RADCLIFFE COLLEGE 311 
time, and she who had been its representative before the 
world. In Miss Irwin she now had an able second, who dis- 
cerned and vigorously expressed the necessities of Rad- 
cliffe, which by its closer connection with Harvard re- 
ceived added support from the influence of President Eliot. 
Furthermore it is evident that the college, having now 
attained to a recognized academic status, had reached a 
period in which materia! acquisition must be its immediate 
object, and that the ability which its president had shown 
in developing its organization must now be directed toward 
its mechanical equipment. It will be noticed that in this, 
the second part of Mrs. Agassiz’s administration, although 
she was less active publicly than she had been in behalf of 
Radcliffe, her influence, discretion, and judicious fore- 
sight made themselves felt at every step that the college 
advanced, her ideals added sentiment to the brick and 
mortar of every building, and the affection that she awoke 
among her friends continued to react for the benefit of the 
college that she loved. 
How the needs set forth by Miss Irwin and President 
Eliot were in a measure met within the next few years can 
be told for the greater part in the words of Mrs. Agassiz. It 
should be said in preface that since the purchase of Fay 
House the college had by degrees acquired in addition to 
the 20,000 square feet bought then nearly four times as 
much land, most of which lay in one piece of property and 
all of which was in the immediate vicinity of Fay House. 
The story begins with a letter from Mrs. Augustus Hem- 
enway to Mrs. Agassiz and requires for explanation so far 
as the college is concerned merely the statement that the 
Radcliffe gymnasium at this time occupied a small wooden 
