Harvard University Library OASIS: Online Archival Search Information System

Frames Version Questions or Comments   Copyright Statement

Descriptive Summary

Call No.: SC 99
Repository: Radcliffe College Archives, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, 1822-1907
Title: Papers, 1879-1978
Quantity: 1 carton
Abstract: Correspondence, speeches, reports, etc., of Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, first president of Radcliffe College.

Processing Information:

Acquisition Information:

Preferred citation for publication:

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, educator and college president, was born in Boston, December 5, 1822 and married the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1850. She was an educational reformer, member of the Woman's Education Association, but never an advocate of women's suffrage or of co-education. ECA administered the Agassiz School for Girls from 1855 to 1863. She was one of the managers of the program for the Private Collegiate Instruction for Women (also known as the Harvard Annex); was president of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women (1882-1894), first president of Radcliffe 1894-1900, and then honorary president, 1900-1903.

ECA guided the college through its early years. She negotiated the permanent institutional tie with Harvard and the incorporation of Radcliffe College in 1894 as a degree-granting agency. Her addresses at "parlor meetings" elicited substantial support for the college and made possible the purchase of properties bordering on Brattle, Mason, Garden, Streets and Appian Way which eventually formed the Radcliffe Yard, and the Phillips and Bemis estate on Concord Avenue which was laid out by her nephew Guy Lowell as the dormitory quadrangle. The funds for Agassiz House were raised largely by the Agassiz family as an eightieth birthday tribute in 1902, and became the student center and third permanent building in the Yard.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection consists of incoming correspondence, some draft outgoing letters, speeches, reports, commencement addresses, and other papers by and about ECA. The papers document the Harvard-Radcliffe relationship, Radcliffe's incorporation (1894), the alumnae revolt protesting the denial of the Harvard degree to Radcliffe students, and negotiations over the award of the Ph.D at Radcliffe. There is information about bequests to the college, and fundraising campaigns. The papers were collected by Lucy Allen Paton, ECA's biographer, and some were published in LAP's biography The Life of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (Boston, 1919).

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz Papers, 1838-1920 (A-3) and Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz Papers, 1884-1959 (SC 4).

