252 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
proximity of our old University, honored and beloved 
throughout the land. Under its shadow we stood, — 
into its gates we hoped to enter; — and when in later 
years, as the scope of our undertaking became better 
understood, the prefix of Harvard was added by com- 
mon consent to our friendly designation of the Annex, 
the name so lightly given became to us very signifi- 
cant and very precious as an earnest of success, — a 
good omen as it were. We have indeed been led 
through these fifteen years by the hope that we 
should finally come under the acknowledged and 
permanent protection of Harvard. And now the 
President and Fellows have taken the first step to- 
ward that end. Overburdened by the care of the Uni- 
versity which represents a trust stretching over a 
period of nearly three hundred years and has grown 
in that time into an immense organization, they de- 
cline to assume in the same comprehensive sense the 
additional care of our society, — of its property, its 
internal economy, its discipline, etc., but they con- 
sent to take the whole responsibility of our education, 
and to guarantee the worth and validity of our de- 
grees by the signature and seal of the University. In 
order to facilitate this arrangement, they ask us to 
take a name as a college proper under their educa- 
tional supervision. As our own name of the Annex, 
pleasant 'as are its associations, did not seem quite 
appropriate, we have chosen from the many names 
suggested one which connects itself directly with the 
early history of the University. Anne Radcliffe 
founded, as you know, the first scholarship ever given 
