Difference between revisions of "Vassar College" - New World Encyclopedia

**Vassar College**
	File:Vassar Logo.png
Motto	None
Established	1861
Type	Private coeducational
Location	Poughkeepsie, NY USA
Website	www.vassar.edu info.vassar.edu

Revision as of 15:56, 4 August 2007

Vassar College is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. Founded as a women's college in 1861, it was the first member of the Seven Sisters to become coeducational.

Mission & Reputation

Vassar was founded in 1861 to provide an education for women equal to that offered to men at the time. The school has since come to admit men and has grown to become one of the best colleges in America. The school is known for fostering close relationships between faculty and students that is usually associated with such small schools.

History

Vassar College in an engraving from 1862.

Matthew Vassar founded the school in 1861 to provide women an education. The high standards of the school led to it being selected to house the first Phi Beta Kappa chapter at an all-women's school. The early years were shaped astronomer Maria Mitchell, music historian Frederick Louis Ritter, and history professor Lucy Maynard Salmon who pioneered the use of seminars as a teaching method.

In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the Protestant establishment. E. Digby Baltzell writes that "upper-class WASP families ... educated their children at ... colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Vassar, and Smith among other elite colleges."^[1]

Immediately following World War II, Vassar accepted a small number of male students under the G.I. Bill. The male students were awarded degrees from the States University of New York. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969 after declining an offer to merge with Yale University.

Facilities

Vassar's campus, also an arboretum, is 1,000 acres (4 km²) marked by period and modern buildings. The great majority of students live on campus. The renovated library has unusually large holdings for a college of its size. It includes special collections of Albert Einstein, Mary McCarthy, and Elizabeth Bishop.

Closeup of the Vassar Main Building

The Vassar campus has several buildings of architectural interest. Main Building formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls. The building was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick Jr. and was completed in 1865. It is on the registry of national historic landmarks. Many beautiful old brick buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1951. Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. A good example of an attempt to use passive solar design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers. More recently, New Haven architect César Pelli was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s. In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure.

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery

The art collection at Vassar dates to the founding of the College, when Matthew Vassar provided an extensive collection of Hudson River School paintings to be displayed in the Main Building. Referred to as the Magoon Collection, it continues to be one of the best in the nation for Hudson River School paintings. The Frances Lehman Loeb Gallery displays a selection of Vassar's 17,000 articles of art in the building designed by Cesar Pelli (see Architecture). Today, the gallery's collection displays art from the ancient world up through contemporary works. The collection includes work by European masters such Brueghel, Doré, Picasso, Balthus, Bacon, Vuillard, Cézanne, Braque and Bonnard, as well as examples from leading twentieth-century American painters Jackson Pollock, Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keefe, Charles Sheeler, and Ben Shahn. The Loeb's works on paper represent a major collection in the United States, with prints by Rembrandt (including important impressions of the "Hundred Guilder Print" and the "Three Trees") and Durer as well as photographs by Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, and others.

Education

Vassar Main Building, 1907

Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. Vassar confers the A.B. degree in more than 50 majors, including the Independent Major, in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP) which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, and Yiddish. Vassar has a flexible curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies. While each field of study has specific requirements for majors, the only universal requirements for graduation are proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to study abroad, which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year. Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco and Spain; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.

All classes are taught by members of the faculty, and there are almost no graduate students and no teachers' assistants. The most popular majors are English, political science, psychology, and economics. Vassar also offers a variety of correlate sequences, or minors, for intensive study in many disciplines.

Student Life

The Miscellany News has been the weekly paper of the college since 1866, making it one of the oldest college weeklies in the United States. It is available for free most Thursdays when school is in session. All article content can be accessed at http://misc.vassar.edu.

Athletics

Vassar competes in Division III of the NCAA, as a member of the Liberty League.

Vassar College currently offers the following varsity athletics: - Baseball (Men only) - Basketball - Cross-Country - Fencing - Field Hockey (Women only) - Golf (Women only) - Lacrosse - Rowing - Soccer - Squash - Swimming/Diving - Tennis - Volleyball

Club Sports which compete in NCAA competition - Rugby - Track and Field

Other club sports - Ultimate Frisbee (Men's and Women's) - Equestrian Team - Cycling Team (Competes in ECCC)

Basketball plays in the new Athletics and Fitness Center. Volleyball plays in Kenyon Hall, reopened in 2006. Soccer, Baseball, Field Hockey and Lacrosse all play at the Prentiss Fields by the Town Houses, which will be completely renovated starting in November 2006 to include new fields for all teams and a new track.

