Virginia C. Gildersleeve:
A Biographical Timeline (1877-1965)
| 1877 | October 3 – Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve bon; Parents were Henry Alger and Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve. Father a lawyer and politically connected judge (CU Law) Family resided comfortably at 28 W 48th Street, just off 5th Avenue. VCG had two older brothers, Alger (b. 1868) and Harry (b. 1870), both Columbia graduates. |
| 1891 | Brother Harry died from typhoid; VCG sent to the Brearley School, founded in 1881 as an academically rigorous girls school by subsequent Barnard trustee, Mrs. Joseph Choate; early feeder to Bryn Mawr |
| 1895 | Decides to try for college; she preferred Bryn Mawr but mother directs her to Barnard; |
| 1896 | October – Enters Barnard College as one of 21 members of Class of 1899; Barnard then located at 343 Madison Ave. three blocks south of Gildersleeve residence |
| 1897 | VCG pledged to Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity, the Barnard chapter founded in 1891. She one of only two in her first-year class to be chosen. Elected vice president of class |
| 1898 | Kappa Kappa Gamma declines to admit a Jewish member of Class of 1898, Stella Stern, prompting organization of a second fraternity, Alpha Omnicron Pi. VCG transfer friends Alice Duer (Miller) and Marjorie Jacoby (McAneny) pledge KKG. |
| 1899 | VCG graduates at top of her 22-member graduating class; awarded Fiske Graduate Fellowship for graduate study at Columbia |
| 1900 | June — VCG receives MA in medieval history |
| September – Appointed to an assistantship at Barnard | |
| 1901-1905 | VCG teaching English at Barnard, first as assistant, then instructor. |
| 1905 | April – Informed by William Tenney Brewster that she was to have all sections of Sophomore English in fall; resigns and enters Columbia PhD program in English with fellowship support |
| Summer – Touring Europe with friend Mary Eaton | |
| 1906-07 | Back teaching at Barnard until Dean Gill terminates her. Gill then resigns in ill health. |
| 1907-08 | Fully engaged in writing her thesis, Government Regulation of the Elizabethan Theatre. Declines associate professorship at University of Wisconsin; unwilling to leave NYC. |
| 1908 | Fall – VCG returns to teaching at Barnard on Columbia lectureship; completes her dissertation and awarded PhD; William Tenney Brewster acting dean at Barnard. |
| 1908-1910 | VCG a member of Columbia English Department; teaching both at Barnard and in CU graduate program. |
| 1910 | July – Promoted to assistant professor in CU English Department |
| 1910 | December 10 – VCG offered Barnard deanship by President Nicholas Murray Butler, as means of resolving three-year stand-off between Barnard trustees and Columbia as to deanship and role of Columbia-installed Brewster as provost.. |
| 1911 | February 1 – VCG becomes Barnard’s third dean (at age 34). |
| 1912 | VCG and trustees launch Quarter Century Fund Drive; seek to raise $2,000,000 by 1914; total not secured until 1920. |
| 1919 | VCG helps organize International Federation of University Women (IFUW) with her friend and subsequent domestic partner, Caroline Spurgeon, a Chaucer and Shakespeare scholar at the University of London |
| 1920s | VCG becomes active in American groups supportive of various Arabic causes; opposed to Jewish settlement of Palestine and labelled an ”anti-Zionist” |
| 1925 | VCG moves into the “‘Deanery” on north end of newly opened Hewitt Dormitory. |
| 1927 | Takes lead in organizing what becomes known as the” Seven Sisters,” a cooperative arrangement among Barnard, Radcliffe, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr to promote the cause of women’s colleges. |
| 1928 | November – Campaigns for Democrat and NY Governor Al Smith for the presidency against the Republican nominee, Herbert Hoover. |
| 1931-32 | VCG on academic leave: George Mullins acting dean |
| 1932 | The first of four successive presidential election campaigns where she supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt. |
| 1933 | VCG concerned about College’s ability to survive the Great Depression; enrollments down; dorms under occupied; calls for financial aid surge |
| 1936 | Barnard celebrates the 25th anniversary of VCG’s deanship. |
| 1940 | VCG a supporter of pro-interventionist groups and opposed isolationists like Senator William Borah. |
| 1941 | US entry into WW II; VCG active in the organization of WAVES |
| 1942 | VCG’s companion for three decades, Caroline Spurgeon, dies. |
| 1942 | VCG at 65 plans to retire but Butler insists she stay through his presidency; trustees had begun discussions with Brearley head, Millicent McIntosh. |
| 1945 | February — Appointed by President Roosevelt as the only woman on the seven-member US delegation to the San Francisco Conference to establish the United Nations. Plays prominent role in the Conference later that spring and summer. |
| 1946 | Appointed to Commission to look into reforming the educational system of occupied Japan. |
| 1947 | Retired as dean; removed to Bedford, NY, where she lived with Elizabeth Reynard , after Reynard retired from the WAVES and resigned from the Barnard faculty. They spent summers on Cape Cod |
| VCG remained active in opposing creation of the state of Israel in Palestine; angers some of Barnard’s Jewish supporters who favored its creation. | |
| 1954 | VCG published her autobiography, Many a Good Crusade |
| 1962 | VCG’s companion Elizabeth Reynard died. Gildersleeve entered a nursing home on Cape Cod. Published a collection of earlier writings, A Hoard for Winter. |
| 1965 | July 7 – VCG died. |
Last updated; February 12, 2015
[email protected]