Alumnae - members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Women and Leadership Task Force - joined Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles on May 7 as he unveiled a plaque at Lamont Library commemorating their gifts to renovate the library. Pictured from left to right are Nancy A. Zweng '76, MPP '78, Joan M. Hutchins '61, Dean Knowles, Charlotte P. Armstrong '49, LLB '53, Alexa Deric Willson '79, Diana L. Nelson '84, and Renee M. Landers '77. Photo by Martha Stewart.

Lamont Library set the stage last Friday, May 7, for a celebration honoring a group of alumnae who have generously given funds toward the library's renovation.

When Lamont was built in 1949 as Harvard's first library designed solely for undergraduates, its use was reserved for men. In the mid-1960s, a wide -- and wild -- debate, dubbed "Girls in Lamont," erupted. Women students were granted permission to attend seminars on the sixth floor -- as long as they entered and exited via the West Door. "Perhaps the authorities took these steps to protect Lamont wonks from stray traces of perfume," mused a Radcliffe student in a Crimson letter to the editor. The Harvard Undergraduate Council vehemently opposed any further integration, warning that "girls in Lamont would inevitably be a distraction. . . . Study dates and other social phenomena would certainly endanger the present solitude."

All concerns eventually were overcome. The faculty opened all of Lamont's doors and floors to Radcliffe students in January 1967 and the library became an academic resource benefiting all undergraduates.

In a symbolic gesture, the alumnae honored last week chose to direct their support to a part of the University that did not always welcome women. Several of them said that they hope undergraduates will see their gift as a symbol that women have attained their rightful place at Harvard, both as stewards of its present and as architects of its future.

Twenty-four women, all members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Women and Leadership Task Force, contributed toward the project. The task force meets two or three times each year to examine how women philanthropists can be integrally involved in having an impact on Harvard. Their gifts, which were doubled by the Harvard University Women's Matching Fund, total $1.3 million.

Nancy A. Zweng '76, MPP '78, said, "In directing our gift to Lamont, we responded to the symbolism of women helping to restore the very library women were excluded from for so long. Now that women comprise approximately half of each undergraduate class, Harvard must address issues of importance to women if it is going to be successful in engaging a significant proportion of its prospective donor base in the future."

The event "Women in Lamont" began with panel discussions on "Writing Women into Harvard History," led by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History; and "The Role of Women Faculty at Harvard" with Laura Gordon Fisher, associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for academic planning; Katharine Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science; and Maria Tatar, professor of German.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles, who hosted the event, unveiled a plaque that adorns the Lamont circulation area and briefly recounted the history of the library before concluding, "I'm not here to bemoan the sluggishness of the past. Let me rather look ahead, and imagine what -- with the help of the Task Force on Women and Leadership -- Lamont will become: a gateway to all of our printed collections and the treasures of the Harvard College Library, and to all the digital images, texts, and artifacts that reside somewhere else, but live in cyberspace. It is this transformation that the wonderful gift of the task force will bring about."