Celebrating 150 years of Yale women
We profile 20 extraordinary alumnae from all of the university s schools to represent a century and a half of achievement.
Nov/Dec 2020
Illustration by Christina Dallorso Kortz
An imagined view of Lucinda Foote, who in 1783 was deemed “fully qualified” for Yale “except in regard to sex.” View full image
In 1783, Yale president Ezra Stiles conducted an exam to determine whether a student from nearby Cheshire was qualified to enter Yale College. The student, who was only 12 years old, had learned some Cicero and much of the Aeneid in Latin, as well as the Gospel of St. John in Greek. The test was rigorous. Stiles chose passages from each work and asked for English translations. He also threw in a few quotations from other ancient texts. His judgment: the student had made laudable progress and was, he noted in his diary, “well fitted to be admitted into the Freshman Class.” Her name was Lucinda Foote. She would never go to colleg
On February 28, 2019, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) was swearing in witnesses before a House Judiciary Subcommittee.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) made a point of parliamentary inquiry: âI think we left out âso help me God.ââ
Cohen replied: âWe did.â
Johnson asked âCan we have the witnesses do it again for the record?â
Cohen responded: âNo,â then added: âIf they want to do it, but some of them donât want to do it, and I donât think itâs necessary, and I donât like to assert my will over other people.â
Johnson responded:
âWell it goes back to our founding history, itâs been part of our tradition for more than two centuries and I donât know that we should abandon it now.â
David K. Skelly is the director of the Yale Peabody Museum and the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology in the Yale School of the Environment.
The illustration is from Martin Frobenius Ledermüller’s microscope book, published in various languages in the 1760s. View full image
Thomas l. Lentz ’64MD
With the aid of some flat strips of bone, ivory, or wood plus a little mica and a sunny day the solar microscope would have helped eighteenth-century scientists observe the details of nature. View full image
Six months ago, with virtually no warning, college faculty and students around the world were dropped into the deep end of the remote teaching pool. While I think all of us yearn for the day we can get back in the classroom, we have improved virtual learning by mastering the finer points of Zoom, developing live interactives, and thinking creatively alongside our students. This experience has underscored for me how much in general we depend on technology to share wh