Vassar College history

John H. Raymond, a charter trustee, succeeded him as president — with a salary of $4,000 per year.) On September 26, 1865, Vassar Female College welcomed its first 353 students — all between the ages of 15 and 24, and some from as far away as California.

In 1866, “Female” was removed from the college’s name, and tuition — already beginning its persistent climb — was hiked to $400.

And in 1867, the first four graduates of Vassar College matriculated with “Certificates of Completion” (at the time, the board was still wrangling with the suitability of awarding “bachelor’s” degrees to women).

1868: Matthew Vassar dies while delivering his farewell address to the board of trustees

Diary of Christine Ladd-Franklin, Vassar College Class of 1869, and noted mathematician and logician.

The college’s gallery predates such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was founded in 1870, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, established in 1870.

Ruth Benedict, née Ruth Fulton, (born June 5, 1887, New York, N.Y., United States—died Sept.

In 1898, Vassar became the first women’s college to have a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society.

Before Vassar Opened; a Contribution to the History of the Higher Education of Women in America 1914

1915: In the college’s 50th anniversary year, President Henry Noble MacCracken proposes to the presidents of Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley a “four college conference,” leading eventually to the Seven College Conference (known as the “Seven Sisters”)

E. Digby Baltzell writes that "upper-class WASP families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Vassar." A select and elite few of Vassar's students were allowed entry into the school's secret society Delta Sigma Rho, started in 1922.

During 1943–45 Benedict was a special adviser to the Office of War Information on dealing with the peoples of occupied territories and enemy lands.

17, 1948, New York City), American anthropologist whose theories had a profound influence on cultural anthropology, especially in the area of culture and personality.

Vassar student Meryl Streep ’71 performs the lead role in the 1969 college production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie / Photograph by Arax-Serjan Studios, Poughkeepsie

1974: First coed class graduates

2006: Matthew Vassar’s statue is unveiled