Boston Dec. 31 1890
My dear Mary,
I have hoped in vain for some word from you - I shall go to So. Hadley on Friday P.M. so that no word would reach me here after this reaches you.
Miss O'Grady will probably go back to Vassar, & will stop off to see my Lab- on her way. So we are going together Friday P.M. & she will stay one night at So. Hadley -
I have "struck it rich," as they say. A regular Biological carnival has been going on here since Monday, & closes with a dinner at the Thorndyke this evening. To be sure, women have not yet been admitted to the ranks, but we - Miss O'Grady & I - happened around, all by chance, at the Inst. just as the morphologists were organizing, and so got an invitation to hear the papers read in the P.M. The Physiologists met at the Harvard Med. School & the morphologists at the Inst. and Miss O'Grady & I have attended three sessions, & beside that the united session this P.M. when the discussion on the great subject of Heredity came off - to which Dr. Whitman gave us a special invite. "was glad we came." Dr. Whitman is a jewel - yesterday I was invited to lunch at Dr. Gardiner's where they are so "tony" that they dont [sic] need any table cloth! I met the McMunich's & Dr. Donaldson of Clark Un.
Miss Eugenia Gardiner sent me a very handsome note - inviting me to lunch & revive the memories of the "dear Lab."
The fellows are all here, Wilson, Watase, Bumpers, & a lot of others that I have wanted to see for a long time - having read them for years -
Dr. Whitman tells me I must get down to Woods Holl early this season. He says it is not a question of can, but of must!
I am going out to the midnight service at Trinity. Miss Laura Gleason, whom you remember at school - is here & we are going about 11, & in the mean time I am writing - the first minute I have had since I came, so to speak - Last evening, I went to hear Stoddard give his lecture on Oberammergau Passion Play. It was very impressive. Music Hall was crammed & perfectly noiseless - I think I should feel differently about seeing the play now - I think I would go if I had a chance - altho' I never thought I would wish to.
I heard Phillip Brooks last Sunday - & shall hear him again to-night. I attended a unique service in Berkeley Temple last Sunday evening. Mr. Dickenson & Howard Bridgeman pastors -
I spent Monday A.M. in Miss Allen's Gymnasium & shall go there to-morrow. I have hunted up Passe - found him fencing - dont [sic] think I shall do much with the Swedish System - I have found Canes & Saddle & next edition of Winthrop's works are out. I shall expect to find a letter at So. Hadley when I get there Friday night -
Happy New Year
Cornelia[Marcella O'Grady Boveri was the first woman to graduate from MIT with a degree in biology.]