On this day in 1887, Alice Freeman, charismatic president of Wellesley College, wed Harvard professor George Palmer, to the consternation of many Boston intellectuals. In her six years as president, Freeman had transformed the fledgling school from one devoted to Christian domesticity into one of the nation's premier colleges for women. Bright, charming, dedicated, and a gifted administrator, Freeman was considered a model of the "New Woman." But when she married, Alice Freeman bowed to Palmer's desire that she resign her presidency. Friends and colleagues felt betrayed. But the Palmers shared equally in domestic and professional responsibilities, and eventually Alice Freeman Palmer served as the first dean of women at the new, coeducational University of Chicago.