A Chronology of Goucher College 1881-1996

In the Baltimore Prohibition Parade, sixty undergraduates and ten faculty marched in cap and gown and were awarded a prize for appearance.

"Interpretive dancing" was the first official dance class.

The Goucher College chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League was formed.

First full-time librarian was appointed; Harriet Blogg was promoted from assistant.

The students began The Goucher College Weekly.

1917

Sessrymner, Gimle and Vanaheim Halls were opened.

Among the wartime activities were non-credit courses in "preparedness," the formation of a Goucher War Council, the suspension of many extracurricular activities, but the Junior-Senior banquet was kept with the juniors acting as cooks.

A department of Home Economics was created.

Italian and Spanish were added to French and German as acceptable for the foreign language requirement.

There was a mass meeting for suffrage in Catherine Hooper Hall.

The freshman class received faculty advisers for the first time.

Alumnae Council was created.

"Wireless" for the exchange of messages was instituted by the College Council at the suggestion of Dean Lord.

1918

The Goucher Red Cross Unit was at work in France.

Goucher students worked on farms in the summer as "farmerettes."

The first "Army-Navy hockey game" was held on Thanksgiving morning.

The Alumnae Lodge was presented to the Alumnae Association.

The college was closed for four weeks by the Spanish influenza epidemic.

Eleanor Lord resigned as dean.

1919

Eugene Curtis was named acting dean; Ola E. Winslow made assistant dean; Elizabeth C. Mason first student counselor (position later became "dean of students").

Eleanor W. Falley, first professional librarian appointed.

The Department of Home Economics was terminated and the courses distributed among the Departments of Sociology and Economics, Physiology and Hygiene, and Education.

Political Science was separated as a department from the Department of History.

The Faculty Club was organized.

The first all-college Thanksgiving dinner given.

1930

Dean Emeritus John B. Van Meter died.

Acting Presidnet Hans Froelicher died as he was about to leave the Alumnae Lodge to introduce Homer St. Gaudens as lecturer.

Dorothy Stimson became acting president.

David A. Robertson became the fifth president (1930-1948) with an inauguration ceremony at the Lyric Theatre. Honorary degrees were awarded to Lizette Woodworth Reese, Baltimore poet, D. Litt.; Dr. Florence R. Sabin, Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, LLD.; Dr. Winifred C. Cullis, University of London, LLD.; and Lou Henry Hoover, translator and wife of the President of the United States.

The list of faculty publications was issued for the first time.

The arriving freshmen were made the special care of the juniors.

The freshman skull cap was abolished.

1931

The Board of Instruction and the Board of Control were replaced by the College Faculty and the President's Council.

The president designated as additional members of the faculty the registrar, the student counselor, the librarian, the vocational secretary, and the physicians.

The Board of Trustees adopted revised bylaws on faculty organization and tenure.

The combination major was introduced.

Honors work was introduced.

The Romance Languages Department began the "Goucher College French Series."

The first fall convocation was held.

The Alumnae Fund made its first annual gift.

1932

Unclassified students were admitted.

Alfred Noyes lectured on "Poetry, Science and Religion."

Dame Rachel Crowdy of the League of Nations Secretariat lectured on "Women in International Relations."

The Goucher debate team beat the Princeton team for the fifth consecutive year.

An additional Center for City Girls was opened in Foster House.

Evening classes in economics, history and English were offered to women in industry.

The Glee Club concert included men for the first time, drawn from the Peabody Conservatory and the choir of Old St. Paul's Church.

The Alumnae Council re-established "Goucher Day" as a "time to meet and consider the well-being of the college," on or close to March 22, Mary Fisher Goucher's birthday.

Mrs. Herbert Hoover gave a garden party for seniors on the White House lawn.

1935

The Music Department was established.

1936

1937

1938

The architectural competition for a design of the new campus was won by Moore and Hutchins.

The 50th Anniversary of the opening of classes was celebrated. The Anniversary Ceremony was held at the Lyric Theatre; the winner of the architectural competition was announced; the competing plans were displayed at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

1939

1940

Kalends ceased publication with vol. 50 and was replaced as the literary magazine by The Dilettante.

