Incorporation of College
Mrs. Agassiz's personal charm and earnestness gained her great triumph for the society in overcoming the opposition of the Committee on Education, at the State House, on Feb. 28, 1894. She received the major credit for effecting the incorporation of Radcliffe College, which the Governor authorized by his signature on March 23, 1894. Many honors were awarded to her and all Radcliffe felt its loss when she resigned the presidency in 1900.
When Dean Briggs of Harvard became Radcliffe's president in 1903 Radcliffe's resources consisted of three buildings and money for a fourth and funds, including scholarships, of less than $500,000. He immediately addressed himself to the financial needs. First came a library; then a dormitory to stand next to Bertram Hall in the new quadrangle on Shepard Street. By 1908 these were built and in use; by 1914 two other dormitories were built and occupied. After the war Dean Briggs undertook to add $1,000,000 to the college endowment, and at his last commencement as president, in 1923, he announced the success of the campaign.
Dean Briggs' Services
Radcliffe profited greatly from Dean Briggs's administration, as it had profited from Mrs. Agassiz's services. Dean Briggs's permanent values to the college were also clearly marked. He fused a loose student sentiment into great loyalty: he found ways to enlarge the curriculum, and he had a large share in bringing Radcliffe's resources to a little more than $4,000,000 in 1923. Under his guidance Radcliffe adhered to the policy of counting only Harvard courses toward the A.B. degree, and it shared in Harvard's decision to preserve certain courses as graduate in character.
By 1923 Radcliffe had grown to be a college of nearly 800 students. It had become a centre for graduate study. Its physical equipment had been gradually enlarged. A full-time president had therefore become necessary, and the associates appointed Miss Ada Louise Comstock, then Dean of Smith College, to direct the administration. Miss Comstock had previously been Dean of Women at the University of Minnesota, which she had attended as an undergraduate, and had been Dean at Smith, of which she was a graduate, from 1912 to 1925.
Differentiated from other colleges for women by the quality of Harvard instruction available to its students and by the strong graduate character of its work, Radcliffe pauses for three days, beginning Thursday, to celebrate its past. Its first half-century of life has brought it firm establishment, academic prestige second to none among the women's colleges and a widening circle of friends. But if the college finds satisfaction in these things, it also feels that its success has given it larger responsibilities for the future. That way its eyes are turned