Class of 1896, Radcliffe College
When Harvard University, long a bastion of male privilege, created an “Annex” for women’s instruction in 1879, it was a sure sign of growing support for women’s higher education. The Annex became Radcliffe College in 1894. Two years later, this graduating class of thirty posed for their portrait. Among them was Alice Sterling of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who went on to marry Harvard graduate Frank Cook and devote herself to Protestant foreign missions. On two trips around the world, Alice Sterling Cook visited all the women’s colleges that missionaries had founded in India, China, and Japan. Cook’s energetic public activities typified those of many women’s college alumnae. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.