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Title
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Mansfield, Adelaide (Claflin). Scrapbook, 1893-1897
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Creator
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Mansfield, Adelaide (Claflin)
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Descriptor(s)
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Ditkoff, Andrea
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Description
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VC 1897
This scrapbook covers Adelaide (Claflin) Mansfield’s years at Vassar, from 1893 through 1897. She provided materials about Vassar traditions such as Thanksgiving, Founder’s Day, the Sophomore Party, the Senior Parlor, Halloween, Trig Ceremonies, Tree Ceremonies, Commencement, Field Day, the Mohonk trip, Junior-Senior Excursions, Class Day, and songs for a variety of occasions. She also described protests over the College’s decision to stop giving Washington’s Birthday as a holiday. Cla...
Show moreVC 1897
This scrapbook covers Adelaide (Claflin) Mansfield’s years at Vassar, from 1893 through 1897. She provided materials about Vassar traditions such as Thanksgiving, Founder’s Day, the Sophomore Party, the Senior Parlor, Halloween, Trig Ceremonies, Tree Ceremonies, Commencement, Field Day, the Mohonk trip, Junior-Senior Excursions, Class Day, and songs for a variety of occasions. She also described protests over the College’s decision to stop giving Washington’s Birthday as a holiday. Claflin pasted photographs of campus into the volume as well. During her time at Vassar, Claflin participated in the Young Women’s Christian Association (saving documents from prayer meetings, receptions, and attending the Convention of the Young Women's Christian Association of the State of New York in 1895) and the VC Teachers’ Club, debated for T. and M., and enjoyed student athletics like basketball and the annual tennis tournament. She also included programs from plays and concerts on and off campus, including by the Philalethean Society, Exoteric Society, and Glee Club. Claflin preserved memories of her social life at Vassar, such as visiting cards, invitations, place cards, poems, valentines and correspondence from friends, and friends’ wedding announcements (the end of the scrapbook lists some engagements, marriages, births, and deaths for her class). She also saved receipts for board and tuition, laundry, and her subscription to the Miscellany. In terms of her academics at Vassar, Claflin kept examinations, notes, and her class schedules. She included some correspondence with librarians, professors (such as Susan B. Franklin, Lucy Maynard Salmon, and Abby Leach), and Lady Principal Kendrick. She transcribed a lecture on rhetoric by Professor Manuel J. Drennan as well. Claflin also depicted Vassar’s political climate during the presidential election of 1896.
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c. September 1893 - November 27, 1901
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Page 18
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
Invitations - "Juniors bring the Freshmen down" -- Objects - Dried leaves -- Booklets - "Catalogue of the Deep Sea Land Queerium"
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Page 28
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
Letters - from mother, October 20 -- Songs - "Xmas Song" -- Objects - Paper with markings
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Date
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Notes - from mother
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1911-1912
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Date
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1911 - August 12, 1912
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Page 42
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Description
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Included in Wyman, Anne (Southworth). Scrapbook, 1878-1882
"Programs - VC Founder's Day, May 5 1882 -- Notes - from ""A. F. G."" [Lady Principal Abby F. Goodsell] about ""Miss Chubb"" [Grace Chubb, VC 1885], April 24 1882 -- Notes - About VC Founder's Day invitations -- Notes - from [Professor Truman] J. Backus, May 3 -- Notes - from [Professor William] B. Dwight, March 24 1882 -- Invitations - Founder's Day, May 5 1882"
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1878 - June 10, 1932
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Page 51
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Description
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Included in EBabbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
"Theater programs - VC Philalethean Society, ""The Road to London,"" March 18 1911 -- Songs - VC Qui Vive -- Place cards - Drawing of woman wearing a hat"
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Date
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Page 54
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Included in EBabbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
"Objects - Dried flowers -- Concert programs - VC Music, ""The Easter Music,"" April 16 1911 -- Telegrams - from mother, father, and grandmother, April 16 1911"
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Page 39
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Included in Mansfield, Adelaide (Claflin). Scrapbook, 1893-1897
"Menus - Birthday party, March 9 1895 -- Theater programs - VC Philalethean Society, ""My Valet and I,"" March 9 1895 -- Theater programs - VC Philalethean Society, ""Pygmalio and Galatea,"" March 23 1895"
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1893 - November 27, 1901
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"Booklets - ""Where do we go?"""
