First Words

Laird Scranton ’75 and his wife Risa Sherer Scranton ’76 rescue old books. Over the years, they have adopted several thousand of them, some on Vassar-related topics. Not too long ago, they came across a small, old album with photos of Matthew Vassar, President Raymond, and other founding faculty of the college, several of Vassar buildings, and portraits of nearly thirty members of the class of 1871. An inscription in front showed that the album itself (sans photos) had been a 15th birthday gift to Mary Nicoll Woodbury, class of 1871, from her grandmother in 1865, coincidentally the year Vassar opened. One photo in particular caught the Scrantons’ attention—a formal portrait of a stately woman with long white curls. Who was she and why was
she so prominently featured among the founders?

She was, they learned, Hannah Lyman, first Lady Principal of Vassar College, and a woman of such force and influence that the Scrantons were moved to write, “[M]uch that is good about Vassar even today—the challenging but casual and egalitarian atmosphere, the emphasis on individual achievement, and the innate homeyness of the campus—has its roots in Hannah Lyman’s vision for the college.” As one student of the time wrote, “Miss Lyman is certainly a ‘leveler’ in Vassar College, she makes it democratic. In the truest sense it is not what you wear but what you are that makes for honor here.”

Sadly, Lyman’s tenure at Vassar was short; she died in February 1871. To honor the 130th anniversary of her death the Scrantons have written an article about Lyman; it is available online at the VQ’s Website via: www.aavc.vassar.edu. To see the portrait that inspired the Scrantons’ curiosity, check our Vassar Yesterday.
—G.W.