pushkin.
The Experimental Theatre presented the American premiere of No More Peace by Ernst Toller, with lyrics adapted by W.H. Auden. Earlier in the year Toller had lectured on "The Theatre in a Changing World."
The Vassar and Princeton Glee Clubs gave the American premiere of the concert version of Rameau's opera, Castor and Pollux, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of its composition.
A new course of twelve lectures on marriage resulted in great publicity for the college. Guest lecturers included Dr. Raymond Squier, gynecologist and obstetrician, and Beatrice Bishop Berle, '23, M.D. Dr. Berle had also lectured at Vassar in 1932 and 1933.
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, spoke on "Count Tolstoy, His Life and Work", one of several visits to the college.
Vassar faculty and students participated in a strike against "the billion dollar war budget; militarization of colleges and universities; lack of academic freedom and civil rights; the intervention of Germany and Italy in Spain." The strike, sponsored by the American Student Union, was held simultaneously at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States, lectured to Economics 240 and a large number of students and faculty. His subject was the working of the capitalist system and the aims of the Communist Party.
A six week summer work-shop of the Federal Theatre was held at Vassar with the cooperation of the Rockefeller Foundation, the WPA and the college. Hallie Flanagan Davis, on leave from Vassar, was National Director of the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939.
The Social Museum in Blodgett Hall was opened with an exhibition: "Development of Housing in New York City." The last exhibition prepared by the Museum was presented in May 1951.
Eleanor Roosevelt spoke on "The Role of Women in the Housing Program" preceding the Conference on Housing.
Speakers at the Conference on Housing, sponsored by the Political Association, included Mrs. Mary K. Simkhovitch of the New York City Housing Authority, Dr. Ernest Fisher of the Federal Housing Administration and Ira Robbins of the New York State Housing Board.
A peace conference, All Youth against All War, was held at Vassar under auspices of the American Friends Service Committee, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters' League and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. It was sponsored by the Vassar Peace Council. More than one hundred delegates from fifteen colleges in the New York area attended.
The third annual convention of the American Student Union was held at Vassar.
The east wing was added to Palmer House, Faulkner & Kingsbury, architects.
The Vassar Brothers Laboratory, which had housed the Department of Psychology, was razed since the cost of reconstruction was prohibitive. The department of Psychology was given quarters in Blodgett Hall.
The trustees approved "The Vassar Plan", a formula for investment in common stock. The plan was perfected by Ray Morris, chairman of the Committee on Investments and Finance of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Morris served as trustee, 1922-1948.
Students who had been living in the cooperative apartment in Blodgett Hall moved to Palmer House, which had been remodeled for use as a cooperative house.
Lauritz Melchior, Danish-born operatic tenor, gave the first Barbara Woods Morgan Memorial Concert. The fund providing the concert was given by the Class of 1935 in memory of their classmate, Barbara Woods Morgan, a devoted student of music.
The bimillennium of Augustus Caesar was commemorated by the Department of Latin, with an exhibition in the library, a lecture by Karl Lehmann-Hartleben, Professor of Classical Archaeology at New York University, on "The Art of the Augustan Age" and a festival at which poems and essays on the Augustan age were read.
The Division of Drama was set up under the chairmanship of Professor Winifred Smith, '04.
The Second World Youth Congress was held at Vassar College. Over 700 representatives from fifty-four countries attended. Delegates from Germany and Italy were unable to come.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Professor of Applied Christianity, Union Theological Seminary, spoke at Sunday evening chapel. This was the first of several visits.
The Classical Museum was opened in Avery Hall. Gisela M.A. Richter, Curator of Classical Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, spoke on "The Adventure of Archaeology in a Museum."
The collection of 17th and 18th century prints exhibited in Taylor Hall included an important gift from Mary Thaw Thompson, '77.
Lotte Lehmann, German operatic soprano, gave the Barbara Woods Morgan Memorial Concert.
Professor Erwin Panofsky, Princeton University, lectured on "The NeoPlatonic Movement of the Renaissance and Its Reflection in Michelangelo."
The Experimental Theatre, directed by Esther Porter Power, '32, gave the first performance of Vassar's Folly, written by members of the playwriting class of 1937/38. The play was later revised and a second part added for presentation at the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the College, June 1940.
At the faculty's request, the trustees approved a plan for inviting refugee scholars to the college. From 1939 to 1943 twenty scholars took part in this program. The students raised money to bring refugee students to Vassar for the coming year.
"Sculpture of India", the Eliza Buffington Memorial Exhibition, was opened in Taylor Hall.
Professor Henry Steele Commager of Columbia University, lectured on "The Intellectual Revolution in the United States, Especially in the Nineties."
The college observed "Peace Day" with a college assembly in Students' Building, 10:55-11:30 a.m. Speakers were Vera Micheles Dean, Director of the Foreign Policy Association Research Department, and Barbara Allen '39, Editor-in-Chief of the Vassar Miscellany News.
Katherine Anne Porter, author, visited the campus for two days. She talked to students in Narrative Writing on the sources of material used in her books, and to English majors on background reading for those interested in writing.
The Hudson Valley Archeological Survey, directed by Mary Butler, '24, was conducted under the auspices of Vassar College.
Enrollment was increased to 1200.
Germany declared war on Poland, the beginning of World War II.
An outdoor classroom near Ely Hall, designed by Molly S. Drysdale, '31, was given by Russell E. Leffingwell, trustee, 1927-1935, 1937-1944. "The trustees, in their turn, established a committee on Undergraduate Life, and discussed the general college policy quite frankly with them. It was after one of these sessions that Russell Leffingwell, formerly Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury, and an active trustee, expressed himself as so delighted with the students' maturity in dealing with these questions that he wanted to signalize the day in some way. Thus was built the openair classroom, with its praise (by Pericles, of course) of free discussion, and of the value of action after it. 'For we Athenians have the peculiar power of thinking before we act, and of acting too.'" The Hickory Limb, by H.N. MacCracken.
The Child Study Department received grants from the General Education Board and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation to carry on a research program in the study of child behaviour. A later grant was made by the Ittleson Family Foundation. By January 1960 sixteen films had been made in the series "Vassar Studies of Normal Personality Development", financed by these grants.
The Margaret Floy Washburn Fund was established. Gifts of alumnae and
other friends of Margaret Floy Washburn, '91, Professor Washburn's
residual estate, and designated contributions to the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Fund were combined in a fund for student aid, with preference to those students showing promise in psychology. Margaret Floy Washburn was Professor of Psychology, 1903-1937, and for many years chairman of the department. She established one of the earliest departments of experimental psychology in an undergraduate college.
Last updated: 10 November, 1999, by Jeremy R. Linden, '00.