The Last Class at the Old U—and the Girls Win the Spade
In May 1895, the University of Washington’s Class of ’95 held its final class-day exercises in the original downtown building, with women delivering the spade orations for the first time.
Class-day exercises ushered in commencement week last Thursday with the Class of ’95 at the old university. The class is composed of ten young ladies and four young men, and is the last to graduate at the old building. These two facts formed a very pretty foundation for the afternoon’s entertainment. Members of the class wore students’ caps and gowns, this being the second class at the university thus arrayed. The programme included an address of welcome by Phillips Morrison; a class history in three volumes by Clara Talmadge, Anna Parsons and Earle Jenner; the class motto, “Caelestis, Quid Agam,” by Ruth Karr; “Grumbler” by Philip Dearborn; “My Memories” by Kate Williams; “Legacy” by Myra Clark; the spade oration by Ellen Hubbard; a response for the class by Lydia Lovering; and a prophecy by Alice Howell. The spade orations were unique in that, for the first time, they were both delivered by young ladies, and the verdict of those who have witnessed former “discussions of the spade” was that “the girls surely are the best wielders of the spade.” In the evening the seniors received the junior class; all students were invited, the chapel was well filled, and refreshments were served by the sophomore young ladies.
“For the first time they were both delivered by young ladies, and ... “the girls surely are the best wielders of the spade.””
The original UW campus in downtown Seattle—at Fourth Avenue and University Street—is long gone, absorbed into the city’s commercial core. But this 1895 class day records the moment the university was about to move to its present campus and women were claiming a public platform in campus ritual. The line about the “girls” being the best wielders of the spade is a small, telling crack in the era’s gender expectations.
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