at the Academy The 1844 Board of Directors' declaration that women artists "would have exclusive use of the statue gallery for professional purposes" and study time in the museum on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings signified a significant advance towards formal training in art for women. Prior to the founding of the academy, there were limited opportunities for women to receive professional art training in the United States. This period between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries shows a remarkable growth of formally trained women artists. By 1860 female students were allowed to take anatomy and antique courses, drawing from antique casts. In addition, women enjoyed their newly acquired library and gallery access. Life classes, the study of the nude body, were available to women in the spring of 1868 with female models; male models were added for study six years later. This came after much debate on whether it was appropriate for women to view the nude male form. It took 24 years before women could take full advantage of all aspects of training at the prestigious institution. After 1868 women took more active leadership roles and achieved influential positions. For example, in 1878 Catherine Drinker, at the age of 27, became the first woman to teach at the academy. One of her pupils, her younger cousin Cecilia Beaux, would leave a lasting legacy at the academy as the first female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing, beginning in 1895. By the 1880s women artists competed with men for top accolades and recognition. Not until much later, however, did the academy gain its first woman on the board of directors in 1950. Among its African American female graduates were Laura Wheeler Waring and Ellen Powell Tiberino. Even as women artists were making progress in the United States, they had difficulty studying in Europe. Many of the famous and state-run academies, such as the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, actively excluded women until the late 19th century, and many of the only opportunities available were through privately run, less prestigious art schools or ateliers of artists. Women who chose to travel overseas typically studied the works of master artists in the galleries, not in classes. In 2010, the academy acquired the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women, nearly 500 works by female artists, from collector Linda Lee Alter. Artists in the collection include those of international renown,