On April 28th and 29th, the Vassar Cycling Team hosted the Eastern Conference Championships in Collegiate Cycling in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, NY. The competition included a 98 mile road race over the Gunks in New Paltz as well as a Criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus.

Theatre

Vassar College has a strong reputation in theater through its Drama Department and its multiple student theater groups. The oldest theater group on campus is Philaletheis, which was founded in 1865 as a literary society. It has now become a completely student run theater group. Others include Unbound, Woodshed, and the Shakespeare troupe. Performances are done all over campus including in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater which is an all student run black box theater.

Notable Alumni

Elizabeth Bishop, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Margaret Mitchell, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gone with the Wind
Meryl Streep, Academy Award-winning actress
Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
Margaret Floy Washburn, psychologist
Crystal Eastman, coauthor of the Equal Rights Amendment

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).
Bruno, Maryann. Vassar College, Arcadia Publishing (2001). ISBN 0738504548
Daniels, Elizabeth. Bridges to the World: Henry Noble MacCracken and Vassar College, College Avenue Press (1994). ISBN 1883551021
Goldsmith, Emily. Vassar College: Off the Record, College Prowler (2005). ISBN 159658193X
Raymond, John Howard. Life and Letters of John Howard Raymond Late President of Vassar College, Kessinger Publishing (2005). ISBN 141796586X

External Links

Official website
- The Vassar College Encyclopedia
- Vassar College Infosite (news and events)
- Campus tour
- The college catalogue, with a complete listing of all available concentrations
- Vassar innovators
- History of Vassar College
- Vassar in popular culture
- The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Seven Sister Colleges

Barnard • Bryn Mawr • Mount Holyoke • Radcliffe (merged with Harvard) • Smith • Vassar (coeducational) • Wellesley

Credits

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↑ Baltzell, E. Digby (1994). Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-048-1. , p. 8

[1] Baltzell, E. Digby (1994). Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-048-1. , p. 8

