Katherine Brown Larison
Principal of The Female Institute

Bucknell University Archives

Mary Moore Wolfe graduates from Bucknell University, going on to become one of the first women in Pennsylvania to attend medical school. Wolfe graduates with honors from the College of Medicine of the University of Michigan in 1900. Her achievements include serving as head of the Women's Division of the Norristown State Hospital and having her own sanitarium for a period of time at Stonyhurst, Pennsylvania. Wolfe also actively battled for women's suffrage and persuaded the Pennsylvania legislature to start an institution for mentally handicapped women which has evolved into what is presently known as the Laurelton Center.

Silhouettes

Bucknell Institute
May 16, 1896

Mabelle Dovegrove, Laura Angle, Marion Cerary, Alice Dunham, Emma Probasco, Alberta Stapleton, Grace Moses, Martha Jones, Edith Bastress.

Bucknell University Archives

A new game, the "Hare and the Hound," breaks the monotony of school life for the young ladies of the Female Institute. The game is as follows: the "hares" distribute small, square pieces of paper along a path. Twenty-five minutes after their departure, the "hounds," clad in bicycle and basketball costumes to reduce "the interference of unnecessary garments," start on the trail expecting to catch the "hares." "It is said they leaped gutters with an daring well calculated to disprove the proverbial feminine timidity and jumped fences with an agility that would put to shame their sturdy college brothers. In crossing a turnip patch, the human desires rose above 'canine' instinct,so they halted several minutes to eat a few turnips. The girls enjoyed themselves immensely and caused intense although refined, 'diaphragmatic pertubation.'"

Orange and Blue, 11/9/1897

Katherine Larison resigns from her position as principal of the Bucknell Institute to care for her aged mother in Cochecton Centre, New York. When Katherine dies in 1926, Bucknell is named as her chief beneficiary. Some of the $36,000 she gave is used to help reduce the school's debt, some is set aside for scholarships, and some is used to promote the endowment campaign. To honor her, the University, at the urging of the Alumnae Club, renames the Institute Building "Larison Hall" in 1927. A tribute to her written by Eveline Stanton Gundy and Emma J. Matlack, appearing in the Bucknell Alumni Monthly, notes "As Principal of the Institute, Mrs. Larison was simple, sympathetic, and dignified . . .As a teacher, she had the rare gift of making her interests infectious . . .she was known and loved by many generations of students."

Bucknell Mirror, 6/10/1897; Bucknell Alumni Monthly, June 1926

By this time, the college girls had an athletic association and a basketball team. There were no intercollegiate games for the girls, but they could play among themselves, class against class, the College girls against the Institute girls. The members of the original women's team were: Mary B. Harris, Mary Moore Wolfe, Anna Kate Goddard, Nellie Taylor, Anna May Gilchrist, Mary Evans Chambers, Alice J. Lillibridge, Henrietta Allen, and Margaret A. Thomas. These players' uniforms consister of a loose black suit with voluminous skirts that literally swept the floor.

Theiss

"Bachelor Maids"
1897--a play

Minnie Anderson, Mabel Batten, Grace DeWitt, Edith Phillips, Eloise Schuyler, Edna S. Shires, Genevieve White, Alicia Zierden.

Bucknell University Archives

Courses of Study According to the 1897 Bucknell Institute Catalogue, "The Bucknell Institute offers to young women three courses of study, each extending over five years." Courses of study were listed as: I. The Literary Course: Mathematics (Arithmetic through Analytical Geometry), Languages (Latin, German, Italian, and/or French), Science (Physical and Natural). It is noted that "Special attention is given to History and Literature." II. The Classical Course: Mathematics, Latin (Grammar and Composition, Caesar, Virgil, Cicero's Orations. . . ), Greek (Grammar and Composition, Xenophon's Anabasis, Homer's Illiad, Lysias' Orations. . . ), History (General, Greek and Roman). III. The Latin Scientific Course: the Classical Course except "scientific subjects are substituted for the first two years of Greek, and German for the third year of Greek."

The Bucknell Institute Catalogue 1897

The Catalogue also states the Requirements for Admission: "The required age of admission to the first-year class or to pursue select studies is twelve years, and a proportionate increase of age for admission to advanced classes. The candidate for admission must present testimonials of good moral character."

The Bucknell Institute Catalogue 1897

Frill and Frown, the women's dramatic society on campus, is organized in October. Its purpose as an organization is to present to the student body plays and dramas of the highest merit in the most artistic manner possible. Women play the male roles as well as the female roles. Membership is awarded by individual tryouts at the beginning of each college year. With laurels in their hair, the women of Frill and Frown pose for the 1906 yearbook picture.

L'Agenda 1906