February 13, 1869. Hiram Sibley to Ezra Cornell from Rome: "Every body I see in Europe seems to regard with favor the plan & Policy Inaugurated by yourself & Prest. White and all predict a glorious future for the Cornell University. It has been a source of especial Pride & pleasure to me to witness the interest manifest by the men of learning everywhere I go in the "New University" (as they call it) to distinguish it from any one of the Old Established and to convey the idea of progress an improvement a new and better institution and better calculated to meet the wants of our growing county. "You are aware no doubt of the immediate cause of my visit abroad. My Physicians insisted that the only way to give my little overworked Brain rest was to put the Atlantic Ocean between me and my office." February 26, 1869. Ezra Cornell to Lucy M. Washburn on the education of women at Cornell University: "If the question of w[h]ere girls should board was the only one we could master that, but when and to whom shall they?attend to other educational duties is the question. We have now 400 boys here, and our room so crowded that we are forced to all sorts of expedients to make room for them. We also have several hundred young men pressing for admission who we cannot yet receive for want of room. If your case is one that only involves educational facilities, you can secure what you wish at Vassar College, and leave us to experiment on the boys?. I hope to live to see a thousand young women being educated in this University, with as many or more of their brothers, and all working smoothly and in harmony for their best good, but I don't want the young women forced upon us before we are prepared to make a success of it." Topics: Cornell University: Library, buildings, women students; Cornell family genealogy and history; telegraph industry (trial); Western Union Telegraph Company; mineralogical collections; women's education; Newcomb's expedition Personal names: Sibley, Hiram; Cornell, Samuel; Barnard, Eunice; Washburn, Lucy M.; Newcomb, Wesley; Chace, George A. Geography: