404 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



gentlemen who were informally discussing plans for 

 the collegiate education of women in Cambridge took 

 in February, 1879, when they invited Mrs. Agassiz 

 to be one of their committee. She accepted this invi- 

 tation at once; and thus began her close connection 

 with this important movement, to which she devoted 

 her best energies for the rest of her life. As soon as 

 there was any formal organization of the managing 

 committee, she was made its President; and after its 

 incorporation as the Society for the Collegiate Instruc- 

 tion of Women and again as Radcliffe College, she 

 remained its President and gave her life and soul to 

 its welfare. No words of mine can even attempt to 

 express her great and lasting services during this 

 period of more than 28 years to the cause of sound 

 learning and especially to the higher education of 

 women in this country. Her long experience as a 

 teacher of girls, her almost unerring practical wis- 

 dom, and the unfailing common sense which she al- 

 ways brought to the difficult problems which constantly 

 faced us in our almost unexplored way, have done 

 more, in my opinion, to make Radcliffe College what 

 it now is, than all other causes combined. But be- 

 yond and above all this was that gracious personality 

 which always made itself felt in everything that she 

 said or did, and gave an indescribable charm to all 

 her intercourse with both teachers and students. We 

 are soon to listen to the striking story of her powerful 

 aid, in 1894, in rescuing us from the greatest danger 

 to which we were ever exposed, when our wise con- 

 servatism in gratefully accepting the generous con- 