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Description
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Included in Wyman, Anne (Southworth). Scrapbook, 1878-1882
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Date
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1878 - June 10, 1932
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Title
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May, Deborah -- oral history, July 9, 2015
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Description
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Field of study: Women's Studies. Current occupation: Retired. Born in Hudson Valley; Graduate School at UMass Amherst; Moved to the Bronx; Moved back to Hudson Valley
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Date
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July 9, 2015
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Title
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Objects - Dried flowers
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Description
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
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Date
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Title
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Notes - "White daisies"
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Description
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
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Date
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Envelopes
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Description
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Included in Babbott, Elizabeth (French). Scrapbook, 1910-1912
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Date
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From scrapbook dated August 12, 1910 - June 22, 1912
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Title
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Page 4
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Description
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Included in Wyman, Anne (Southworth). Scrapbook, 1878-1882
"Objects - Knot of thread -- Programs - VC Thanksgiving, 1879 -- Programs - VC Trig Ceremonies, ""People vs. Trigg,"" February 14 1879 -- Objects - Dried flowers from Freshman Party, March 16 1879 -- Theater programs - VC Philalethean Society, ""The Cricket on the Hearth,"" May 30 1879 -- Notes - from ""Miss Jones"" [Mary Elizabeth Jones, VC 1882], March 15 1879"
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Date
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1878 - June 10, 1932
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Title
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Page 81
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Description
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Included in Mansfield, Adelaide (Claflin). Scrapbook, 1893-1897
"Manuscripts - ""The College Rules,"" January 13 1896 "
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Date
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From scrapbook dated c. September 1893 - November 27, 1901
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Title
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Aaron, Fannie -- to Mother, Father, and Pete, n.d. [postmarked November 6, 1922]
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Creator
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Aaron, Fannie
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Date
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n.d. [postmarked 1922-11-06]
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Text
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[Addressed to Hotel Traymore, postmarked 6 Nov 1922] Dear Mother, Father, and Pete: I'm suited. What do you take me for, Father--handing out M. Coue to me. I read quite a bit of his stuff last year--maybe the book you are sending--I shall see what it is anyhow. He belongs to the school that believes that hypnotism is possible to normal people, but the other French school believes that it is possible for abnormal people only. I belong to the latter class--of thinkers, not of people....
Show more[Addressed to Hotel Traymore, postmarked 6 Nov 1922] Dear Mother, Father, and Pete: I'm suited. What do you take me for, Father--handing out M. Coue to me. I read quite a bit of his stuff last year--maybe the book you are sending--I shall see what it is anyhow. He belongs to the school that believes that hypnotism is possible to normal people, but the other French school believes that it is possible for abnormal people only. I belong to the latter class--of thinkers, not of people. However, I'll read it with an open mind, as you say. I shall say, "Day by day, in every way, I am growing more and more conceited". The parlor is not pretty. I did not take cold. A. Kabet answered the note in which I finally informed him that we would do nothing about the debate. He seems to think this is to be a correspondence--I do not think so, and it takes two to make a correspondence! The picture is Caroline Whitney's mother. I guess she comes by her college stump-speaking naturally. Love, FannieA CONNECTICUT YANKEE FOR CONGRESS: MRS. JOSEPHA WHITNEIY, Daughter of Simon Newcomb, the Astronomer, Who Has Won the Nomination to Represent Her State in the House of Representativs (Times Wide World Photos.)
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Macmahon, Edna Cers, 1901-1983 -- Memorial Minute:
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Creator
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Griffen, Clyde, Glasse, John, Marshall, Natalie
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Description
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Date
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May 8, 1984
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Text
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/ ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of...
