Women first served on the Board of Trustees in 1920, when Annie Vinton of Mansfield and Mrs. O. B. Robinson were named to the board. Robinson served two years, but Vinton, for whom one of Mansfield’s elementary schools is named, served a decade. A member of the Mansfield Board of Education, Vinton later served three terms as a member of the State House of Representatives, where she worked on issues relating to education and children.

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

One of the loveliest spots in Connecticut also happens to be a regional campus of the University of Connecticut.  In addition to serving as the home of UConn’s Connecticut Sea Grant College Program, Project Oceanology, National Undersea Research Center and Long Island Sound Resource Center, the Avery Point campus is situated on the site of what was the estate of Morton F. Plant, a wealthy businessman.   Built in 1903, Branford House and its grounds were lovingly documented in several hundred hand-colored photographs, some of which are shown above.  The photographs, colored by Blanche M. Osborne, were taken in 1917.  These, and earlier black and white photographs of the construction of the house, are available for viewing on the Connecticut History Online website.  Additional information about Mr. Plant and his estate can be found on the Avery Point campus website.

-Betsy Pittman, University Archivist

The first woman to hold an administrative faculty position was Margaret Kenwell, who served as Lady Principal from 1894 to 1896. The first woman named as a dean was M. Estella Sprague, who headed what was then the Division of Home Economics. Sprague served as dean from 1920 to 1926. She had been a professor of home economics at Connecticut Agricultural College since 1917. During World War I, Sprague, who had been the first woman extension worker at Connecticut, was the state director of home economics for the Federal Food Administration.  Sprague Hall in the East Campus Residence Hall complex was named for her in 1942, two years after her death.

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

M. Estella Sprague, Dean of Home Economics, 1920

Elizabeth Rourke, Editor-in-Chief, 1939 Nutmeg

The Nutmeg Yearbook was first published in 1915, and its first woman editor-in-chief was Elizabeth Rourke, a member of the Class of 1939. Hers was the last graduating class of Connecticut Agricultural College. A month after her June graduation, her alma mater became the University of Connecticut.

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

Student government began at Storrs Agricultural College in the 1890s, but it wasn’t until 1918 when a woman would serve as its leader. Gladys Dagget, who also made a first for women as business manager of the student newspaper in 1918, was president of the Students Organization that same year. When men returned from World War I, they resumed control of the student government. A separate Women’s Student Government Association was established in 1918, coordinating activities and campus life for women until 1971. After a change in the constitution of the male-run student government, Henrietta Spring, a member of the Class of 1945, was elected as its first woman president in 1944.

Women's Student Council, 1920-1921 Nutmeg

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

It was in the fall of 1893, just months after Storrs Agricultural School became Storrs Agricultural College and began officially admitting women, that the first student organization for women was established. Women had been taking classes unofficially since the fall of 1890, and then a legislative act in 1893 made their enrollment official.

The first student organization at the school was a literary society launched in 1888 when it was still an all-male institution. That group disbanded after its founder left the school. Two literary societies took its place in 1893, the Eclectic Society for men and the Ionian Society for women. They merged into one group and took the Eclectic Society name in 1894. Then a new, separate literary society for women formed in 1899 as the Alethia Society.

Editors of The Lookout (student newspaper), 1906-1907

A student newspaper, the monthly “Lookout”, was established in 1896, but it wasn’t until 1906 that the all-male staff was joined by a woman. Lena Hurlburt, a member of the Class of 1907, was the Class Notes Editor, in addition to being co-captain of the women’s basketball team.

The Class Notes position would be the only position for women on the newspaper staff until 1917. After the United States joined the fighting in Europe during the First World War, women took over many of the previously male-dominated campus organizations. Helen Clark was the first woman to be editor-in-chief of what was now the Connecticut Campus, with Gladys Dagget as the first woman to serve as the newspaper’s business manager. Both Clark and Dagget were members of the Class of 1919. But once the war was over and the men returned to campus, women would not again hold those top positions on the newspaper for decades.

Helen Clark, 1918

Gladys Daggett, 1918

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

Student body, Storrs Agricultural College, Fall 1894

With the arrival of Susan Herbst as the University of Connecticut’s president, it’s time to take note of some other firsts for women in the history of the University.

 The first woman on staff was Mrs. R.H. Coit who served as matron from 1882 to 1883 at the Storrs Agricultural School.  Although records do not indicate exactly what a matron’s role entailed, it’s possible she did cooking and cleaning in the single-building school/dormitory that was home to the first dozen students of the then boys-only school.

 The first woman on faculty at the agricultural school was Josephine Nettleton, who first taught algebra when she joined the teaching staff in 1888. Later she was a instructor in mathematics and physical geography.

It was in the fall of 1890 that a girl joined the boys in classes.  Nellie Wilson had asked Benjamin Koons, principal of the school, if she might be admitted. Koons, reasoning that the state law establishing the school for boys did not expressly forbid the enrollment of girls, answered in the affirmative.

 Wilson was joined by Louisa Rosebrooks and Anna Snow in the spring of 1891, and two years later, the legislature formalized their enrollment when it changed the name of the school to the Storrs Agricultural College.

 The following year, 1894, Wilson, Rosebrooks, and Snow, whose names are memorialized on residence halls in South Campus, became the first women to graduate from the college. And they did it all as the first commuting students. The first dormitory for women, Grove Cottage, would not be built until 1896.

-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)

Memorial Day was first enacted to honor soldiers following the American Civil War and after World War I it was  expanded to honor Americans who have died in all wars.  UConn established its own permanent memorial in November 2009 with a monument erected west of the flagpoles, between Beach Hall and the CLAS Building.

Veteran's Memorial at the University of Connecticut

In addtion to the physical memorial, the Alumni Association mantains the Roll of Honor at the Alumni Center

Roll of Honor, Alumni Center, University of Connecticut

and online at http://www.uconnalumni.com/roll-of-honor/the-roll.html.  If you have the opportunity, I would encourage all who are on campus over the Memorial Day weekend to include a visit to these memorials to honor the UConn alums who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist