June 12, 1888

At their annual June meeting, the trustees elected John D. Rockefeller and Rev. Edward Judson to fill the vacancies caused by the death of founding trustees Stephen Buckingham and Rev. William Hague. The alumnae trustees, Florence M. Cushing ’74, Elizabeth E. Poppleton ’76 and Helen Hiscock Backus ’73, were re-elected.

President Taylor announced that Mr. Rockefeller had subscribed $20,000 toward the $100,000 goal he had recently announced—to be achieved by September—along with $1,000 for another purpose. The board also passed a resolution of sympathy for founding trustee John Guy Vassar in his illness and authorized a plan to offer prize inducements to students entering the college from various schools throughout the country. Finally, they tendered to Maria Mitchell, who recently retired, a home in the college and free use of the observatory, which she gratefully declined.
—The New York Times