Show more/ ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of community service by sharing with neighboring farmers helpful information from her careful reading of agricultural bulletins. A favorite teacher persuaded her to change her original plan of going to a normal school; instead, she entered Radcliffe at age l6, working her way through college. A seminar with Frederick Jackson Turner inspired her life-long fascination with the influence of the frontier and of geographic mobility upon American history. At age 20 Edna began graduate work at Bryn Mawr On the Susan B. Anthony scholarship. The next summer, in 1922, she met her d d. . future Vassar colleague, Margaret MYBPS» when they b°th le 1S°“SSl°n ' d t Br Mawr. groups at the School for Women Workers in Industry hel a yn ' Ph'l d l hia when they learned that Y°u"8 "°men °n Strlke at a 1 a e P _ - ' 11 they decided Clothing factcry were being arrested illega Y» . - - ‘ themselves arrested at to provide publicity bY getting -2- the strike site. With support from a young male friend from an Old Philadelphia family, they began interviewing the strikers On the picket line. The police hustled them off to the city jail where they briefly sharéd a Qell next ta a young woman who called out cheerfully: "What are you in for? shoplifting?" The venture ended with a double standard in sentencing which left them furious; their male friend was fined, but the future Vassar economists were let off with nothing but an admonition. In 1923 Columbia University appointed Edna as the first woman to hold its Gilder Research Fellowship. At Columbia she studied under Wesley Clark Mitchell, pioneer institutional economist, whose course on economic theory provided the framework for her thinking about economics. From her studies with Mitchell and with two other famous institutionalists, Thorstein Veblen and John R. Commons, she drew the lesson that economists should be critics and shapers of the societies they study. In 1924 she accepted a fellowship from the newly-founded Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, an experiment in studying at the intersection of theory and public policy. She received her Ph.D. in 1930 with a doctoral thesis on labor injunctions. While working toward her doctorate, she investigated child labor in Maryland and Delaware canneries for the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. She also worked for the District of Columbia Consumers‘ League in 1926 as it brought pressure for the enforcement of District laws on maximum hours for women. In 1927, while employed by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, she began a study of immigrae tion which continued subsequently for the Council on Foreign Relations. But with teaching her long—term goal, she was glad in 1929 to become an _3_ inst - G ructor of economics at Hunter College. In that Year Edna married Arth P ' ' ur Ihlttler Ma°mah°n» then associate professor and subsequently Eaton pr°feSS°r °f Publi¢ administration a t Columbia University They had two chil ' dreni Gail» now livin ' g in Austria wh h ' ~ ere er husband is a diplomat, and Alan, now a physigigt at the University of Texas. During their childhood, the family lived in Croton where Edna helped run a cooperative school inspired by what remains durable in John Dewey's theories of education. She also ran an annual plant sale for the school notable for the stream of varied advice that accompanied her sales as she visualized each purchaser's plot, its probable disadvantages of soil or shade, and the owner's probable lack of time or knowledge. In later years members of the Vassar community would benefit from Edna's advice on gardening and from the well—developed aesthetic imagination which informed it. That imagination could be seen in the gardens and houses she arranged, and especially in the beloved cottage at Lake Awosting with its wonderful relating of domestic comforts, works of craftsmanship, and the natural beauty of the setting. While still at Croton in the late l93Os, Edna began to travel for research and for consulting assignments. In 1941-42 she served as Director of Research for the Division of Minimum Wage and Women ln h d d Industry of the New York State Department of Labor and also ea 8 . . . O . . . Off‘ f Price the EcQnQmlCS unit in the Consumer Division of the lce 0 Administration. Ed . . d the Vassar fagulty in 19142. At that time the Vassar na ]Oln8 . . - d . t Qf a joint department, economics an economics department was par -u_ sociology, which would shortly become the economics, sociology, and anthropology department-—B.S.A. Edna found the philosophy of the department to her liking. Abstract theory was not for her——she always regarded economic problems in the context of the overall problems facing a society. She described the introductory course in an article for the Alumnae magazine in l9H9: The teaching of economics at Vassar has always been directed, rather deliberately, toward a broad understanding of the economy as a whole, and to analysis and discussion of the major economic issues which confront