COMMEMORATION ADDRESSES 405 



ditions offered us by Harvard College brought us into 

 bitter conflict with those who wished us to insist on a 

 more complete union with the College than most of 

 us thought to be either necessary or expedient. It was 

 that same strong personality of Mrs. Agassiz which 

 then saved us from defeat and gained us a victory 

 even greater than we hoped for. And the result has 

 amply proved the wisdom of the action then taken. 

 I think it would be hard to find any one connected 

 with the teaching of Radcliffe who now thinks that 

 we should have gained anything if our elementary in- 

 struction had been merged with that of the under- 

 graduates of Harvard in the College classes. On the 

 other hand, we felt that the admission of our grad- 

 uate students and other advanced scholars to many 

 of the most important graduate courses in the Uni- 

 versity was the greatest privilege which could be 

 given us; and Mrs. Agassiz appreciated at once that 

 this open door would ultimately admit us to all that 

 we could reasonably ask. The first year's trial (in 

 1894-1895) fully confirmed her judgment, when Rad- 

 cliffe was able to offer 63 graduate courses of high 

 rank, of which 53J were given in Harvard Univer- 

 sity, where our students were admitted to the same 

 classes with the men. This early announcement of 

 graduate instruction in the University classes gave 

 Radcliffe College a distinction of which no other col- 

 lege for women in this country could boast, and it 

 gave most encouraging promise of future facilities 

 for even the most advanced university study. 



The words with which Mrs. Agassiz closed her 