[1]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 [[Category:Politics and social sciences]]
 [[Category:Education]]
 {{Infobox_University-Jen
@@ Line 30: / Line 27: @@
 }}
-'''Vassar College''' is a private, [[coeducational]], [[liberal arts college]] situated in [[Poughkeepsie (city), New York|Poughkeepsie]], [[New York]]. Founded as a [[Women's colleges in the United States|women's college]] in 1861, it was the first member of the [[Seven Sisters (colleges)|Seven Sisters]] to become coeducational. ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]'' ranks it #12 among [[liberal arts colleges]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://admissions.vassar.edu/about_first_1_4.html|title=Vassar Firsts|accessdate=2006-05-19}}</ref>
+'''Vassar College''' is a private, [[coeducational]], [[liberal arts college]] situated in [[Poughkeepsie (city), New York|Poughkeepsie]], [[New York]]. Founded as a [[Women's colleges in the United States|women's college]] in 1861, it was the first member of the [[Seven Sisters (colleges)|Seven Sisters]] to become coeducational.
-==Overview==
+==Mission & Reputation==
+Vassar was founded in 1861 to provide an education for women equal to that offered to men at the time. The school has since come to admit men and has grown to become one of the best colleges in America. The school is known for fostering close relationships between faculty and students that is usually associated with such small schools.
+==History==
 [[Image:Vassar College ca 1862.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Vassar College in an engraving from 1862.]]
-Originally a [[Women's colleges in the United States|women's college]], Vassar is [[Timeline of women's colleges in the United States|one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women]] in the United States. It was founded by its namesake, brewer [[Matthew Vassar]], in 1861 in the [[Hudson Valley]], about 70 mi (100 km) north of New York City.  The very first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was the [[Astronomy|astronomer]] [[Maria Mitchell]], in 1865. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969 after declining an offer to merge with [[Yale University]].
+Matthew Vassar founded the school in 1861 to provide women an education. The high standards of the school led to it being selected to house the first Phi Beta Kappa chapter at an all-women's school. The early years were shaped astronomer Maria Mitchell, music historian Frederick Louis Ritter, and history professor Lucy Maynard Salmon who pioneered the use of seminars as a teaching method.
+In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the [[WASP#The original WASPs|Protestant establishment]]. [[E. Digby Baltzell]] writes that "upper-class [[WASP]] families ... educated their children at ... colleges such as [[Harvard College|Harvard]], [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[Yale College|Yale]], Vassar, and [[Smith College|Smith]] among other elite colleges."<ref>{{cite book|title =Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification|first = E. Digby|last = Baltzell|year=1994|publisher=Transaction Publishers|id=ISBN 1-56000-048-1}}, p. 8</ref>
+Immediately following World War II, Vassar accepted a small number of male students under the G.I. Bill. The male students were awarded degrees from the States University of New York. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969 after declining an offer to merge with [[Yale University]].
+==Facilities==
 Vassar's campus, also an [[arboretum]], is 1,000 acres (4&nbsp;km²) marked by period and modern buildings. The great majority of students live on campus. The renovated library has unusually large holdings for a college of its size. It includes special collections of [[Albert Einstein]], [[Mary McCarthy]], and [[Elizabeth Bishop]].
-In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the [[WASP#The original WASPs|Protestant establishment]]. [[E. Digby Baltzell]] writes that "upper-class [[WASP]] families ... educated their children at ... colleges such as [[Harvard College|Harvard]], [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[Yale College|Yale]], Vassar, and [[Smith College|Smith]] among other elite colleges."<ref>{{cite book|title =Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification|first = E. Digby|last = Baltzell|year=1994|publisher=Transaction Publishers|id=ISBN 1-56000-048-1}}, p. 8</ref>  In recent freshman classes, minority students have comprised up to 27% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries comprise 8% of the student body.  In May of 2007, falling in with its commitment to diverse and equitable education, Vassar adopted a [[need-blind]] admissions policy wherein students are admitted by their academic and personal qualities without regarding financial status.
+[[Image:Vassar_Photo.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Closeup of the Vassar Main Building]]
-Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. About 60% come from public high schools, and 40% come from [[private schools]] (both independent and religious). The overall female-to-male ratio is about 60:40, slightly above the standard for a liberal arts college. More than 85% of graduates pursue advanced study within five years of graduation. They are taught by more than 270 faculty members, virtually all of whom hold terminal degrees in their fields.