our society. The introductory course, in particular, frankly aims to equip students to exercise their responsibility as citizens intelligently rather than to provide a mastery of economic principles. This does not mean that theory is neglected, but that it is constantly taught in relation to concrete problems to which it is applicable. The emphasis necessi- tates a continuous search for ways of making theory a more practicable tool in the analysis of current problems. Under Edna's influence the department introduced an introductory interdisciplinary course for the joint department, a course which flouished for a number of years. Economists, sociologists, and anthropologists together prepared the year—long introductory course and a required senior seminar. Students majored in one discipline. _5_ Edna's Special fields -'th' - wi in economics reflected her philosophy- consumer economics ' Amerwo ' ' 0 _ an economic histor ' Y» economic development. Her students were ' - - » ln the Vassar tradition, encoura ged to go to the original sources and th 9 ese sources were often Opepatin ' - - 8 lnstitutions in the community Field tri ‘ - ps to farms and factories were a re gular Part of Economics lO5 and Poughkeepsie residents were surveyed on a variety of topics. In the mid l96Os Edna worked with other faculty in the development of an interdisciplinary course on the river and its impact on those living around it. Her participation in the course was inspired by her long observation of the Hudson and her concern for it before "ecology" became a popular term. A late colleague said he always wanted to follow Edna around with a tape recorder for she was a veritable fountain of ideas. But she was interested primarily in people and in doing. Although she published several journal articles, she never found enough time for her own research, especially for her study of Poughkeepsie shoemakers which was in advance of its time in methodology. Her tracing of craftsmen over time through census and city directories anticipated by more than a decade the historical social mobility studies which became important in the 1960s and 70s. Edna retired from Vassar in 1966, but continued her teaching in the . . . H l d extensive State University of New York for three years er a rea y V _ . . ' sed. She had been activity in the community beyond the College lncrea t t f Dutohess Community College from its founding in 1957, a rus ee o _ _ . - ' d in its formative period. playing 3 ma]OP role in setting policy ur 8 ard for seventeen YEBPS, until 197a‘ She served on the BO ’”!‘\$4'- ~ 161 In government, she served on the Advisory Committee to the Consumer Counsel to the Governor of New York and, in Dutchess County, on its comittees on tax policy and on economic opportunity. Politically, she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and of both the Vassar Democratic Club and the Dutchess County Women's Democratic Club. She delivered countless addresses to community groups, ranging from the Dutchess County Council on World Affairs to the Newcomers’ Home Bueau Club, from the Anti-Defamation League to the YWCA, and from the Poughkeepsie Business and Professional Women's Club to the Dutchess County Grange Tax Comittee. The topics of these talks expressed the range of her concerns: consumer economics, anti-poverty programs, county planning for water and land development, integration and quality in education, and travels with her husband in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Also expressive of her concerns was her membership in the Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting. Bowdoin Park, on Poughkeepsie's bank of the Hudson, is an abiding embodiment of Edna Macmahon's care for the land and for the people of the place where she lived for nearly three decades. There, the Edna Maemahon Trail for the study of nature commemorates her leadership in reclaiming an abandoned waterfront for the use of the community. In 1978 Edna moved to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where she died on July 2%, 1983. \hntHal\h¢dlhnl\Qnin,\inIIl1l|\0@ll0II ‘A hnnbllho. muuuuuwuaumn-nmqgquq. luv-¢a\hnrabltl\y\olnbl1lanIpIo¢u\|uqq_|.@§ wwvh. tiwwbvlcw. mvvollwhaumualnauducn Ilnhattawoodtdltlno. !alt\lnba&—0Q\Qqflfl|p Dhflonlqnn QlI.1t1tohlothoIQ0lIUOl|flOIlOd_l»flfi onnnltyocvtoonlactlnnltajohugottnruflqnnlcilq honnnounoa Inopocthlly Ulfltfl, cub tum. Quinn <¥~i':- 3%” *5,
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Griffin, Charles Carroll, 1902-1976 -- Memorial Minute:
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Creator
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Olsen, Donald, Campbell, Mildred, Clark, Evalyn, Havelock, Christine, Marquez, Antonio
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Description
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Date
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[After 1976]
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Text
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dl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in...
