The Radcliffe Club of San Francisco, founded in 1898, is the oldest and only remaining independent Radcliffe club in the world. Membership is open to all alumnae of the former Radcliffe College and to anyone who has been connected with any Harvard University department as a student, instructor or parent of a student. We are an official Harvard Alumni Association club.
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2025 HAA Award for Outstanding Service presented to Alice Abarbanel for her leadership of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. Click HERE for full details.
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PLEASE NOTE:
As Harvard and all of higher education are threatened, and as Harvard has emerged as a strong defender of academic freedom, a growing group of alums has come together as Crimson Courage to support Harvard's stance, and to encourage it to continue to fight. Their first event was a Webinar on May 27, 2025.
The link below will take you to the zoom recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk2C8kljbyY
You may also scroll down to the bottom of the
https://www.crimsoncourage.com/ web site to find the recording
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Regular Club activities include a monthly in-person lunch group, a monthly film group, a monthly book group,
occasional museum tours, and a speakers series. All activities are open to all members.
March 2026 events:
More details are in the March newsletter (click "2026" in the red bar to the left.)
Book Group: Sunday, March 8, at 3 p.m. on Zoom.
Janet Hankin will email the link to regular participants. Others who would like to join can contact her at [email protected]. This month’s book is Master Slave Husband Wife, An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo
Culinary Adventures: San Francisco: Wednesday, March 11, at 11:30 a.m.
at a repeat favorite: Cholita Linda at the Ferry Building, Suite 44. RSVP to Mary Henderson at [email protected] (preferred) or 510-390-1132.
Celebration of Life of Lucille Poskanzer: Saturday, March 14, at 1:30 p.m.
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley. Lucille, Class of ’55, passed away in December. The story of her undergraduate years helped inspire the founding of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. The celebration will also be live streamed beginning at 2:00 p.m. (more details and link in newsletter.)
RCSF Speakers Series: Our next speaker will be Harvard Professor Michèle Lamont, a cultural sociologist
-- date in April or May to be announced.
For more details and registration on monthly events and newsletters, click on "2026" in the red bar to the left. For additional member information, click on "For Members" in the red bar to the left. The password is the name of the street that runs between the Yard and the Quad, all lower case. If you need help, please contact the website editor, Alison Boeckmann ([email protected])
For information about the former Radcliffe College and the use of the name "Radcliffe" by organizations of women at Harvard College, see the Wikipedia entry. See also Radcliffe: From College to Institute.
Link from the Radcliffe Institute for Radcliffe College alumnae information
Radcliffe Institute Fellows: Throughout the year, the Fellows at Radcliffe Institute share updates on their research and projects. Check for upcoming events at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/events-and-exhibitions
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Members may donate to the Radcliffe Club of San Francisco Scholarship Fund or the Schlesinger Library through the club via our membership form. Those who do so will receive credit from the university for their donations as individuals and as members of their college or graduate class.
Further information and donations to the Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project are also available online.
Radcliffe Club of San Francisco Volunteer Opportunities: Members are invited to help organize and run the club's programs and projects. More hands make the workload lighter, and you know you will be working with smart women, right? We are looking for on-line event organizers to run our Speakers Series (a few sessions each year), good writers to update the club's history (some research involved), good organizers to help organize the club's files, and someone with financial expertise to be a Co-Treasurer.
Please contact Co-President Kathy Henschel [email protected] for information.
For the history of the Club, see
"WE ARE NOT EXTINCT, The First 100 Years of the Radcliffe Club of San Francisco"
( A pdf version rcsf.v2.pdf was uploaded on Oct 20, 2018. It may be easier to read if you download the pdf and use preview or the equivalent.)
The Schlesinger Library also has a copy of "WE ARE NOT EXTINCT"
See articles in the Crimson:
WE ARE NOT EXTINCT (November 8, 2018)
INSTITUTE RE-BRAND PUSHBACK (May 13, 2021)
See Scientific American article about Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, the founder and first president of Radcliffe College