+The Vassar campus has several buildings of architectural interest. Main Building formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls.  The building was designed by Smithsonian architect [[James Renwick Jr.]] and was completed in 1865.  It is on the registry of [[national historic landmark]]s.  Many beautiful old [[brick]] buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by [[Marcel Breuer]] in 1951.  Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect [[Eero Saarinen]].  A good example of an attempt to use [[passive solar]] design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers.  More recently, New Haven architect [[César Pelli]] was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s.  In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million [http://cdf.vassar.edu Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film], which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure.
-Vassar president [[Frances D. Fergusson]] served for two decades, longer than almost any other president of a comparable liberal arts college. She retired in the spring of 2006, and was replaced on July 1 by [[Catharine Bond Hill]], former provost at [[Williams College]].
+===Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery===
+The art collection at Vassar dates to the founding of the College, when Matthew Vassar provided an extensive collection of Hudson River School paintings to be displayed in the Main Building.  Referred to as the Magoon Collection, it continues to be one of the best in the nation for Hudson River School paintings.  The Frances Lehman Loeb Gallery displays a selection of Vassar's 17,000 articles of art in the building designed by Cesar Pelli (see Architecture).  Today, the gallery's collection displays art from the ancient world up through contemporary works.  The collection includes work by European masters such [[Brueghel]], [[Doré]], [[Picasso]], [[Balthus]], [[Bacon]], [[Vuillard]], [[Cézanne]], [[Braque]] and [[Bonnard]], as well as examples from leading twentieth-century American painters [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Agnes Martin]], [[Mark Rothko]], [[Marsden Hartley]], [[Georgia O'Keefe]], [[Charles Sheeler]], and [[Ben Shahn]].  The Loeb's works on paper represent a major collection in the United States, with prints by [[Rembrandt]] (including important impressions of the "Hundred Guilder Print" and the "Three Trees") and [[Durer]] as well as photographs by [[Cindy Sherman]], [[Diane Arbus]], and others.
-[[The Miscellany News]] has been the weekly paper of the college since 1866, making it one of the oldest college weeklies in the United States. It is available for free most Thursdays when school is in session. All article content can be accessed at http://misc.vassar.edu.
-==Academics==
+==Education==
 [[Image:VassarMainBldg1907.JPG|thumb|right|250 px|Vassar Main Building, 1907]]
-Vassar confers the [[A.B.]] degree in more than 50 majors, including the [http://independentprogram.vassar.edu Independent Major], in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the [http://silp.vassar.edu Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP)] which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, and Yiddish.  Vassar has a flexible curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies. While each field of study has specific requirements for majors, the only universal requirements for graduation are proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to [http://jya.vassar.edu study abroad], which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year.Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco and Spain; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
+Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. Vassar confers the [[A.B.]] degree in more than 50 majors, including the [http://independentprogram.vassar.edu Independent Major], in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the [http://silp.vassar.edu Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP)] which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, and Yiddish.  Vassar has a flexible curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies. While each field of study has specific requirements for majors, the only universal requirements for graduation are proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to [http://jya.vassar.edu study abroad], which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year. Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco and Spain; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
 All classes are taught by members of the faculty, and there are almost no graduate students and no teachers' assistants. The most popular majors are [[English studies|English]], [[political science]], [[psychology]], and [[economics]]. Vassar also offers a variety of correlate sequences, or minors, for intensive study in many disciplines.
-==Admissions rankings==
+==Student Life==
+[[The Miscellany News]] has been the weekly paper of the college since 1866, making it one of the oldest college weeklies in the United States. It is available for free most Thursdays when school is in session. All article content can be accessed at http://misc.vassar.edu.
