April 24, 1992
The campus celebrated Matthew Vassar’s 200th birthday with a series of events and exhibits and the traditional visit to the his grave at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery on Founder’s Day, celebrated on April 24th. (The celebration was moved in 1873 to the Friday closest to April 29 and at a later date to the closest Saturday.) Using a 19th century recipe supplied by College Historian Elizabeth Daniels ‘41 for ale similar to the Founder’s product, a microbrewery near Kingston supplied the brew at Ballintine Field. The brewer, however, reduced the level of alcohol significantly from the original, saying that it was far too high for modern consumption.
Professor Daniels also mounted an exhibit in the Library, Matthew Vassar: More Than a Brewer, which detailed the Founder’s career as a Poughkeepsie citizen and businessman. A monograph of the same name was available for visitors “Vassar was a man who believed in change,” she said, and, asked if Vassar would recognize his college were he on campus now, she replied, “He’d be surprised at first by what he saw, then pleased.”
The Poughkeepsie Journal
On Vassar’s birthday actual birthday, April 29, Vice President for College Relations Dixie Massad Sheridan ’65 undertook to have a photograph taken of everyone on campus during the day. The result appeared as A Sense of Occasion (1992).