Lawrence University, chartered in 1847, was one of the first American colleges to admit both men and women. Coeducational from the beginning, Lawrence set its first graduates loose on the world in 1857, and appropriately enough, that class included four men and three women.
It being 1857, a time when, even at coeducational Lawrence, women were permitted but not necessarily treated equally in all respects, the formal photo of the first graduating class was, in fact, two photos, one of the men and one of the women.
Until recently, the university archives had in its care only a copy of the men's photo, a situation now remedied by a generous gift from a thoughtful collector. In the fall of 1999, Katherine Field of Bainbridge Island, Wash., gave the college two ambrotypes that had been passed down to her from her great-grandfather, Avery E. Field, a photographer, photographic historian, and collector. According to a 1939 clipping found with the ambrotypes, Avery Field received them from a Mrs. Eugene Copeland, presumably a relative of Justin M. Copeland, one of the male 1857 graduates.
For a larger image of the two ambrotypes and more about the Class of 1857, please click here.
