836 



WOMEN'S COLLEGES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



a chronograph ; a portable telescope : and a meridian 

 circle, aperture 4 inches. Music Hall, a separate 

 building, furnishes the best modern appliances and 

 facilities for work in vocal and instrumental music, 

 and the Hillyer Art Gallery, the gift of Winthrop 

 Hillyer, is provided with studios and exhibition 

 rooms, in which are extensive collections of casts, 

 engravings, and paintings. The Alumna 1 Gymna- 

 sium contains a swimming bath and a large hall for 

 gymnastic exercise and indoor sports. Accommo- 

 dations are provided for students in 10 dormitorie>. 

 near the academic buildings, each having its own 

 dining room, parlors, and kitchen, and presided 

 over by a lady who directs its social and domestic 

 life. The rooms, which are well heated and venti- 

 lated, are arranged some for 2 persons and some 

 to be occupied singly. A plant house and botanical 

 garden furnish material for laboratory work in 

 botany. 



Three courses of study are offered by the college : 

 the classical course, leading to the degree of bach- 

 elor of arts ; the scientific, to that of bachelor of 

 science ; and the literary, to that of bachelor of 

 letters. There is no preparatory department. The 

 examination requirements for candidates for the 

 classical course include Latin, Greek, mathematics, 

 ancient history, and English ; for entrance to the 

 literary course, Latin and Roman history or Greek 

 and Greek history, mat hematics, rhetoric, French 

 or German ; for entrance to the scientific course 

 examination is required in Latin and Roman his- 

 tory, English, French or German, mathematics, 

 botany, physiology, physics. Certificates from ac- 

 credited schools and instructors are accepted in 

 place of the examinations, which may be taken in 

 the latter part of June or the first part of Septem- 

 ber. The prescribed studies of each course are such 

 as are necessary to give it a distinctive character. 

 The design is to require of the student a sufficient 

 amount of prescribed work to insure a high grade 

 of scholarly culture, and also to leave room for the 

 exercise of individual tastes by the introduction of 

 elective studies, increasing in number as the course 

 advances. The maximum of work allowed to any 

 student in a regular course is sixteen hours of reci- 

 tations a week. Two hours and a half of laboratory 

 work in any science are considered the equivalent 

 of one hour of recitation a week. Graduates of the 

 college, or of other colleges of equal rank, are ad- 

 mitted to advanced courses, with or without refer- 

 ence to the attainment of a degree. The degree of 

 master of arts is conferred on graduates of Smith 

 College, or of other colleges of like standing, who 

 have given evidence of satisfactory progress in lib- 

 eral studies since graduation. The degree of doc- 

 tor of philosophy is conferred only in recognition 

 of high scholarly attainment and of ability to carry 

 on original research. The course in the school of 

 music requires three years for completion, and that 

 in the school of art four years. - 



The faculty numbers 55 members, 34 of whom are 

 women. In 1896 the students enrolled numbered 

 932, and the total number of graduates is 1,160. 

 The price of tuition for all students is $100 a year, 

 and the charge for board and a furnished room in 

 the college is $300 a year. Those who prefer may 

 obtain board in private families, at an expense va- 

 rying from $4 to $9 a week, and students can also 

 adapt their expenses to their means by co-operative 

 housekeeping. 



Yassar College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., was 

 founded by Matthew Vassar in 1861, and opened to 

 students in 1865. In the strict sense of the word, 

 it is the oldest college for women in the United 

 States, and was established as an institution that 

 should accomplish for young women what the col- 

 leges were accomplishing for young men. The in- 



stitution was incorporated as Vassar Female Col- 

 lege, but this name was changed in 1867 to the pres- 

 ent corporate name. The main buildings were 

 erected and the doors opened at a time, when the 

 resources of the country were taxed to their ut- 

 most, but the enrollment of nearly 350 students 

 the first year established the conviction of the 

 founder that a need for such an institution existed. 

 The total endowment fund of the college is $1.020.- 

 000, of which sum $428,000 was given by the 

 founder during his lifetime, and expended for 

 buildings and other equipments. Matthew Vassar. 

 Jr., bequeathed to the college $130.000. and from 

 the estate of John Guy Vassar $444,000 was re- 

 ceived. The college is nonsectarian in its manage- 

 ment, but is distinctly Christian, as its founder 

 willed it to be. 



The grounds of the college, comprise 400 acres, 

 with several miles of gravel walks, tennis courts, a 

 lake available for boating and skating, a rink for 

 ice skating, and an athletic field. The buildings 

 are 2 miles from Poughkeepsie, and are reached by 

 an electric railway. The main "building, which is 

 500 feet long, and is modeled after the Tuileries, 

 contains students' rooms, apartments for officers of 

 the college, recitation rooms, the chapel, the library, 

 the dining room, parlors, and offices. The si IK lei its' 

 apartments art 1 ordinarily in groups, with 3 sleep- 

 ing rooms opening into one study, but there are 

 also many single rooms. Strong 'Hall, erected in 

 1893 for the accommodation of 100 students, is a 

 model building for residence. It is arranged in 

 single rooms, and in suites of three rooms for t wo 

 students, with a large dining room and elevator 

 service. The library of the college, which is con- 

 nected with the main edifice, was completed in 

 1893. It contains about 25.000 volumes, selected 

 with special reference to the needs of the depart- 

 ments. The reading room receives, in addition to 

 the daily and weekly papers, many scientific, lit- 

 erary, and philological periodicals. American, Eng- 

 lish, German, and French. The Vassar Brothers' 

 Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry is a commo- 

 dious building in which the department of physics 

 occupies seven rooms, and the second and third 

 floors of the building, comprising an area of about 

 5,000 feet, are devoted to chemistry. The biolog- 

 ical laboratory consists of a large laboratory for 

 work in general biology and a small one for more 

 advanced work in zoology, anatomy, and embry- 

 ology. The mineralogical and geological labora- 

 tories contain cases of representative specimens, 

 constantly accessible to the students of these 

 courses, and the museum of natural history con- 

 tains an extensive cabinet of minerals, rocks, and 

 fossils, and a cabinet of zoology illustrating all the 

 subkingdoms. A collection of oil and water-color 

 paintings by American and foreign artists is owned 

 by the college, and the hall of casts is furnished 

 with specimens of all the great periods of sculp- 

 ture. The astronomical observatory, which was 

 established and equipped at the opening of the 

 college, contains a meridian circle with collimat- 

 ing telescope, a clock and chronograph, an equa- 

 torial telescope, and 2 portable telescopes. The 

 object glass of the meridian instrument is of 3f 

 inches diameter; that of the equatorial of 12i 

 inches. A spectroscope and a universal instrument 

 have been added recently. In 1889 the Alumna? 

 Gymnasium was erected, the main part of which is 

 100 feet long by 45 feet wide; the upper story is 

 used as a tennis court and as a hall for entertain- 

 ments; the lower story contains, besides loggia and 

 entrance hall, a room in which are 24 bath rooms, 

 with each of which two dressing rooms are con- 

 nected, and at the rear of the room is a large swim- 

 ming tank. The gymnasium proper is 67 feet long, 





