February 26, 1861

The first meeting of the Board of Trustees of Vassar Female College was held at the Hotel Gregory in Poughkeepsie. Milo P. Jewett was elected president. Dr. Jewett, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary, was Professor at Marietta Collegiate Institute in Ohio, 1833–38. In 1838 he established Judson Female Institute at Marion, Ala. He came to Poughkeepsie in 1855 to reopen the school founded by Lydia Booth.

At this meeting, Matthew Vassar presented to the newly organized board of trustees a small tin box containing the funds appropriated for the founding of the college, in the form of securities amounting to $408,000, and a deed of conveyance for two hundred acres for the college site and farm.

“It occurred to me, that woman, having received from her Creator the same intellectual constitution as man, has the same right as man to intellectual culture and development.

It is my hope to be the instrument in the hands of Providence, of founding and perpetuating an institution which shall accomplish for young women what our colleges are accomplishing for young men.”

Matthew Vassar, Communications to the Trustees of Vassar College by its Founder, February 26,1861