To any one familiar with the circumstances it does not admit of discussion that in Vassar we have the legitimate parent of all future colleges for women which were to be founded in such rapid succession in the next period. It is true that in 1855 the Presbyterian synod opened Elmira college in Elmira, New York, but it had practically no endowment and scarcely any college students. Even before 1855 two famous female seminaries were founded which did much to create a standard for the education of girls. In 1821 Mrs. Emma Willard opened at Troy a seminary for girls, known as the Troy female seminary, still existing under the name of the Emma Willard school. In 1837 Mary Lyon opened in the beautiful valley of the Connecticut Mt. Holyoke seminary, where girls were educated so cheaply that it was almost a free school. This institution has had a great influence in the higher education of women; it became in 1893 Mt. Holyoke college. These seminaries are often claimed as the first women’s colleges, but their curriculum of study proves conclusively that they had no thought whatever of giving women a collegiate education, whereas, the deliberations of the board of trustees whom Mr. Vassar associated with himself show clearly that it was expressly realized that here for the first time was being created a woman’s college as distinct from the seminary or academy. In 1861 the movement for the higher education of women had scarcely begun. It was not until eight years later that the first of the women’s colleges at Cambridge, England, opened. Footnote 23: The founder of Wellesley expected to leave the college a large endowment, but his fortune was dissipated in unfortunate investments. The splendid grounds and many halls of residence of the college constitute a form of endowment, otherwise its lack of productive funds would have excluded it from class I. Footnote 24: The numbers of students are for the year 1899–1900. Footnote 25: To the women’s colleges of group III they are admitted still in large numbers, and they still form 35.1 per cent of all the undergraduate students in the affiliated college of Radcliffe, and 35.7 per cent of all the undergraduate students in the affiliated college of Barnard; in part, perhaps, because these colleges are largely dependent upon their tuition fees, and in part too, no doubt, because the presence of special students is less disadvantageous where there is no dormitory life. Footnote 26: