The Faculty [of Vassar] do not consider it a mere experiment any longer that girls can be educated as well as boys.
Source: Letter to her mother before the end of her first month at Vassar, Sep 1868.
-- Ellen Swallow Richards, (Dec 3 1842-1911), US chemist, ecologist; Her innovative studies of air, water, food created disciplines of sanitary engineering and home economics; first U.S. woman to earn B.A. in chemistry.