Show moredl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in Westboro, Massachusetts. Charles attended Harvard, receiving his B.A. in 1922. Then, seeking horizons beyond the academic, he was off to South America for seven years, two in Argentina and five in Uruguay,'in the employ of the National Cement Company. He returned home with an interest in Hispanic American culture and a knowledge of the Spanish language that were to last him the rest of his life. Beginning graduate work at Columbia, he also served as an instructor in Spanish there in 1930. His next venture the following year was as a Research Associate of the Library of Congress, to go to Madrid, where, enrolling at the Centro de Es- tudios Hist6ricos~~at that time perhaps the most significant concentration of liberal intellectuals in the Republic—-he supervised the transcription of historical documents in the Archives of Seville and Valladolid. The next year he was again at Columbia where in 1933 he was awarded the M.A. Nineteen thirty- four brought two important personal events: marriage to Jessica Frances Jones, a graduate of Reed College, and the acceptance of an instructorship in history at Vassar. The early forties brought a period of great concern in the United States for closer relations with Latin America. Men who knew the field were in demand, and Charles Griffin was ready to supply the need. In 1940 he went as exchange professor to the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela, the first United States citizen to serve under the program set up by the Buenos Aires Convention for International Cultural Relations. A letter written later by the Director of the university to our ambassador pointed out that "Dr. Griffin's lectures W€re the first ever given in a school of higher learning in Venezuela . . . regarding the discovery, the conquest and the colonization of North America.” An article in a Venezuelan magazine in 1941 characterized him not as the typical "fat, red—faced North American", but as an aristocratic Castilian: until one heard his "slight Anglo—Saxon accent", one might have mistaken the tall, slender professor for a resident of Burgos or Segovia in a play by Lope de Vega or Calderbn. It might have added, "or a portrait by El Greco." Charles came back to Vassar in 1941, as associate professor; but was off again in February 1943 to the State Department in Washington, where he served as Assistant Chief of the Division of Liaison and Research in the Office of American Republics Affairs. He returned to Vassar in 1944, this time to a full- professorship. Charles served as visiting professor at many places including Columbia, Oé» _, r. I. C, -2- Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Wisconsin, and at the Universidad de Chile. But happily for Vassar he always returned here where his own course in South American history had entered the curriculum, a break—through in the tradition that most history offerings should deal with our European background and the United States. For years it was traditional that every member of the department should teach the one introductory course offered, a survey of European civilization. Charles later regaled his younger colleagues with accountsci'his struggles to cope with "all those popes and emperors." Although most of his teaching at Vassar was in United States political and diplomatic history, his scholarly work lay entirely in Latin America. At in- tervals he represented the United States as forwarder of pan-American affairs, in Chile in 1950 and in Ecuador in 1959, in l962 at the Salzburg Seminar on American Civilization, and as delegate to the Conference on Contemporary Latin American History at Bordeaux. He published four books on Latin American history (one with a Spanish translation, one written in Spanish and published in Ca- racas), and was contributing author to five others. (A selective bibliography is appended to this Minute.) In addition he contributed articles to practical- ly all the scholarly periodicals in his field, and also to the more general historical journals. His last major scholarly achievement was as editor-in- chief of Latin America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971), the first inclusive bibliography in that field. His place as leader among Latin American historians was recognized first by appointment to the Board of Editors of the Hispanig American Historical Review, and as Managing Editor from 1950 to 1954. In 1970 the Conference on Latin American History gave Charles its "Distinguished Service Award", in the form of a handsome plaque which, characteristically, he kept trying to hide from view. Few of his colleagues or students at Vassar were aware of the extent of his scholarly activities or of his international reputation. "Charles is such a modest chap," wrote his chairman on one occasion, "that it is only when one digs it out of him that it becomes evident" how extensive his achievements and honors were. Self—doubt, humility, and an awareness of his own frailties made him wonderfully understanding of the anxieties of others, and made him the best of all people to turn to for sympathetic advice. Countless colleagues, friends, and students could say, with Sarah Gibson Blanding, ". . . when things got really tough I could always talk with Charles and knew without any doubt I was getting the best and most unbiased opinion possible. Of all my colleagues I counted on him the most." At Vassar Charles served four terms as chairman of the history department. For the last two years before his retirement in 1967 he was first Acting Dean of Faculty and then Dean of Faculty. He felt a deep commitment to the local community outside the college, and took an active part in politics. Among other activities he served on the Dutchess County Committee of the Democratic Party and as Director of the Dutchess County Council