James E. Rhoads, M.D. (1828-1895) (President, 1885-1894)
William Merritt Chase, ca. 1890
Oil on canvas, 139.7 x 122.555 cm
X.25

The mere existence of James Rhoads as the College’s first president is often overshadowed by the dominant legacy of M. Carey Thomas. A medical doctor, philanthropist, and Quaker, Rhoads was appointed to head the newly founded College in 1883 and administer its mission of educating wealthy Orthodox Quaker women, which he doubly fulfilled as the school’s lecturer on Christian Ethics. Despite his role as steward of the College’s sectarian purpose, Rhoads aligned himself with Thomas’s decidedly secular vision for the school. He backed her efforts to institute a high standard of education at the College over a strictly Quaker one, helping Thomas shape Bryn Mawr’s intellectual character-- and its early anti-Semitism, which he defended under the pretext of the College’s Quaker origins. Responsible for supervising the construction of Taylor Hall and the oldest campus dorms, Rhoads’ influence is most profoundly felt in the physical structures of the campus, although it would be Thomas who hired Frederick Law Olmsted to design the general campus plan.

When it received this painted portrait of the College’s first president in 1895, along with his bronze bust, the young College demonstrated its aspirations to be counted among the country’s elite educational institutions: Portraiture, a practice associated with the upper echelons of society, was a well-established tradition at exclusive universities like Oxford and Cambridge. Likely donated by a member of the Rhoads family, the portrait is quite conventional, presenting Rhoads as a bust in ¾ view. Seated stiffly in a dark suit, his slight frown and tightly clasped hands yield an unflattering portrait of a dour-looking man.