-Vassar College is a leading undergraduate institution in the United States and the world. Vassar is consistently ranked among the top one percent of colleges and universities in the United States and has been a front runner in higher education for nearly a century and a half. Numerous external ratings have confirmed Vassar’s status as one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States.  For example, Vassar was named the 1999 Time Magazine/Princeton Review  “College of the Year”; the annual US News & World Report college rankings lists Vassar as one of the top 15 colleges in the United States; and the 2002 Princeton Review rankings called Vassar’s students the happiest in the country and the campus one of the two most beautiful.[[Barron's Educational Series|Barron's]] has placed Vassar in its "most competitive" category for admissions. It is ranked #12 among [[liberal arts colleges]] by ''U.S.News & World Report''. For its class of 2011, it had an acceptance rate of 28.6%. The [[Princeton Review]] gave Vassar a selectivity rating of 97 out of 100 in its 2006 edition. The most recent median SAT score for accepted students is 2110 and 1432 (counting only math and critical reading scores.) The average high school [[GPA]] of the student body is 3.7 on a 4.0 scale, with over three quarters of the students ranked in the top 10% of their classes.
-==Presidents of Vassar College==
-*[[Milo P. Jewett]],          1861&ndash;1864
-*John H. Raymond,          1864&ndash;1878
-*Samuel L. Caldwell,      1878&ndash;1885
-*James Monroe Taylor,      1886&ndash;1914
-*Henry Noble MacCracken,  1915&ndash;1946
-*[[Sarah Gibson Blanding]],    1946&ndash;1964
-*Alan Simpson,            1964&ndash;1977
-*Virginia B. Smith,        1977&ndash;1986
-*[[Frances D. Fergusson]],    1986&ndash;2006
-*[http://president.vassar.edu/ Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill],  2006&mdash;
-==Faculty==
-[[Vassar]] has had a number of distinguished faculty over the years. Some former and current members include:
-* [[Gustav Dannreuther]], [[Karen Holvik]], [[Quincy Porter]], [[Ernst Krenek]], [[Richard Edward Wilson|Richard Wilson]], [[Drew Minter]] and [[Annea Lockwood]] in the Music department
-* [[Walter Fairservis]], archaeologist
-* [[David Kelley]], Angela Y. Davis, [[Uma Narayan]], [[Giovanna Borradori]] and [[Mitchell Miller]] in the Philosophy department
-* Sterling Brown, [[Michael Joyce]], [[Eamon Grennan]], and [[Donald Foster (professor)|Donald Foster]] in the English department
-* Ken Livingston and John Long in the Cognitive Science department
-* [[E.H. "Rick" Jarow]] and [[Deborah Dash Moore]] in the Religion department
-* [[Margaret Mead]], anthropologist
-* [[Jamie Meltzer]] in the Film department
-* [[Jean Arthur]] in the Theater department
-* [[Maria Mitchell]] in the Physics and Astronomy department
-* [[Grace Hopper]] in the Mathematics department
-* [[Gabriela Mistral]] Nobel Prize winner in Literature
-* [[Hallie Flanagan]] Director of the Federal Theater Project, in the English department
-* [[Lucy Maynard Salmon]] and [[James Merrell]] in the History department
-* [[Linda Nochlin]] in the Art History department.
-* [[Colin Turnbull]], anthropologist, author of [[The Forest People]]
-* [[Margaret Floy Washburn]], psychologist, first woman to be granted a Ph.D. in psychology in the U.S.  Author of ''The Animal Mind''. President of American Psychological Association in 1921.
-==Athletics==
+===Athletics===
 Vassar competes in [[Division III]] of the [[NCAA]], as a member of the [[Liberty League]].
@@ Line 119: / Line 90: @@
 On April 28th and 29th, the Vassar Cycling Team hosted the Eastern Conference Championships in Collegiate Cycling in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, NY.  The competition included a 98 mile road race over the Gunks in New Paltz as well as a Criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus.
-==Theatre==
+===Theatre===
 Vassar College has a strong reputation in theater through its Drama Department and its multiple student theater groups.  The oldest theater group on campus is Philaletheis, which was founded in 1865 as a literary society.  It has now become a completely student run theater group.  Others include Unbound, Woodshed, and the Shakespeare troupe.  Performances are done all over campus including in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater which is an all student run black box theater.
-==Architecture==
+==Notable Alumni==
-[[Image:Vassar_Photo.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Closeup of the Vassar Main Building]]
-The Vassar campus has several buildings of architectural interest. Main Building formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls.  The building was designed by Smithsonian architect [[James Renwick Jr.]] and was completed in 1865.  It is on the registry of [[national historic landmark]]s.  Many beautiful old [[brick]] buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by [[Marcel Breuer]] in 1951.  Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect [[Eero Saarinen]].  A good example of an attempt to use [[passive solar]] design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers.  More recently, New Haven architect [[César Pelli]] was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s.  In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million [http://cdf.vassar.edu Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film], which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure.
