Dear Prudence
A venerable figure stares out at researchers in Kroch Library’s Elizabeth Reed Reading Room: Prudence Crandall, the Connecticut abolitionist who founded the first boarding school for African-American girls in 1833.
Her portrait came to Cornell by way of her contemporary Samuel May, who donated a significant anti-slavery collection to Cornell University Library. It’s undisputed that May gave Crandall’s portrait to Cornell’s first president, Andrew Dickson White, but there are two versions of the story.
According to White’s autobiography, May bequeathed it to White on his deathbed; according to May’s biography, May said he would hand over the portrait only when “young women should have the same advantages as young men at Cornell University.”
Either way, the time frame was about the same: May died in the summer of 1871, and women were unofficially admitted in the fall of the same year. Also found at Rare and Manuscript Collections: monographs on Crandall, original pamphlets about her court appearances and a fantastic young-adult biography from the 1950s. Visit the Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection online for more information.