202 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



would notify Mr. Oilman, and on February 20, the devoted 

 committee met at the house of Mr. Gilman in a heavy snow- 

 storm to hear his report on the replies. Fifty-three had been 

 received, the first in the affirmative from Professor William 

 E. Byerly; forty-four more were favorable, some of the in- 

 structors saying that they were ready to give their services 

 without remuneration rather than allow the plan to fail. 

 At this meeting " Mr. Greenough was requested to attend 

 all meetings as advisor," and thus formed a nucleus for the 

 future Academic Board of Radcliffe College. On March 7, 

 it was decided to "ask the professors or a representative 

 body of them to meet the ladies for consultation'* at the 

 house of Mr. Gilman. At this meeting four applications 

 from prospective students were read, three of which had 

 been received by Mrs. Agassiz. On March 12, Mr. Gilman 

 was chosen secretary for the committee of ladies, an office 

 which he held virtually until 1894. A few days later an ad- 

 visory board of five professors was appointed to act with 

 the ladies, and in the following August, the committee 

 liaving by that time received nearly $16,000 in subscrip- 

 tions, they appointed Mr. Joseph B. Warner, a well-known 

 lawyer of Boston, as their treasurer. 



On September 24, entrance examinations began, and 

 Mrs. Agassiz 's diary has the noteworthy record for that 

 day, written at Nahant: "To Cambridge. Meeting for 

 the Harvard girls." The "Harvard girls" who began to at- 

 tend the courses offered were twenty-seven in number, two 

 of whom left early in the year, one to study abroad, the 

 other, who lived in a neighboring town, because of the diffi- 

 culty of regular communication with Cambridge. The re- 

 maining twenty-five continued throughout the year, three 