-==Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery==
-The art collection at Vassar dates to the founding of the College, when Matthew Vassar provided an extensive collection of Hudson River School paintings to be displayed in the Main Building.  Referred to as the Magoon Collection, it continues to be one of the best in the nation for Hudson River School paintings.  The Frances Lehman Loeb Gallery displays a selection of Vassar's 17,000 articles of art in the building designed by Cesar Pelli (see Architecture).  Today, the gallery's collection displays art from the ancient world up through contemporary works.  The collection includes work by European masters such [[Brueghel]], [[Doré]], [[Picasso]], [[Balthus]], [[Bacon]], [[Vuillard]], [[Cézanne]], [[Braque]] and [[Bonnard]], as well as examples from leading twentieth-century American painters [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Agnes Martin]], [[Mark Rothko]], [[Marsden Hartley]], [[Georgia O'Keefe]], [[Charles Sheeler]], and [[Ben Shahn]].  The Loeb's works on paper represent a major collection in the United States, with prints by [[Rembrandt]] (including important impressions of the "Hundred Guilder Print" and the "Three Trees") and [[Durer]] as well as photographs by [[Cindy Sherman]], [[Diane Arbus]], and others.
-== After Vassar ==
--80% of Vassar graduates plan to pursue advanced study within 5 years of graduation. Graduates are accepted regularly at top-ranking schools of law, medicine, business, and education. Vassar is a leader in producing Ph.D. candidates. The Office of Career Development provides counseling and connections with hundreds of top employers nationwide.
-==Famous Alumnae/Alumni==
-=== Writers ===
 * [[Elizabeth Bishop]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning poet
-* [[Lucinda Franks Morgenthau]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning author
-* [[Michael Specter]], Award-winning journalist for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and ''[[The New York Times]]''
-* [[Evan Blass]], Senior Editor, Engadget.com (highest trafficked blog)
-* [[Elizabeth Williams Champney]], author of Three Vassar Girls series
-* [[Peter Ian Cummings]], editor, [[XY magazine]]
-* [[Thomas Dean Donnelly]], screenwriter
-* [[Geri Doran]], award-winning poet
-* [[Aimee Friedman]], author
-* [[Joe Hill]], Novelist, [[Heart-Shaped Box (novel)]], son of author [[Stephen King]]
-* [[Matthew Kauffman]], [[Hartford Courant]] journalist
-* [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novelist, critic
 * [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning poet
 * [[Margaret Mitchell]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning author of [[Gone with the Wind]]
-* [[Greg Rucka]], author
-* [[Rachel Simmons]], writer
-* [[Jane Smiley]], [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novelist
-* [[Neil Strauss]], journalist and author
-* [[Curtis Sittenfeld]], author (attended)
-* [[Jean Webster]], author of Daddy Long Legs
-* [[Christina Weir]] and [[Nunzio DeFilippis]], husband and wife comic book writing team
-* [[Owen King]], author
-=== Activists and Philanthropists ===
-* [[Belle Skinner]], philanthropist who rebuilt the village of Hattonchatel after WWI
-* [[Emily Jordan Folger]], cofounder of the Folger Shakespeare Library
-* [[Mary Conover Mellon]], cofounder of the Bollingen Foundation
-* [[Elizabeth Titus-Putnam]], founder of the Student Conservation Association
-* [[Elinor Coleman Guggenheimer]], founder of the Child Care Action Campaign
-* [[Sylvia Cranmer McLaughlin]], cofounder of the Save San Francisco Bay Association
-* [[Ellen May Galinsky]], cofounder of the Families and Work Institute
-* [[Susan Wadsworth]], founder of Young Concert Artists
-* [[Adam Green]], founder of Rocking the Boat
-* [[Urvashi Vaid]], political activist
-* [[Susan V. Berresford]], President of the Ford Foundation
-* [[Ann Hendricks Bass]], philanthropist
-* [[Jonathan Granoff]], President of the Global Security Institute
-=== Adventurers ===
-* [[Louise Larocque Serpa]], Cowgirl Hall of Famer rodeo photographer
-* [[Alice Huyler Ramsey]], first woman to cross the continent behind the wheel of a car
-* [[Ethan Zohn]], Survivor:Africa winner and philanthropist
-=== Artists and Architects ===
-* [[Brian Corll]], painter and photographer
-* [[Nancy Graves]], first woman to solo at the Whitney
-* [[Adam Kalkin]], designer of the Quik House, built from shipping containers
-* [[Linda Nochlin]], pioneer in the field of feminist art theory
-* [[Mary Turlay Robinson]], painter featured in Washington Square
-=== Drama, Film, and Television ===
-* [[Erika Amato]], singer, actress
-* [[Noah Baumbach]], writer, director
-* [[Lloyd Braun (media executive)|Lloyd Braun]], Media Executive
-* [[Dan Bucatinsky]], actor
-* [[Erin Daniels]], actress
-* [[Hope Davis]], actress
-* [[John Gatins]], writer, director
-* [[Angela Goethals]], actress
