“Any Person”

Malvina Higgins grew up in Ithaca. In the 1850s her family left the Presbyterian Church to form an Abolition Church in Ithaca. When grown, Malvina Higgins went to the south to teach in African-American schools. She wrote to Mr. Cornell in 1868, praising the new university in Ithaca that “ . . . such an institution as yours has taken this step in recognition of the brotherhood of man . . . it is so like the broad shining of the sun whose rays fall upon all with equal cheerfulness.”

John Corbin wrote Mr. Cornell to ask if the university would accept a black student. Mr. Cornell’s handwritten answer was resolute and brief: “Send him.”

The diary includes notes, accounts, drafts and copies of letters, as well as a list of “where students are from.” In 1870, students came to Cornell University from twenty-eight states, Washington, D.C., and eleven foreign countries. In the first twenty years, the largest number of foreign students came from Canada. They were predominantly male; the first female foreign student, Canadian Margaret Henderson, graduated from Cornell in 1881.

Might a foreign-born boy come to the new university in Ithaca? Budd wrote to Ezra Cornell from England, where to be a scholar one needed to be a member of the Anglican Church.

Cornell’s first Japanese graduate, Mr. Yatabe went on to become the first Professor of Botany and Curator of Botanic Gardens at the University of Tokyo.

Some foreign students, graduate and undergraduate, and some faculty, created social organizations for themselves. In 1873 the Brazilian students published Aurora Brasileira, a monthly newsletter written in Portuguese, and established Club Brasileiro, which had twenty-one members in its initial year. In 1888-89 Latin American students from Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Honduras and Brazil created Alpha Zeta, a “foreigner’s fraternity,” although by 1894 it was no longer listed in the Cornellian. That year, a Canadian Club appears with approximately fifty members, and there is evidence that it was a strong organization for some time. In 1895 Professor E. A. Fuertes is listed as the Presidente Honorio of the Club Latino-Americano, which flourished for a time and then disappeared, only to reappear in 1916, when it was called Union Latino-Americano. The Cosmopolitan Club, founded in 1904, the first international students’ organization in this country, gave many foreign students a home at the university. It also provided an extensive program of lectures, debates, and parties which attracted many students.

The first professor of Geology at Cornell, Charles Frederic Hartt, traveled often to Brazil for exploration and study. His influence in Brazil is largely responsible for attracting Brazilian students to Cornell. One of his acquaintances in Brazil was the university’s first Brazilian student, Elias Jordão. Jordão was from São Paulo, and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. He returned to Brazil after earning his degree, and had a distinguished career as an engineer, administrator and entrepreneur. Often contributing his expertise to government initiatives, Jordão was also a politician and helped establish the São Paulo Republican Party. He died in France in 1901.

As a student at Cornell, Mr. Jordão was acquainted with Anna Botsford. Ms. Botsford came to Cornell in November of 1874 for the second term; at the time, the university held three terms a year. Anna wrote that she “found a room in a house on East Seneca Street, and a place to board (i.e. to take meals) across the street.” She continued:

Anna Botsford Comstock, The Comstocks of Cornell: John Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford Comstock. An Autobiography by Anna Botsford Comstock, edited by Glenn W. Herrick and Ruby Green Smith. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing Associates, 1953.

Read more about Anna Botsford’s experiences as one of the early women students at Cornell.