Spring 2002 volume 98 issue 2 : letters
Re: In Memoriam: Evalyn A. Clark (Fall 2001)
During several decades seeking clues about the origin of the these of the Lady Cornaro window, I have been quite curious to know even one name among those young men and women (or their descendants) who received a very special gift over the years from the library donor and her husband, Frederick Ferris Thompson. Mr. Thompson was a Vassar trustee (1885 - 1899) whose family had founded Chase Bank. His widow, Mary Clark Thompson of New York, in his memory gave the library with its great window installed in 1906 and portraying Elena Cornaro's 17th-century graduation scene at the University of Padua. The Thompsons had no children and when he died in 1899, Mrs. Thompson continued her husband's custom of sending four boys and four girls to college every year. Who were they? Finally, I found an answer reading "In Memoriam" in the fall alumnae/i quarterly. One scholarship recipient was our own, much-admired Evalyn A. Clark, Vassar historian and professor from 1933 to 1968. Born in 1903 in Canadaigua, New York, where the Thompsons had a summer home, Miss Clark was "awarded a full scholarship to Vassar by Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson...." Miss Clark became associate dean of the college for 10 years, history department chair for six, and the Eloise Ellery Professor of History from 1962 to 1968. A life of great distinction was made possible by those enlightened, 19th-century citizens in the Thompson Memorial Library's history.
Jane Howard Guernsey '49
Wilmington, DE