At a rainy commencement, President Taylor conferred the bachelor’s degree on 217 members of the senior class, five members of which presented senior honors essays “marked by humor, which caused more merriment than has ever been seen before at Vassar [Commencements].”

At the commencement luncheon, the Baroness Uriu and her husband presented Vassar with a silver bowl which Emperor Mutsuhito and Empress Haruko of Japan had given them in appreciation of their furtherance of Japanese-American relations at home and abroad. The gift to the college, a token of gratitude, was made with the permission of the Emperor and Empress.

“The bowl is made of solid silver as thick as a silver dollar.  It is about twelve inches across and stands ten inches high.  The bowl is decorated in enamel and hammered representing in color the flowers of Japan, the wisteria and chrysanthemum, also the heron, the bird of that country, and the official mark of the royal house.”     The New York Times