In this second episode about Florence Easton Conable, Jim and Janet speak with Vassar’s Head of Special Collections and College Historian Ronald Patkus about what the emerging women's college was like when Florence arrived on campus.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted and edited by Janet Forest. It was researched, fact checked and co-hosted by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

SHOW NOTES: If something piqued your interest and it isn’t in the Show Notes, please email [email protected]. and include “Podcast Question” in the subject header. 

• Sample questions for the 1878 Vassar College Entrance Examination were included in its Annual Catalog. (Florence Easton did particularly well on the Greek and Latin sections; how would you do?)
  
  
• Link to the Vassar College Digital Library
  • Photo of Main Building ca. 1860’s.
  • The Trigonometry Ceremony remained a tradition until the 1890s. Florence Easton’s Nantucket education prepared her for the material, something we will discuss in our next episode.
• Ella Gardner (‘77) and Florence Easton (‘82) were the only students from Nantucket listed as graduates of Vassar College in its early decades. However, eight other Nantucket women attended as Special or Preparatory students, and/or were enrolled but did not graduate:
  • Charlotte Puffer Baxter: Special, 1871-72
  • Phebe West Bunker: Special/College 1871-1873
  • Charlotte Eliza Coffin: College, 1869-70 
  • Francis Mitchell Macy: (Niece of Maria Mitchell), School of Art,1878-79.
  • Helen Marshall: College, 1872-73
  • Emma Louise Nickerson: Special, 1871-72
  • Annie Eliza Spencer: Preparatory,1874-75
  • Maria Mitchell Starbuck: Special, 1868-70
• Many other young woman would be added if we included those with Nantucket ancestry. Brooklyn-born Elizabeth Coffin graduated in 1870, and Florence’s classmate, Susan Coffin Coleman was from Cleveland.
  
  
• The drop in Nantucket attendees reflects both the island’s declining population and the establishment of competing women’s colleges.
  
  
• The scrapbooks of Florence Easton’s classmates, Jesse Wheeler and Anne Wyman, give a sense of their campus life.
  
  
• See the Show Notes for Episode 8 (The Daughters of the Samurai) for a discussion of Florence’s scrapbook of her Vassar years, which includes a photo of Sutematsu Yamakawa Oyama

© The Nantucket Atheneum - March 29, 2025