-* [[Lecy Goranson]], actress
-* [[Kerri Green]], actress, director
-* [[Lisa Kudrow]], [[Emmy]] Award-winning actress
-* [[Stacy London]], television host (''[[What Not To Wear (US Version)|What Not to Wear]]'')
-* [[Marguerite Moreau]], actress
-* [[Jay Severin]], commentator and talk radio host
-* [[Frances Sternhagen]], Tony Award-winning actress
 * [[Meryl Streep]], [[Academy Award]]-winning actress
-* [[Jon Tenney]], actor
-* [[Jonathan Togo]], actor
-* [[Ethan Zohn]], ''[[Survivor: Africa]]'' winner and philanthropist
-* [[Paula Madison]], president and general manager of KNBC-TV, Los Angeles
-=== Music ===
-* [[Erika Amato]], singer (Velvet Chain)
-* John Conway, keyboardist ([[The Bravery]])
-* [[Sam Endicott]], singer ([[The Bravery]])
-* [[Baroness Uriu (Shige Nagai)]], introduced Western Music to Japan
-* [[Drew Zing]], guitarist ([[Steely Dan]])
-* [[The Softboggle Theory]]
-* David Greenhill, (The Double)
-* Jeff McLeod, (The Double)
-* Victoria Legrand, singer ([[Beach House]])
-* [[Seth Putnam]]
-* [[Genghis Tron]]
-=== Science and Medicine ===
 * [[Ruth Benedict]], anthropologist
-* [[Mary Calderone]], physician and public health advocate, "Grandmother" of sex education
-* [[Grace Hopper]], computer scientist and inventor of the Compiler
-* [[Vera Rubin]], astronomer, discoverer of "Dark Matter"
-* [[Ellen Swallow Richards]], chemist, founder of Ecology
-* [[Sau Lan Wu]], high-energy particle physicist, codiscoverer of Gluon
-* [[Barbara Barlow, MD]], founder of the Harlem Hospital Injury Prevention Program
-* [[June Jackson Christmas, MD]], founder of the Harlem Rehabilitation Center
-* [[Helen Putnam, MD]], one of the nation's first gynecologists
-* [[Ellen Kovner Silbergeld]], first to document neurological problems caused by lead
-* [[Christine Ladd-Franklin]], psychologist and logician who solved the problem of reduction of syllogisms
-* [[Bernadine Healy]], cardiologist, former head of the [[American Red Cross]] and [[National Institutes of Health]]
-* [[Patricia Goldman Rakic]], neuroscientist who mapped the prefrontal lobe
-* [[John Carlstrom]], astrophysicist who codesigned DASI, Degree Angular Scale Interferometer
-* [[Eben Otsby]], codeveloper of the Marionette Three-Dimensional Computer Animation System
 * [[Margaret Floy Washburn]], psychologist
-=== Business ===
-* [[Caterina Fake]], Founder of [[Flickr]]
-* [[Geraldine Laybourne]], creator of Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite, [[CEO]] of [[Oxygen Media]]
-* [[Scott Kauffman]], notable [[CEO]]
-* [[Judith Regan]], [[CEO]] of [[ReganBooks]] (a division of [[Harper Collins]])
-* [[Jeff Fligelman]], cofounder of Gotham Writers' Workshop, NYC's largest private creative writing school
-* [[Lurita Doan]], founder of New Technology Management, Inc.
-* [[Lee Zalben]], founder of Peanut Butter & Co.
-* [[Lori Granger Leveen]], cofounder of Levenger, "tools for serious readers"
-* [[Paco Underhill]], founder of Envirosell
-* [[Mark S. Ordan]], President and CEO of [[Mills Corporation]]
-* [[Ian and Stefan Gerard]], cofounders of Gen Art, showcasing high-profile art, film, fashion, and music
-* [[Louise Bechtel]], head of the first children's book department in an American publishing house (Macmillan Co.)
-=== Politics and Law===
-* [[Anne Armstrong]], diplomat, politician
-* [[Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch]], [[suffragette]] and daughter of [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]]
-* [[Steven A. Cook]], Council on Foreign Relations analyst
 * [[Crystal Eastman]], coauthor of the Equal Rights Amendment
-* [[Rick Lazio]], [[Congressman]] ([[Long Island]]), [[Executive Vice President]] ([[J.P. Morgan Chase Bank]])
-* [[Barbara Coombs Lee]], coauthor of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act
-* [[Jean McKee]], 5 presidential appointments
-* [[Vicki Miles-LaGrange]], first African-American female to become a United States Attorney
-* [[Inez Milholland]], suffragist
-* [[Marc Thiessen]], deputy assistant to the President & deputy director of speechwriting
-* [[Benson Whitney]], Ambassador to Norway
-* [[Catherine Bauer Wurster]], urban housing reformer
-=== Attended, but did not graduate ===
-* [[Anthony Bourdain]] (''graduated from [[Culinary Institute of America]]''), chef, writer
-* [[Mike D]] (Michael Diamond), rapper ([[The Beastie Boys]])
-* [[Jane Fonda]] (''graduated from [[The Actors Studio]]''), actress
-* [[Katharine Graham]] (''graduated from the [[University of Chicago]]''), publisher of the [[Washington Post]]
-* [[Anne Hathaway (actress)|Anne Hathaway]] (''graduated [[New York University]]''), actress
-* [[Justin Long]], actor
-* [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis]] (''graduated from [[George Washington University]]''), [[First Lady]]
-* [[Curtis Sittenfeld]] (''graduated from [[Stanford University]]''), author
-* [[Neil Strauss]] (''graduated from [[Columbia College of Columbia University|Columbia College]]''), author and journalist
-* [[Rachael Yamagata]] (''graduated from [[Northwestern University]]''), singer
-===Fictional Alumni/Alumnae===
-{{unreferencedsect|date=July 2006}}
-* Tara, of the book ''[[The Tiger's Daughter]]''.
-*Characters from the 1963 novel, ''The Group'', by alumna [[Mary McCarthy]].
