WHEN RADCLIFFE suggested, in 1969, that she merge with Harvard, the inevitable consequence of their 90-year courtship seemed certain to soon become reality. Just as certainly, Radcliffe would never be heard from or spoken of again. Negotiations for any sort of union of the two Cambridge institutions could not possibly lead to a merger in the word's true sense: a genuine "partnership" was never considered.

As the trend toward coeducation continued, the probability that Radcliffe women would not merely become Harvard women grew slimmer. Harvard's status has not been debatable at any time in the history of the relationship between the two schools. The status of Radcliffe, on the other hand, has always been on the line.

As far back as 1879, there was such a thing as a "Harvard girl." And although the term, coined by Elizabeth C. Agassiz, Radcliffe's founder and first president, was used by almost no one else, it foreshadowed the course of the alliance between the two bastions of higher education and the future of Radcliffe women.

When Radcliffe was founded in 1879, it contained the seeds of what many thought would become its own dissolution. The school's original charter provided that Radcliffe's funds and property could be turned over to Harvard College whenever such an arrangement would improve education at the two schools. From the beginning. Harvard made it plain that it was in no way responsible for the "Annex."

But by 1893 President Eliot and the Fellows of Harvard College realized they would have to contend with the Annex. After painstaking negotiations. Agassiz finally persuaded Harvard to take some responsibility for the girls at "X College:" Harvard's President agreed to countersign the women's diplomas; Harvard assumed responsibility for approving Faculty appointments; and, the President and the Fellows were to be the "visitors of X College."

The college still had no name. Since its inception it had officially been called "The Society for the Intercollegiate Instruction of Women." Agassiz proposed to name it for Ann Radcliffe, who, in 1643, donated 100 pounds of sterling for a Harvard scholarship. In 1894, the Annex was incorporated as "Radcliffe College."

In 1903, Agassiz retired and LeBaron R. Briggs, dean of Harvard College, became the president. During his term, the endowment expanded, the curriculum was diversified, and the Faculty grew--Radcliffe was assured permanence. The objections of Corporation members and alumni stalwarts, which had been loudly voiced in Radcliffe's initial years, gradually died down.

In 1923, as Ada Comstock took over the presidency, the college began to build aggressively: Briggs Hall was dedicated in 1924; Longfellow Lecture Hall followed in 1930; Byerly Hall, in 1932; and finally, Cabot Hall, in 1937.

THE TREND toward coeducation really began during World War II, out of nothing less than sheer necessity. The War had so depleted Harvard enrollment that merging most educational facilities became the only pragmatic financial arrangement for Harvard.

Until 1943, Radcliffe had hired all of its own professors, with the approval of Harvard. These were all Harvard instructors, but Radcliffe paid them separately and they taught their women students in the Radcliffe Yard. But in 1943, Wilbur K. Jordan, Radcliffe's new president, made the first moves toward coeducation. Harvard agreed to educate women in Harvard buildings and with Harvard money. Radcliffe no longer paid the professors; instead it passed on its tuition revenue to Harvard.

"Now Harvard and Radcliffe education are the same except for the name on the diploma," one Harvard dean said smugly after coeducational classes were initiated. But in 1962, Radcliffe women began to receive Harvard degrees, although Harvard clung to separate commencements for another eight years.

Opening Hilles Library to men in the Fall of 1966 was another breakthrough in what had become a trend toward coeducation. The following September, the University abolished separate registration, and that Spring women were finally admitted to Lamont Library. Complete merger appeared inevitable.

And in February 1969, President Mary I. Bunting announced that Radcliffe had finally decided to propose a merger with Harvard. For a while Radcliffe women seemed likely to become true peers of their Harvard brethren.

After all, total merger, most assumed, was the imminent conclusion to the ever closer relationship. It was the only mechanism by which undergraduate women could finally reap all the fruits of the Harvard experience.

Initial enthusiasm for Radcliffe's recommendation stirred speculation that the school had committed institutional suicide. The Crimson extra announcing the merger plans included a picture of Bunting with the caption, "Cliffe's Last President."