The Oxford of the Pacific Northwest
A traveling correspondent visits Seattle's Territorial University, witnessing a thriving center of learning and a student body embracing the 'equal rights mania.'
The Territorial University of Washington, destined as the years roll onward to be the Oxford of the Pacific Northwest, is most beautifully and commandingly situated. In all our wanderings through the West, we have never met a brighter array of students or a better officered and managed school. After the departure of President Anderson, the school fell into the hands of U.J. Powell, A.M., long and favorably known as the State Superintendent of Common Schools in Oregon. The equal rights mania enjoyed an epidemic course in the University during the past winter, which resulted in the successful inoculation of every intelligent subject. As we listened to the steady tramp of the busy feet of both sexes, marching peacefully together, we could not but contrast the innocence and harmony of the scene with the carnage of battlefields where women's influence is not acknowledged.
“As we listened to the steady tramp of the busy feet of both sexes, marching peacefully together... we could not but contrast the innocence and harmony of the scene with the carnage of battlefields where women's influence is not acknowledged.”
This article highlights a time when the University of Washington was located in downtown Seattle (the site of the current Fairmont Olympic Hotel). The reference to the 'equal rights mania' captures the early, fervent push for woman suffrage in Washington Territory, a movement that would see the franchise granted and subsequently stripped by courts in the following years.
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