Portrait of a pioneer

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study honored one of its most illustrious pioneers last week (Oct. 7) when the portrait of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz was unveiled in a ceremony inside the Faculty Room at University Hall. Agassiz was one of a group of women closely linked to Harvard who, in the 1870s, designed a new institution for the education of women. In 1879, the “Harvard Annex” for women’s instruction by Harvard faculty began operations. In 1894, the Annex was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Radcliffe College, with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz as its first president.

Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of Radcliffe, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William C. Kirby, and the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes spoke at the unveiling.