-*Dr. Holly Goodhead from the [[James Bond]] feature film ''[[Moonraker (film)|Moonraker]]''.  After she incapacitates two men, Bond asks, "Where did you learn how to fight like that, [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration|NASA]]?"  She replies, "No, Vassar."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-* Two old ladies in [[The Dark Tower]], the seventh and final book of the series of the same name, by Stephen King.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-* Principal Willoughby, from the Nickelodeon cartoon ''[[Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius]]''.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-* Heidi Holland, main character of ''[[The Heidi Chronicles]]'' by [[Wendy Wasserstein]]
-* Ruth Morrison, from the 1948 [[film noir]], "[[The Naked City]]" [http://www.weeklyscript.com/Naked%20City,%20The.txt].
-* In the 1990 book [[American Psycho]] the character [[Timothy Bryce]] tells a story about a sexual encounter he had with a "Vassar girl."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-* In ''[[Miss Congeniality]]'', [[Benjamin Bratt]] introduces [[Sandra Bullock]] to "Beth," an undergrad at Vassar, doing a paper on law enforcement.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-* Selena St. George, from the 1995 film, "[[Dolores Claiborne (film)|Dolores Claiborne]]" [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800238557/cast].
-* [[Lilly Kane]] from ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' was attending Vassar in a second-season dream sequence; in the actual storyline she had been murdered three years earlier.
-*[[Two young men]] in Terrence McNally's Off-Broadway play [["Some Men"]] portray gender studies majors from Vassar College.
-==Trivia==
-{{trivia|date=May 2007}}
-{{unreferencedsect|date=July 2006}}
-*The campus is a registered national [[arboretum]].
-*With the exception of Strong House, all residential dormitories and dorm bathroom facilities are [[co-ed]].
-*Immediately following World War II, Vassar accepted a small number of male students under the G.I. Bill. The male students were awarded degrees from the States University of New York.
-*Vassar is mentioned in:
-**the films ''[[Moonraker (film)|Moonraker]]'', ''[[Sabrina]]'', ''[[Police Academy (film series)|Police Academy]]'', ''[[A Day at the Races (film)|A Day at the Races]]'', ''[[Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead]]'',  ''[[Dolores Claiborne (film)|Dolores Claiborne]]'', ''[[Kingpin (film)|Kingpin]]'' (1996), ''[[Miss Congeniality]]'', ''[[Georgia Rule]]'', ''[[The Curse of the Jade Scorpion]]'', ''[[Some Like it Hot]]'',  [[Kate and Leopold]], [[In the Bedroom]], and ''[[Igby Goes Down]]''
-**the television series ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Law & Order]]'', ''[[Ed (TV series)]]'',''[[Thursday (1998 film)|Thursday]]'', ''[[Spin City]]'', ''[[Friends]]'', ''[[Dharma & Greg]]'', ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' and numerous other television shows and movies.
-*Vassar was host to the first baseball game played by two all-female teams, in 1867.
-*In the early 1970s, a grandson of Charles Correll of "Amos 'n Andy" radio fame was a student at Vassar and was known for his ability to do the voice of "The Kingfish" (which was actually done by Freeman Gosden on radio).
-*The Comedy Group "[[Olde English (sketch comedy)|Olde English]]" posted a fake protest at Vassar claiming Vassar had an army and was evil.
-*The New England building of Vassar College is the set of the intro scene to remake of the movie "[[The Time Machine (2002 film)|Time Machine]]," although the film begins at what is supposed to be Columbia University. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268695/locations]
-*[[Fudge]] was invented at Vassar in 1886 when an attempt to make chocolate caramels was "fudged."
 ==References==
 * [[Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz|Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz]].  ''[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0870238698&id=Z3qWLyDZ8PsC&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=xMmu_yuuHV&dq=alma+mater&sig=N7RcPpZKbQvPM1m5ohSuIcu_KxU#PPP1,M1 Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s],'' Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).
+* Bruno, Maryann. ''Vassar College,'' Arcadia Publishing (2001). ISBN 0738504548
+* Daniels, Elizabeth. ''Bridges to the World: Henry Noble MacCracken and Vassar College,'' College Avenue Press (1994). ISBN 1883551021
+* Goldsmith, Emily. ''Vassar College: Off the Record,'' College Prowler (2005). ISBN 159658193X
+* Raymond, John Howard. ''Life and Letters of John Howard Raymond Late President of Vassar College,'' Kessinger Publishing (2005). ISBN 141796586X
-===Notes===
+==External Links==
-<references/>
-== External links ==
 *[http://www.vassar.edu/ Official website]
 **[http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/ The Vassar College Encyclopedia]
@@ Line 325: / Line 119: @@
 **[http://www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/spring2002/articles/features/spotlight.html Vassar in popular culture]
 **[http://fllac.vassar.edu/ The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center]
 {{Seven_Sisters}}
 {{Credits|Vassar_College|134259476|}}