THE PASSING OF THE ANNEX 231 



enterprise, and they preferred, for general convenience, to 

 commit to a distinct body the management of an under- 

 taking which was to be detached, in many respects, from 

 the present organization of the University." 



Beginning with March 14, 1893, Mrs. Agassiz's diary 

 reports almost daily interviews with President Eliot or 

 other friends of the Annex in regard to the advisability of 

 making advances to the University looking toward a closer 

 union. The tune seemed ripe for a direct appeal for adop- 

 tion by Harvard, and on March 21 the Society voted that 

 it was expedient to transfer to the President and Fellows of 

 Harvard College its entire property, whenever the College 

 would assume the management of its affairs and undertake 

 to carry on the work and to offer to women academic de- 

 grees in arts. On March 27 Mrs. Agassiz addressed to Presi- 

 dent Eliot the following statement of the situation, which 

 exists in her rough draft: 



TO PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT 



Cambridge, March 24, 1893 



DEAR MR. ELIOT: I hear that you may bring for- 

 ward our hopes and fears to the Corporation on Mon- 

 day next not perhaps as an official communication, 

 but as an informal opening of the subject. I am most 

 anxious that we should appear in our true light, as 

 reasonable and not aggressive, and therefore I repeat 

 in writing what I have often said in our recent con- 

 versations. We are well aware that the Annex owes 

 all its success to the support received from the pro- 

 fessors and instructors of Harvard, and also that 