INVENTORY

• 1-28: Letters to ECA with some draft replies, arranged chronologically
  • 1. 1879-1885. Accounts, subscription list, 1881-1882.
    See also #29.
  • 2. 1880-1892. E.M. Minturn re: Barnard College; William E. Byerly, Charles Lamnon, Lilian Horsford (Farlow) re: gift of desks to Fay House; Arthur Gilman with enclosures documenting the early years of Radcliffe; students' contributions to the Harvard Monthly; Sarah Wyman Whitman and Marion Hovey re: gift to the Annex Fund. (12 ALS, 3 TLS)
  • 3. 1883-1890. Fund drives
  • 4. 1893. Arthur Gilman with ts. enclosure from Dr.Folsom re: "vast hordes of ill-educated women doctors" and need for exercise for Annex girls; Marion Hovey and Joseph B. Warner re: purchase of the Gray estate; letters of congratulation to ECA over the vote to establish a permanent relationship with Harvard and create Radcliffe College. (16 ALS, 4 TLS)
  • 5. 1893-1894. The Woman's Education Association with the Annex over the campaign to raise $150.000 endowment; Alice Freeman Palmer, E. R. Cabot,Katherine Loring, Charles W. Eliot re: equivalence of the Radcliffe degree with Harvard's, the permanence of the H/R relationship and quality of instruction; draft letters to "Lily;" Arthur Gilman on the prospects for Radcliffe. (15 ALS, 2 TLS)
  • 6. ECA's address to the Woman's Education Association
  • 7. 1893-1894. Re: incorporation of Radcliffe: draft letters to Charles W. Eliot and John Chipman Gray; Edward W. Hooper: "desire to protect Harvard from what seems a risky experiment in co-education;" CWE and Joseph B. Warner; George Hale returning his fee; JBW on signing Radcliffe's charter, 23 March 1894; CWE on form of Radcliffe diploma. (14 ALS, 3 TLS)
  • 8. 1893-1894. Andrew McFarland Davis and other genealogists re: Ann Radcliffe. CWE to ECA suggesting use of Radcliffe's name for the Annex; Davis' article on Ann Radcliffe. (8 ALS)
  • 9. Jan-Feb 1894. Petition by 46 alumnae protesting the incorporation of Radcliffe College, and the decision to grant Radcliffe, not Harvard degrees. Correspondents include: Elizabeth Briggs, petition organizer, Lilian Horsford, ECA, various petitioners retracting their opposition, and alumnae supporters. Printed articles and clippings. (10 ALS, 1 TLS)
  • 10. 28 Feb 1894. ECA's speech to the legislature, 2 ms drafts.
  • 11. 1894. George S. Hale with ECA re: Sarah Parker's bequest to Radcliffe; ECA's description of the duties of the Dean and Agnes Irwin's acceptance of the Deanship; letters of congratulation from Charles E. Norton,William W. Goodwin, and Lilian Horsford. Mary Coes refusing the office of Recorder and accepting position of Secretary. (17 ALS)
  • 12. 1895-1897. Agnes Irwin's annual report, discussing the need for dormitories to prevent Radcliffe from becoming a local college. Caroline Farley's report on a survey of librarian's wages and the size of the library. Arthur Gilman on the sale of the Gilman School to the college. (4 ALS)
  • 13. 1895. ECA's lecture on Oxford and Cambridge colleges, ms. draft
  • 14. Reports on Newnham College, 1881-1894, Girton College, 1882, 1894; Cambridge exams, 1883-1892.
  • 15. 1896-1898. Gift by Harriet Lawrence Hemenway of the Hemenway Gymnasium includes ECA's drafts and speech at the opening, Sarah Wyman Whitman's sketch of the plaque. (8 ALS)
  • 16. 1897-1898. From ECA re: Ph.D degree for Kate Petersen; Josiah Royce to Agnes Irwin with report of the Committee on Honors and Higher Degrees of the Division of Philosophy in Harvard University re: Ethel Puffer. (1 ALS, 1 TLS)
  • 17. 1898-1899. Agnes Irwin and David Kimball re: purchase of Greenleaf House; Associates vote of regret at resignation of ECA as president, November 1899. (6 ALS, 2 TLS)
  • 18. 1900. ECA's drafts re: purchase of land for dormitories; re: Clara B. Kimball's decision to proceed with construction of a dormitory "now that the Phillips and Bemis lots are actually purchased;" National Geographic Membership, support for the Woman's Table at the Zoological Station at Naples; to Joseph B. Warner on his resignation. Choral Society's vote of thanks to ECA. (4 ALS, 1 TLS).
    See also #30.
  • 19. 1900. Association of Collegiate Alumnae: M. Carey Thomas with questionnaire and circulars re: investigation into health, occupation, and marriage rates of college women. (1 ALS with enclosures)
  • 20. 1901-1902. Constitution of Women's Auxiliary of the Civil Service Reform Association, 1901; George B. Dorr enclosing history of the School of Education by Paul H. Hanus; Agnes Irwin; Robert Minot,John F. Moors and ECA re: Susan Cabot Richardson's bequest of $200,000 to Radcliffe. A.W. Longfellow acknowledging ECA's appreciation of Bertram Hall. John MacDuffie concerning his wife (Abbie Parsons MacDuffie's) degree.(14 ALS, 3 TLS)
  • 21. 1902. To ECA on her 80th birthday including M. Carey Thomas, Sarah Wyman Whitman, and a poem from L.B.R. Briggs (28 ALS, 8 ANS, 1 telegram)
  • 22. 1902. To Ida Higginson re: ECA's 80th birthday.
  • 23. 1902-1905. Donors to Agassiz House, ECA's speech at opening, ms. draft; Eliza Hoppin on needs of Agassiz House. 1 AN
  • 24. 1903. Election of LeBaron Russell Briggs as President of Radcliffe: LBRB's acceptance, Sarah Wyman Whitman on election procedures; Mary Coes, Agnes Irwin, Charles W. Eliot. (13 ALS, 3 TLS)
  • 25. 1903-1904. Letters from students re: ECA's retirement; Agnes Irwin on college business and Agassiz House; ECA to Emma Cary re: her last commencement and her hopes for the future of Radcliffe; Abbie P. MacDuffie; John F. Moors re: proposed gift of $200,000 from Mary B. Gardner; Greenleaf estate; Caroline Hazard. (16 ALS, 3 TLS)
  • 26. 1904. ECA re: death of Sarah Wyman Whitman; also speech by SWW, 1891.
  • 27. n.d. Beulah Dix Flebbe, "what I owe to Radcliffe College," ts.; ECA to Miss Soulsby: thoughts on women's education, notes and memos; memorial notices for Professors Greenough and Goodwin. (5 ALS)
  • 28. 8 Dec 1907. Memorial meeting for ECA.

• 29-30: Reports by ECA
  • 29. "Means to be taken for establishing the Annex on a permanent basis, 1881?" Description of the progress of the Annex, 1883
  • 30. 1890, letter with report to the Editor of the Transcript, 1893; 1897, 1900.
    See also #18.

• 31-35: Commencement addresses by ECA and LBRB
  • 31. 1883, 1886, 1893, 1894, n.d.
  • 32. 1897, 1 ms. draft
  • 33. 1898, 2 ms., 2 ts. drafts
  • 34. 1899, 1 ms., 4 ts. drafts with lists of graduates
  • 35. 1905, by LBRB

• 36. Programs, reports, and other printed material re: Radcliffe, 1885-1906

• 37. Statutes, bylaws, 1899

• 38. Pamphlets, clippings re: Radcliffe, ECA, and Agnes Irwin, n.d.

• 39. Re: exhibition of Agassiz papers, 1978

• 40. Envelopes annotated by Lucy A. Paton

Additional catalog entries