Radcliffe College.
Arthur Gilman, Regent of Radcliffe College.
In the year 1643, the Rev. Thomas Weld, pastor of the church in Roxbury, received from ‘Lady Ann Moulson, of London, widow,’ the sum of one hundred pounds current English money, for Harvard College in New England.1 The purpose which Lady Moulson had in making this gift is expressed in the formal receipt which with great business sagacity she exacted of Mr. Weld. That document has been preserved, and two consequences have followed. Lady Moulson's intention in contributing the money ‘out of Christian desire to advance good learning,’ was to bestow the income upon such poor ‘scholler’ as the college might think best, though it was stipulated that in case any kinsman of hers were admitted to the college, the income should be his until he had attained his master's degree, even though it might at the time be awarded to. another. This fund, as Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis, who discovered it anew a few years ago, expresses it, established the ‘first scholarship in Harvard,’ and ‘unquestionably the oldest and most interesting foundation of the kind in this country.’ It is a scholarship in a college for men established by a woman. Sir Thomas Moulson (doubtless the husband of Lady Ann) was lord mayor of London in 1634, and was knighted that year. He was a man of generous deeds, and founded a ‘faire school’ in Cheshire, the town in which he was born, ‘for the government, education, and instruction of youth in grammar and virtue.’ The fact that he shared the general interest that adventures in America had roused in England at that time, made it natural that the friends of Harvard College should turn to his widow when they needed money. Thus it was that the first [175] scholarship was established in the college. It lapsed for many a long year, but it has at last been reestablished through the instrumentality of Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis published his researches not far from the time that those interested in the education of women by the professors of Harvard College were seeking a name for their institution, and it was decided that the maiden name of the founder of the first scholarship in the parent institution was by far the most appropriate for a college which was to give collegiate instruction to her sex. The investigations of Mr. Davis had established, as well as it could be established under the circumstances, that Radcliffe was the name which the bride of Mr. Moulson had borne before her marriage, and therefore it was chosen for the new college. It was in 1894 that the legislature of Massachusetts passed an act establishing Radcliffe College, giving it wide powers in connection with Harvard College, the president and fellows of which were made responsible for the grade of its instruction and for the character of its degrees. At last the sarcasm of Swift, uttered more than a century before, had no application to Cambridge. ‘My Master,’ said he, ‘thought it monstrous in us to give the Females a different kind of Education from the Males.’ Harvard College no longer educated one half of the human being, but gave to both halves instruction of the same high grade and placed its seal upon degrees of the same value. The idea of a college for women in Cambridge, which should share the advantages of the University, had been presented nearly thirty years before, by the Rev. Dr. William A. Stearns, for more than twenty years pastor of the Prospect Street Church. Dr. Stearns was a prominent member of the School Board, and in the Report for 1849 he left the following record of his farseeing wisdom:—When we take into consideration that our noble University, with its professional and scientific schools, towers in the midst of us, and that the High School now forms a connecting link between this institution and the lower schools, we cannot but look with admiration upon the educational advantages of Cambridge. If private munificence would endow one additional school, in which our daughters could obtain advantages for improvement approximating those which our sons enjoy in the University, the opportunities for education would be unquestionably [176] superior in Cambridge to what can be found in any other spot on the globe.2Radcliffe College did not, however, start up at a moment by the fiat of the legislature of the State. Its origin dates back some sixteen or more years. There had been long and anxious considerations of the method by which such a momentous result might be accomplished. Many people had before that date, even, been asking (‘demanding’ might be a better word) that girls should of right be admitted to equal privileges in the venerable university; but, though they did not know it, they demanded a revolution, and revolutions are more frequent in political affairs than in affairs educational. Sturdy ‘demands’ fell unheeded at the closed doors of the university. It was left for milder methods to win success. Parental solicitude showed the way.3 A mother and a father were discussing the education of a daughter for whom it seemed to them that the ordinary curriculum of the schools for girls did not provide enough advanced work. The study of their particular problem led them to believe that they would accomplish what they wanted for their own child by making provision for the children of others. Thus it was that they formed a plan for giving parallel courses of instruction outside of Harvard College by the professors, which would make it possible for a woman to take all the work required for the bachelor's degree, if not to go further in collegiate work. This plan solved for the time the difficulties that had been foreseen by those who had wished for the greatest advantages for women in connection with Harvard College. The objections that had been raised, on the one hand, by those who wished the women to be admitted to the classes of men, or on the other, by