Hartshorne.] dOD [jlay 3, 



ia the congregations of the Society of Friends. Although not officially 

 recorded as a minister, in the manner customary in that denomination, he 

 gave demonstration of his eminent qualification for such service. 



In 1883, he was appointed President of Bryn Mawr College for Women ; 

 of which he had been already one of the original Board of Trustees. This 

 college was founded by means of a liberal endowment left for it by Dr. 

 Joseph W. Taylor, who during his lifetime chose for it an admirable sit- 

 uation a few miles from Philadelphia, and began the construction of its 

 principal buildings. The selection of Dr. James E. Rhoads for the office 

 of its first President was greeted on all sides as the best that could have 

 been made. Although not himself a college graduate, he had long been 

 one of the managers of Haverford College, a kindred institution for young 

 men ; and his fine intellectual qualities, broad culture, and still more, his 

 elevated, attractive and inspiring personal character, made him peculiarly 

 adapted to such a position. Opened for students with a well-chosen fac- 

 ulty in 1885, Bryn Mawr College rapidly grew in favor and prosperity. 

 Halls and dormitories have, year after year, been added for the accommoda- 

 tion of its students, of whom now nearly three hundred are engaged in 

 advanced studies under competent instructors. 



At the time when the organization of this college was effected, the 

 higher education of women was still in a comparatively early stage of 

 development; and the theory of curricular arrangement in colleges for 

 men was undergoing revision, and, in most places, revolutionary change. 

 With a new institution, the question was open : Shall it be, in its plan of 

 study and instruction, constructed on the old basis of uniform and sym- 

 metrical culture, maintaining the principle that, as judged by the experi- 

 ence of ages, there is one culture better than all others for students of the 

 collegiate age, leaving free selection and specialization for the postgrad- 

 uate work in universities or elsewhere ; or shall the newer principle ot 

 free electivism be adopted, providing for undergraduates a number of 

 optional courses, such as are now offered at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and 

 nearly all the other colleges of the United States? 



As two of the Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, appointed by Dr. J. W. 

 Tciylor for that duly in his will, were also members of the Board of Trus- 

 tees of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, it was not strange that 

 the new college for women should follow closely in the line of its devel- 

 opment. A " group system " of classified studies was adopted, including 

 some branches which have mostly, hitherto, been regarded as better 

 suited for special postgraduate work than for the general training of 

 youth of either sex before maturity. 



While there is room for diverse opinions in regard to the extent to 

 which this now prevailing change in college curricula has been carried, 

 it is certain that it is prevailing ; and from no standpoint can fault be 

 found with a new institution for women, because it followed in the wake 

 of the most honored universities, the oldest and the newest, in this coun- 

 try. On the line of development thus chosen, Bryn Mawr College has 