on world Affairs. In 1968 he became the first Executive Director of the Associated Colleges of the Mid-Hudson Area, and from 1968 to 1970 served on the Board of Trustees of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Marist College, and in 1969 became secretary of the Board. But it was as a member of this faculty that we knew Charles best. For him, loyalty to Vassar was no mere catch—phrase, but involved him in genuine financial, ///“ / /:>8 I3? and perhaps even professional sacrifice. He turned a deaf ear to offers to return to the State Department at a salary far above anything Vassar could give him. He did the same to other attractive offers from the Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford, U.C.L.A., and Cornell because, to quote a letter from his chairman to President Blanding, "of his interest in working at an institu- tion in which he believed as heartily as he does believe in what we try to do at Vassar." In February 1950 Miss Blanding wrote him while he was Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, enclosing a new contract, saying, "I hope like fury you are going to feel like signing. We have missed you and . . . have kept our fingers crossed wondering if Wisconsin was going to wean you away from us. As you can see, we have jumped your salary . . . which I am sure is not as much as Wisconsin could pay you [in fact, Vassar's new offer was only two-thirds what Wisconsin was paying him], but is all we can stretch at the moment." Charles happily accepted the economic sacrifice and returned to Vassar. He, of course, would not have called it a sacrifice. He had abundant ex- perience of great universities, and none of them gave him the intense intellectual and emotional satisfactions that Vassar did: students who delighted in and responded to his broad-ranging intellect and provocative, questioning teaching; colleagues who could be waylaid for speculative discussion or riotous argument; department, comittee, and faculty meetings in which he could observe the wit and cantankerousness, wisdom and perversity, mental agility and abnormal psy- chology of his colleagues. He took affectionate delight in displays of insti- tutional absurdity and human folly, which Vassar offered in prodigal abundance. Charles never forgot what it had been like to be a young, inexperienced instructor, ”. . . Newer and younger [faculty] members . . . instinctively feel him to be their friend,” his chairman once wrote. One of them later recalled: "I first knew Charles at a crucial time in my life—-at the beginning of my career. He quickly became for me a kind of mentor, such as I had never in graduate school . . . By watching him in action in faculty meetings . . . talking to him at faculty tea, or simply chatting with him on an evening . . . I got some idea of what it meant to be a scholar, a teacher, and a man of integrity. Charles and I had our differences--we really were not very much alike——but his example for me was central to my life." Charles came to Vassar at a time when, as he recalled three decades later, "the college . . . was more self—contained than it is today." The Vassar comunity dominated the social as well as the professional lives of a large proportion of the faculty. Depending on their tastes, they used it as a vast salon in which to hammer out their ideas in friendly yet critical company, as a stage on which to develop and display their eccentricities, or a kind of en- counter group in which to express their inner hostilities and aggressions. Charles did his best to maintain the notion of the faculty as an intellectual community even into the fifties and sixties, when outside at“factions, whether professional or personal, were drawing the attention of both zaculty and student body away from the college. It was a mystery how Charles managed to produce the extraordinary bulk of his publications and pursue his professional activities on top of a heavy teach- ing load. For he always seemed to be found in the back parlor of Swift, in the Retreat, or at faculty tea, engaging in anecdote or argument, covering every -4- subject under the sun. ". . . His intellectual curiosity was insatiable, as his fund of knowledge was almost fathomless," one colleague recalls. ". . . What I think of most in connection with him was not just his helpfulness and companionability," writes another, "but those glorious, continuous, shimmering days and nights we all had at Raymond Avenue. That for me was the Golden Age . . . we all belonged to Charles's extensive, amusing, and beautifully domestic- ated world." Charles played an active role in Vassar politics, serving on most major committees, and as president of the local chapter of the A.A.U.P.; in the 1930's he was much involved with the Teachers‘ Union. He firmly believed in maintain- ing the authority of the faculty as a corporate body, and in seeing that the body exercised its powers wisely and responsibly. when Alan Simpson was inau- gurated as President, Charles spoke in the name of the faculty. "The Faculty of Vassar College has never been a placid, harmonious body," he warned the new president. "Because of our nature as questioners, our training as critics, and our diverse associations and interests we are likely to provide opposition as well as support to your endeavours." Charles spoke often in faculty meetings, and one never could be sure in advance what stand he was going to take on an issue. while his commitment to basic principles—-academic freedom, faculty power, individual liberties--never faltered, he embodied the definition of an intellectual as one who is continual- ly and systematically questioning his own opinions. He belonged to no camp, and voted and acted as his conscience and intellect directed. Impressive as he was in faculty meeting, Charles was at his best in a small group, late at night. He delighted in