Ground was broken for Mary Fisher Hall.

Julien Green was visiting professor of French.

1941

The first students to major in child development were graduated.

William Lyon Phelps preached the baccalaureate sermon.

The first vice president for finance was appointed, Horatio Whitridge Turner.

1942

Mary Fisher Hall, the first building on the Towson campus, opened.

The Romance Languages Department offered Portuguese.

Students enrolled in non-curricular courses in mechanical drawing and air navigation, their "voluntary response to ... the present situation."

Some members of the faculty became head residents in the houses of the residents halls.

1943

Catherine Hooper Hall was the site of a pre-clinical nursing program offered by four area hospitals.

Goucher offered its first summer term "to forward general education and to provide opportunity for the acquisition of some of the skills needed by college-trained women in wartime."

The Liberty ship S.S. John F. Goucher was launched at Fairfield, Maryland.

1944

1945

The victory ship Goucher Victory was launched at Fairfield.

1946

1947

Frances Connor, former student counselor, was appointed the first dean of students.

1954

The college's first summer program in economics was offered to high school students.

Early admissions became a standard policy.

Lilian Welsh Hall opened.

The Florence Lewis telescope was installed.

Alumnae Fund Office was established.

The faculty Committee on Faculty Salaries was first appointed.

1955

The Field Politics Center opened under a supporting grant from the Falk Foundation.

The Vocational Office offered the first Jobs and Futures Workshop.

The first week-long Fine Arts Festival was held.

The Octet was organized, later to be known as "The Reverend's Rebels."

1956

The Alumnae House was completed.

The new entrance road was opened.

The first black student matriculated.

The stables were built and occupied.

1957

The Departments of Biology and of Physiology and Hygiene were combined into the Biological Sciences Department.

The first college-wide self-study was prepared for the first visit of a team from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; Goucher had been accredited without a team visit since the founding of the association.

The President's House was completed.

The Business Services Building was opened.

The Center for Sociological Study was founded.

The first public Concert Series was presented in the Barn.

1958

The curriculum was revised to establish required and sequential courses.

An early decision plan for admissions was offered.

Anna Heubeck Hall was completed.

Landscape architects Sasaki, Walker and Associates were employed.

Pietro Belluschi became chairman of Goucher's Architectural Advisory Board.

A Goucher-Hopkins publications contract was signed.

Nadia Boulanger visited the college; two special grants for music study in France were awarded students.

Preface replaced Venture as the students' literary magazine.

An Oriental arts festival was held, part of the new non-Western studies program.

1963

The College Center was dedicated with a gala performance.

The first summer session since World War II was held to increase use of the campus.

The National Science Foundation funded an Institute in Economics and Sociology for high schools.

The first freshman seminars were held.

The College Teacher Education Program was initiated.

Haebler Memorial Chapel was completed.

"The Wednesday Program" was established for older students.

Kraushaar Auditorium was named in honor of Dr. Otto F. Kraushaar.

The Mathematics Department organized a day-long computer conference.

The first male student graduated from the M.Ed. program.

The International Field Hockey Conference was held on the campus.

Essays of the 75th Anniversary seminars were published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Many faculty and students demonstrated in Washington for peace.

Virgil Thomson lectured on "The Most Conservative Institution in the World."

The Baltimore Chapter, American Institute of Architects, gave an award to the College Center.

George Boas was the speaker at the Junior-Senior Banquet.

1964

The Guth Gateway was built.

The Poetry Series and the Public Theatre Events were begun.

Shakespeare's 300th birthday was celebrated with a year-long festival; students acted in The Tempest.

A summer institute for secondary school French teachers was held.

The Student Academic Affairs Committee was formed.

There were an Intercollegiate Peace Conference and a Mock Political Convention.

Chaplain Frederic Wood's sermon "Sex in the Created Order" received national publicity.

Students took the lead in establishing an interracial coffee shop in East Baltimore.

1965

The first addition to the Hoffberger Science Building was completed.

A Fine Arts Building was planned but never built.