June 27, 1866

As President Raymond later observed, for Vassar’s first year, “no attempt was made to grade the students by any common standard. It would hardly have been possible to do so, so dissimilar had their previous plans of study been.” Nonetheless the college observed “closing ceremonies” for the 1865-66 academic year.

A reporter from The New York Times, under the pseudonym “Diabolus,” wrote at length about the new college and “the exercises of the evening…before a large and brilliant assemblage of youth and beauty, wit and worth…. The ‘papers’ were cleverly written and carefully read; the singing was really admirable, and the closing dialogue between Truth, Peace, Discord and a number of angelic friends, was not only instructive, as such matters always are, but likewise entertaining, as they very rarely are.”