the varieties of human nature, the in- tricacies of thought, and the techniques of politics. But above all he loved conversation. For him, as for Dr. Johnson, conversation offered the best alle- viation for the pain of existence. It was his chief joy, a means of adding to his stock of knowledge, of encountering new ideas--the more subversive and he- terodox the better--and of savouring the pleasures of articulate sociability. Of colleagues in other disciplines he could ask a simple, sincere, and yet so basic a question that one found oneself rethinking ideas long taken for granted. Charles was a moderate historical relativist, for whom the conviction that absolute certainty was an imposible ideal was.not a depressing, but an ex- hilarating belief. For he enjoyed the process of debate more than he cared about the outcome. But while pragmatic and flexible in his approach both to questions of historical truth and educational policy, he never abandoned his moral convictions for the sake of expediency. Intensely sensitive to personal attafiksv he 8¢ted a¢¢0rdin9 to his conscience as chairman, as dean, and as individual, never swerving from what he was convinced was his duty for the sake of popularity or a quiet life. President Simpson has summed up the qualities for which we loved Charles: "A dearer man we never knew--gentleman, scholar, wit. I never saw him without thinking of the motto of New College, Oxford——‘Manners makyth man‘. He was . . . a model of good sense, good-heartedness, and fidelity. when I asked him for help he always replied that he would do anything for Vassar—-and did so." -5- Respectfully submitted, ,\ ..1 . _ Donald Olsen, Chairman Q ’ ), ~c , / _.' / ¢ , ‘ _,, 1',‘ /{/,» . .' / \ , , / I '/’-»»1,‘(-"// ~ ,.“/ ~" rt 4, , j M " .>~'L, ( J‘.-1, Mildred Cani'pbe 11 .'/ I 22,,/;j£, J Evalyn Clark ..-/c’. " - - ‘" ,-‘W. V \ A/~" ' - ~ / Christine Havelock A 1./1. ‘:1/1 4 Antonio Marquez / /0 /// _6_ ¢v'¢~€¥¢z»/>1 C-_C, > Bibliographical Note His publications include The United States and the Disruption of the §panish Empire, 1810-1822 (1937), Latin America T1944); The National Period in the History of the New World (1961, with Spanish translation in 1962), and Los Temaspsociales y Economicos de la Epoca de la Independencia (published in Caracas in 1961). He edited and contributed to Concerning Latin American Cu1tur§_(l940), and contributed chapters to Ensayos sobre la Historia del Nuevo Mundo (Mexico, 1951), a commemorative volume in honor of Emeterio Santovenia (Habana, 1958), Conocimento z_desconocimento en las Americas (1958), to vol. XI of the new edition of the Cambridge Modern History on Latin America, 1870-1900 (1961), and to A.P. Whitaker, ed., Latin America and the Enlightenment (1961). In addition he contri- buted articles to the Hispanic American Historical Review, the Haryland Historical Magazine, the IntereAmerican Quarterly, Revista de Historia de America, Boletin de la Academia de Historia (Caracas), Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, and the Vene- zuelan RevistafNaciona1 de Cultura. His last major scholarly achievement was to edit the bibliographical volume, commissioned by the Library of Congress, Latin ‘ America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971). 17 I W ' 7 " 'J—.
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Title
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Vance, Gertrude (Pratt) — to [unknown], n.d.
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Creator
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Vance, Gertrude (Pratt)
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Date
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n.d.
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Text
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G. Pratt 22-1 The ^Freshman Serenade Group of girls come walking across the campus and gather in a “hushed” mass in front of Josselyn. The bell rings, the song-leader springs for the steps, and a cheer bursts forth. Then lights go out and heads appear ^with suspicious alacrity at darkened windows The light in the hand of the leader flashes and the eagerly expectant listeners hear the new song [crossed out: which has been written] to them. An organized [cheer?] comes from the serenades ...
Show moreG. Pratt 22-1 The ^Freshman Serenade Group of girls come walking across the campus and gather in a “hushed” mass in front of Josselyn. The bell rings, the song-leader springs for the steps, and a cheer bursts forth. Then lights go out and heads appear ^with suspicious alacrity at darkened windows The light in the hand of the leader flashes and the eagerly expectant listeners hear the new song [crossed out: which has been written] to them. An organized [cheer?] comes from the serenades [crossed out: and] scattered applause and laughter [crossed out] from the windows [crossed out: while several] mingle with conflicting cheers. The crowd below breaks up [crossed out: and the girls] with a rush of scampering footsteps. [crossed out: and dissappears around the corner of the building and H… to ….] .049285 This is .49285 where I helped 49.285 [M?] S. with her math. Gertrude Pratt Vance all 1913-1914
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Title
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John Skot, 1530 -- window photograph:
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Creator
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Skot, John
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Description
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Window currently located at First Floor -- Northeast wing
Window originally located at North wing -- Third window
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Date
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1530
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