If it weren’t for Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the popular women’s journal of the 19th century, Vassar would be "Vassar Female College" and Thanksgiving Day wouldn’t exist.
According to the VCencyclopedia, the college was originally incorporated in 1861 as "Vassar Female College." Very much a supporter of Matthew Vassar’s plan, Hale appealed to the founder to dispense with "Female," a word she considered "inelegant" and "absurd." After much correspondence between the two and numerous editorials in Godey’s, the trustees eventually agreed to the name change, the New York State Legislature amended the college’s charter, and the marble slab engraved with the word "Female" was removed from the front of Main.
This same outspoken woman is responsible for our most revered national holiday. It’s true that the settlers who survived their first winter in Plymouth held something akin to a traditional English harvest festival in 1621, but after that, Thanksgiving was an on-again off-again affair. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving; a few years later, Thomas Jefferson unproclaimed it. And so on.
It wasn’t until Hale took up the cause that what we call Thanksgiving evolved. She wrote editorials and lobbied "that the LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people." Finally, in 1863 (just two years before the first class of Vassar students would arrive on campus) President Lincoln succumbed to her pressure and proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving. Finally, in 1941, Congress made Thanksgiving a legal holiday.
In the early days of the college, everyone remained on campus for Thanksgiving (and more than a few for Christmas as well). One student wrote home, "The tables were glittering with cut glass and a world of lovely decorations....We fairly groaned because our dresses were getting so tight....We nearly died laughing at each other’s distressed expression. The way the poor things scattered after dinner was a sight. I can’t tell what all did, but the whole of Parlor 97 loosened hooks."