'Doing Something for Women': Matthew Vassar & Thomas Holloway
Caroline Bingham tells the tale of how two self-made businessmen in their seventies became the unlikely progenitors of pioneering womens' colleges in Victorian England and America.
Unaware of each other's existence, two businessmen who were close contemporaries preoccupied themselves with the amassing of wealth until they were past middle age and, being childless, resolved to spend the greater part of their fortunes on philanthropy. Matthew Vassar and Thomas Holloway, in their respective countries, chose the pioneering project of a college for the higher education of women, and the intentions and early achievements of the first foundation provided some valuable lessons for the second.
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