April 30, 1886
The 21st Founder’s Day was celebrated in the Chapel. Dr. Kendrick began the program with a prayer and Edward Everett Hale, prolific writer and lecturer and pastor of South Congregational Church in Boston, gave the main address. A promenade concert was followed by dancing in the Main dining room, where “the young people were whirling over the floor in the lanciers, quadrilles, and Virginia reels.”
The graduating Class of 1886 subsequently elected Hale to honorary class membership, the first such honor at Vassar. In accepting the honor, he promised to join the class at their reunions and at such other times as they gathered and his other duties permitted. The New York Times