June 9, 1908

Several thousand guests came to the campus for Class Day exercises for the Class of 1908, which began at 4 pm as the 211 members of the class proceeded from the Main Building to the south steps of the Library. Twenty-four sophomores bore the chain of daisies, gathered by the class, which was over 60 feet long and a foot in diameter and arranged on the Library steps in front of the seniors’ seats. Class president Martha Pattison Bowie ’08 welcomed the guests, and the class singing took place. The procession then moved to the south side of the Library, where the sophomores arranged the chain of flowers around the tree in a large circle, within which the seniors walked until each had thrown a flower into the pit in which the class records were to be buried. Matthew Vassar’s spade was passed by May Margaret Bevier ’08, who gave the senior charge, to Ruth Presley ’09, who gave the acceptance from the junior class. A dialogue between class historians Georgianna Tichenor ’08 and Caroline Gore Sheppard ’08 told of the class’s years at the college.

Earlier in the day, at the alumnae luncheon—held in the new residence hall, North Hall—Martha Bowie spoke about the class’s future relations with the alumnae, and the president of the Students’ Association, Mary R. Babbott ‘08, told the alumnae of the association’s work during the year.

Among the alumnae speakers were Mary P. Rhoades ’68 who spoke of Vassar as it was when she was in college, Harriot Stanton Blatch ’78 who compared the values of coeducation with those of women’s colleges and Minnie McKinlay Smith ’88, who spoke about “the race-suicide prophecy and its chances of fulfillment by Vassar graduates.”

In the evening, President and Mrs. Taylor held a reception in Main Building between the hours of 8 and 11.