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• 1 2020-03-04T15:51:43+00:00 Unveiling the portrait 2 plain 2020-04-22T18:30:05+00:00

  ...At two they came & at 5 I dressed in my black jet & my Sargent gown & hood & cap & went to my office where all the Trustees had gathered except P.C.G. who telegraphed he was in bed with __. I think he really was as he wanted to come. Even old Smiley had come & told me afterwards he would have crossed the continent for it. The Faculty sat in front of a very few guests... & behind the alumnae & students filling every corner of the chapel & gallery. The Trustees wives were all here & on the left the Trustees sat, the portrait veiled in the centre with a red background… with a blaze & light on it, beside it I on a red chair & to my right the speakers & the Portrait Committee of 7 in caps & gowns. The speakers one after another Miss MacIntosh of the 1 & 2 classes,

  
  

  Miss Campbell of 97 & Miss Leshel of the Senior Class, the Pres of Self Gov for the college students made 5 min. Addresses of the most outspoken kind of personal tribute to me & Miss Brownell followed with a 30 minutes speech of the ideals of B.M. which she said were mine first and last, conception & accomplishment. She then turned from the special to education in general & said (she said) what every one thought of the work done for womens education by me, that I was admittedly by friends and foes the person who had already done most for womens...

  
  

  ...Education etc… Miss Martha Thomas then unveiled the picture. I took off my cap & assumed the attitude & the applause was of course tremendous & unending… My enemy sat & writhed.

  
  

  The Trustees & their wives would not have been more cordial than they were; they seemed absolutely overwhelmed by the tribute of the students as did the Faculty they the latter could hardly trust themselves to speak to me but simply shook hands. I was touched by their seeming to really to care. I must say the Alumnae & students having set out to honour me did it with a thoroughness that left nothing to be deserved. It took me utterly by surprise & I minded awfully your not being there, my beloved… For myself I feel as if I could never live up to [the] portrait they idealised of me.