Founder's Day

Class of 1924 at the song contest
This collection includes more than 3,500 glass plate negatives created by photographer Edmund Wolven. Most of the images are of Vassar College people, events, buildings and grounds, but there is a subset that relates to other local educational institutions and Poughkeepsie. Wolven, born in Poughkeepsie in 1876, worked for many schools and colleges in the area. He began taking photos for Vassar College in the late 1890s, and became the official college photographer between approximately 1900 and 1910. The latest photographs in this collection are from the 1940s.
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Class of 1924 at the song contest
Nine-pin game, set up by students in pirate costumes
Child in costume at the faculty-student baseball game
Class of 1924 marching to the song contest
The students's team at the faculty-student baseball game
An unidentified woman placing a wreath on President James Monroe Taylor's grave at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, which was visited by a contingent from Vassar on Founder's Day
Students in costume for the Founder's Day parade
Students in costume at the faculty-student baseball game
Faculty-student baseball game
Students costumed as members of Queen Victoria's court
Song contest
Class of 1925 performing in the song contest
Class of 1925 performing at the song contest
Students dressed in costumes at the faculty-student baseball game
Students and faculty at the faculty-student baseball game. The man in the straw hat is Professor E. David Fite
President MacCracken dressed in a stereotypical Middle Eastern costume and Dean C. Mildred Thompson at the festivities after the Founder's Day parade
Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon's grave, Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery
Class of 1928 at the song contest
Student in costume
Class of 1930 performing at the song contest
Here you will find digitized archival collections, oral histories, and more. We are continually expanding the collections and improving access. You may find additional digital resources that reside outside the digital library here, and a selection of Online Exhibitions here.
Collections Overview
The Archives & Special Collections Library is part of the Vassar College Libraries system. It holds the rare book, manuscript, and archival collections of the college. It collects, preserves, and makes available rare and unique collections, and also engages in teaching and outreach activities. This collection of finding aids describe items in both the Virginia B. Smith Memorial Manuscript Collection and the College Archives.
The Vassar College herbarium holds over 8,000 specimens of vascular plants, bryophytes, and algae. Holdings are primarily from northeastern North America, and include collections made by several notable 19th century botanists. To learn more about this project visit the website here.
Vassar College's institutional repository reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community. It provides access to senior theses, peer reviewed open access articles, and projects from a wide range of disciplines.