those who wished that they might be taught in quite separate classes, were not valid against it. Yet women were to get the real Harvard education. It was easier to make a plan, however, than it was to foresee how it would be received by the professors and by the corporation of the college. Doubts in the minds of the originators made them hesitate, and during the weeks that followed, which extended themselves into months, they discussed many ways of caring for the women who might be brought to Cambridge. [177] Houses were looked at, and finally one was chosen as the best adapted to the uses of the proposed institution. It was on the side of the Common, almost under the ‘Washington Elm,’ not far from the home of Longfellow and opposite the birthplace of Holmes, a dwelling that Mr. Longfellow had been a frequent visitor in, and through the halls of which Dr. Holmes, as it was afterwards learned, had in his younger life often walked, if he had not indeed trodden more lively measures there. This house was of quiet dignity, and had for a long time been the home of the family of Judge Fay, wherefore it has since been known as Fay House. Behind it were inclosures in which the venerable Professor Sophocles cared for a collection of hens, for each egg of which he seemed to have a personal interest. Edward Everett had once lived in the building, and Professor McKean had his residence in it during his professorship from 1810 to 1818. It was not known generally then that in the front room in the second story on the north side of the front hall the Reverend Samuel Gilman, a relative of Judge Fay, had written the words of ‘Fair Harvard,’ to be used on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of Harvard College,—words that have been sung at every Commencement since that day. However, this is by the way. The house was occupied at the time, and there seemed no probability that it could ever be obtained for such a purpose as the anxious schemers had in mind. Nothing could be said, of course, of such a desire. The simple plan that was destined to succeed was brought to the attention of the president of Harvard College by means of the following letter:—
The writer of the letter had a few weeks previously explained the plan to a member of the faculty, Professor James B. Greenough, because he was a neighbor, and also because he was one of three professors who had just at that time given their consent to an application from a young woman for instruction of the college grade. The favorable reception of the scheme by Professor Greenough was immediate and enthusiastic, and the permission of President Eliot was also given at once. The president called at my home the morning after the date of the letter, and expressed willingness that the experiment should be tried, for all felt that it was an experiment to graft the education of women upon the stock of a university nearly two centuries and a half of age. Mr. Eliot, like many others, thought it well worth effort. He was told that it was to be tried by a few ladies who were quite unorganized, so that if failure should be the result, Harvard would not be responsible, though if success should crown the effort, Harvard should have the glory. Seven ladies constituted the ‘committee,’ as it was sometimes called, though, as it was not a committee in the strict sense of the word, some difficulty was found in designating the body. Two of the ladies were unmarried, and two who had been chosen by natural selection were married. It was determined to choose three more married ladies and thus complete the number of seven. They were, in the order of coming into the scheme, Mrs. Gilman, Mrs. Greenough, Miss Longfellow, Miss Horsford, Mrs. Cooke, Mrs. Agassiz, and Mrs. Gurney. [179] This bare statement of the first steps in the organization gives no intimation of the long consideration that had been devoted to the subject by Mr.Gilman and Mrs. Gilman, of the hesitation with which the presentation of the matter to Professor Greenough had been made, nor of the anxiety which they had had lest he might not favor it. After the matter had been approved by one professor, it was laid before many others, and they made no delay in giving their allegiance to it. This was in 1878. Finally, in February, 1879, on Washington's Birthday, the first announcement was made, by a circular headed ‘Private Collegiate Instruction for Women.’ This was signed by the seven ladies, and all correspondence was directed to be sent to the secretary. The statements in the circular were, of necessity, vague, but in many quarters it was at once assumed that Harvard College had opened its doors to women, and letters came from different parts of the country based upon this assumption. The substance of the circular had been telegraphed to the newspapers through the usual agencies, and special articles had been printed in the editorial columns of the ‘Boston Advertiser,’ and in daily and weekly papers in New York. The circular was worded as follows:—
Other circulars followed, and in September the examinations for admission were held in a building numbered six on Appian Way, the family in which had with great generosity rented rooms for the purpose. The papers submitted to the candidates were the same that Harvard College used at the same hours for its young men, and thus the same standards were set for both sexes. The work in the lecture-room began at once, and it has continued from that time to this. Twenty-seven women began the work of the first year, but two were obliged to give it up before the year closed, so that in reality the classes counted but twenty-five. That number has increased until now 354 are enrolled on the lists of Radcliffe College. Every year the writer of these lines has made a report to the corporation. In the report for the fourth year the following words were used:—
