VASSAR

COLLEGE  , a non-sectarian institution for the higher education of women, about 2 M . E. of Poughkeepsie, New 'leek, U.S.A . It was incorporated in 1861 as Vassar Female College (which was changed to Vassar College in 1867), and was named in honour of its founder,' Matthew Vassar, who transferred to a board of trustees of his own selection about $400,000 (increased by his will to twice that amount) and the tract of about 200 acres of land upon which the college was built . Building began in June 1861, and the institution was opened on. the loth of September 1865, with John Howard Raymond2 (1814–1878) as president, and Hannah W . Lyman (1816-1871) as lady principal; it had a faculty of eight professors and twenty instructors and teachers, and an enrolment of 353 pupils . The first graduating class was that of 1867, and comprised four-members, to whom were given temporary certificates stating that they were ". entitled to be admitted to the First Degree of Liberal Arts, " as the propriety of awarding the degree of " bachelor" to 'Matthew Vassar (1791–1868) was born at East 1Dereliam, Teddenhamparish, Norfolk, England, on the 29th of April 1791, son of a Baptist who emigrated to the United States in 1796, settled 3 m . E. of Poughkeepsie in 1797 and in 1801 established a brewery there . The brewery was burned in 1811, and Matthew took up the business and in 1812 established an " ale and' oyster saloon " and a brewery, from which he became wealthy . He was a prominent member of the Baptist church . He got the idea of founding a college for women from his niece, Lydia Booth, a school teacher . He died on the 23rd of June 186 while reading his farewell report to the Board of Trustees, His nephew, MATTHEW VASSAR, Jun, (1809-1881), was born in Poughkeepsie, became manager of his uncle's brewery, was a member of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, and its treasurer until his death, gave in all about $5oo,000 to the institution, and with his brother, John Guy Vassar (1811-1888), also one of the trustees and • a benefactor of the college, gave to the college the Vassar Brothers' Laboratory . S Raymond graduated at Union College in .1832; studied law and then (at Hamilton, N.Y.) theolo ; in 1839–49 taught rhetoric ~.ndEnglish literature at Madison (now Colgate) University, at Hamilton, N.Y.; was professor of belles-lettres at Rochester 'University in 1850-56;-and ' organized the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 18565 .

women was questioned at that

time; in 1868 these certificates, were replaced by diplomas bestowing the degree of A.B . The present equipment includes more than twenty buildings, and the campus has an area of about 400 acres . The college confers the baccalaureate degree in arts (A.B.) upon the completion of the regular course of four years, and a second degree in arts (A.M.) upon Bachelors of Arts of Vassar or any approved college who have completed (by examination and thesis) a course of advanced non-professional study . In 1909-10 there were about ninety professors and instructors and ro4o students . The college had in 1909 total productive funds of about $1,360,000, yielding an income of about $600,000 . James Monroe Taylor (b . 1848), a graduate of the university of Rochester and of Rochester Theological Seminary, became president of the college in 1886 . See Benson J . Lossing's Vassar College and its Founder (New York, 1867) and Frances A . Wood's Earliest Years at Vassar (Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1909) .