Too great stress can hardly be laid upon the value of the highest education for women in a land where the majority of the teachers in all the schools from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Maine to Texas are women. In our own State, eighty-seven per cent. of the teachers (according to the latest report of the Secretary of the Board of Education) are women. . . . It does not take a very careful study of the colleges of New England, less than a score, to show that the ratio between the number which in a direct way give assistance to those women who aim to qualify themselves for high educational positions and those which do not, is quite the reverse of that existing be-between the number of women teachers and the grand total occupying [181] places in the profession. In this fact is found one of the reasons for the low rate of pay with which women generally are obliged to satisfy themselves. As the opportunities for the higher education within the reach of women increase, the number of them able to compete successfully for important and remunerative positions will be enlarged.In the same report the following among other reasons for the writer's interest in the work that was under discussion was given:—
Women seeking opportunities for the higher education naturally prefer to find them at an institution which is allied at least with one established and carried on for men, because they think that there they will be in the line of progress. They feel that on the perfecting of methods and the best application of educational forces the entire body of instructors in such an institution, as well as in all others like it, is united. Present them a course of instruction different from that offered to men, and they do not eye it askance because they think it not so good, but because it is probably just out of the line upon which progress and improvement are to be expected. This is one of the reasons why thoughtful women have less confidence in courses of instruction specially prepared for them than they have in that one upon which the wisdom of men has for generations been working, and is still working.It is not, therefore, because the present opportunities and courses of study of Harvard College are thought the best that can be devised for women, that women come in increasing numbers to share them, but because in their estimation they represent the highest stage of present educational progress in our land. The intellectual character of the women who came in the early days differed little from that of those who have followed them. It happens that we have on record the views of a number of the professors on this important subject. Professor John Williams White (Greek) wrote, ‘I have met uniformly great earnestness, persistent industry, and ability of high order. It is an inspiration to teach girls who are so bright and so willing.’ Professor Louis Dyer (Greek), now of Oxford, England, said: ‘I have been most struck this year in my philosophical course—undertaken in the absence of Professor Goodwin—by the entire absence of intellectual indifferentism on the part of the young ladies. Their questions have been most intelligent, and, where the first answer did not satisfy them, persistent,—an encouraging sign that they are unwilling [182] to content themselves with words.’ Professor Byerly (mathematics) said: ‘I have found the spirit, industry, and ability of the girls admirable; indeed, the average has invariably been higher in my classes in the “Annex” than in my classes in the college, in spite of the fact that the college classes, since they are in elective courses in a subject of acknowledged difficulty, have been necessarily formed of picked men.’ Of the classes in philosophy, Professor Palmer wrote: ‘The four classes that I have taught there have in each case shown a scholarship somewhat higher than the parallel class in college. . . . The girls being keener questioners, I have usually found myself obliged to treat my subject more fundamentally with them than when I have discussed it with my college classes.’ Other professors of those early days wrote in equally strong terms with regard to the students, and one of the students said of the advantages of the Annex, ‘I have become convinced, in my own mind at least, that there is no institution for women in our country which affords so finished and so satisfactory an education as is offered in Cambridge. In the first place, the town, pervaded with an atmosphere of study and culture, and rich in its associations, seems to me an important factor in a liberal education, as well as the home and social life which the students enjoy there, a life which is impossible in connection with a dormitory system.’ Thus the teachers appreciated the students, and the students appreciated highly the advantages that were offered then. In this, the first stage of the work, the seven ladies and their secretary cared for the business affairs of the enterprise, while a body of the professors which had Professor Greenough as chairman looked after the courses of study, and recommended the candidates for the certificates. Degrees were not given to those who had accomplished the work for which degrees were awarded in Harvard College, but certificates, which stated the facts. It may be said by way of anticipation, that these certificates have been exchanged for diplomas since Radcliffe College was created by the legislature. The secretary was the only officer on the ground at that time. He carried out the votes of the Advisory Board of professors and of the lady-managers, besides attending to all the business. To him all applications were addressed, and he wrote all the letters. As the numbers increased, the quarters at first engaged [183] at No. 6 Appian Way proved too small, and other rooms were rented. All that could be spared by the family were first taken, and then a room was fitted up in a house across the street as a laboratory. Then another room was taken in the house No. 5 Garden Street as a ‘library.’ Later, another room was taken in this house,—a delightful room,—in which the students sat about in easy chairs and listened to learned lectures, or took notes on the great tables with which the room was well supplied. It was in those halcyon days that Mr. John Holmes, who occupied the house numbered 5 Appian Way, had pity on the young aspirants for collegiate honors as they took their admission examinations. and sent over the way certain refreshments which bore a likeness to those which the Council of Radcliffe is in these later days wont to supply from the funds of the treasury. On one occasion a guardian angel in the form of a mortal woman of kindly heart came day by day with refreshments for two of the candidates under her special charge, and was found by the secretary sitting on a hard bench in the Common near by, suffering the hottest rays of the July sun, thinking that her swelterings were naught, if only the girls could make clear their title to a Harvard education! Many a tale could be told of those primitive days. The ‘Harvard education’ was won. When all the spare rooms on Appian Way had been exhausted, a building became a necessity, and then it was that Miss Fay of her own accord called upon Mrs. Gilman to ask if the Annex would not buy her homestead for its future quarters. The family which had so long occupied the old home had gradually left it, and now it was at the disposition of the ‘experiment.’ The hopes that we had been almost afraid to encourage in the days before we were daring enough to even speak of the plan were ready to be realized. It was with feelings that can be imagined better than they can be written or printed that Mrs. Gilman reported the good news. The offer was brought before the ‘Corporation,’ for in anticipation of the need of real estate the managers had become a corporation, and the Fay House with its surrounding land was purchased. Adjoining land has since been added, and the estate now comprises more than twice as many square feet as it then did. The first stage in the history that we are following ended at the time that Fay House was purchased, when it had become a [184] necessity to begin to raise a fund for the endowment of the institution. The ladies and certain others who at the time became associated with them became a corporation under the general statutes of Massachusetts, October 16, 1882, with the title ‘The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women,’ though this inconvenient name was seldom used, the nickname, ‘Harvard Annex,’ invented by a student of the college, it is said, being made to serve instead, in all except formal documents and official utterances. The change in title, however, caused no change in the work or in the progress. Things went on as usual, though every year it was evident that the new quarters would not continue to suffice for the growing classes. Twice Fay House has been enlarged. At first the old wing in the rear was taken off and an addition made in that direction which increased the capacity of the building twofold. Again an auditorium was made on the Mason Street side with rooms above and below it, for lecture-rooms and other purposes. These additions have been so skillfully designed that visitors are not able to find the line that divides the new from the old, and indeed, they often take the staircase for a construction of the ‘colonial’ period, though it is a creation upon which the minds and taste of the entire corporation and of the architects were brought to bear but a few years ago. A notable improvement in the premises was the addition of the third story. Miss Fay had changed the roof some years before, but now all of her work was taken away, and a new floor was made which contains the library, a room for the elegance and convenience of which the corporation is indebted to the generosity of Miss Longfellow. It is the most charming portion of the edifice now. The third stage in the work is marked by the incorporation of the managers as Radcliffe College, which was done by a special act of the legislature, the signature of the governor having been affixed to it March 23, 1894. This act was the subject of much deliberation both within and without the halls of legislation. It was the result of long and careful consideration on the part of the President and Fellows of Harvard College and of the Overseers, as well as the managers of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women. It was discussed no less by others interested in the welfare of women in Boston and New York, and many opinions were expressed both [185] for and against the plan, but after a long and careful hearing on the part of the Committee of the Legislature on Education the step was taken with unanimity, and as one of the members of the committee remarked, both sides seemed to be pleased with the result. The growth of the work is perhaps shown better in figures than in any other way. The following table exhibits the number of students each year from the first, with the receipts from tuition-fees and the expenses for salaries. The accounts for the current year are, of course, not made up, but the number of students is already over 350, and the other figures will show an increase over all previous years.
| Year. | No of Students. | Fees. | Salaries. |
| 1879-80 | 25 | $3,725.00 | $5,171.00 |
| 1880-81 | 47 | 4,786.25 | 6,363.32 |
| 1881-82 | 38 | 5,017.50 | 6,549.56 |
| 1882-83 | 41 | 3,899.38 | 7,778.48 |
| 1883-84 | 49 | 5,581.25 | 7,950.20 |
| 1884-85 | 55 | 7,193.75 | 8,725.00 |
| 1885-86 | 73 | 9,661.25 | 9,400.00 |
| 1886-87 | 90 | 12,113.75 | 13,525.00 |
| 1887-88 | 103 | 13,475.00 | 13,064.00 |
| 1888-89 | 115 | 15,460.00 | 14,575.00 |
| 1889-90 | 142 | 20,018.32 | 18,925.00 |
| 1890-91 | 174 | 25,035.00 | 21,700.00 |
| 1891-92 | 241 | 34,010.00 | 27,686.00 |
| 1892-93 | 263 | 37,240.00 | 31,929.00 |
| 1893-94 | 255 | 42,845.00 | 34,112.50 |
| 1894-95 | 284 | 49,626.83 | 47,667.00 |
