Boston Public Schools, Crocker pioneered the discovery method of teaching mathematics and the natural sciences during her decade-long tenure, which began with her appointment in 1876. Earlier, in 1873, she was among the first women elected to the Boston School Committee, and a strong advocate for higher education for women. Racial and gender equity The original founders gave no consideration to the question of whether Antioch should admit students of color, neither forbidding nor explicitly allowing it. The associated preparatory school admitted two African-American girls during the mid-1850s, an action one trustee responded to by resigning and removing his own children from the school. His opinion was apparently the minority one, as the black students were not withdrawn. Financial difficulties Antioch College was insolvent the day it opened and faced financial difficulties from its first years. From 1857 to 1859, Antioch ran an annual deficit of $5,000 out of a total budget of $13,000. In 1858, Antioch was bankrupt. Mann died in 1859, and the college was reorganized, but deficits continued. Mann's successor, Thomas Hill, took Antioch's presidency on the condition that faculty salaries be paid despite deficits. Despite this stipulation, his salary was often not paid, and he supported his family with loans. Hill and a colleague attempted to raise an endowment, but potential donors were put off by the strong sectarian leanings of some of the college's trustees. Hill resigned in 1862 due to increasing financial troubles, sectarian conflict between Christian Connection and Unitarian trustees, and his election as president of Harvard. In 1862, the college was closed until finances improved and remained closed until after the end of the Civil War. Unitarian phase In 1865, the college reopened, now administered by the American Unitarian Association. The financial health of the college seemed improved, as the Unitarians had raised a $100,000 endowment in two months. The endowment was originally invested in government bonds and later in real estate and timber. The investment income, while performing well, was still insufficient to maintain the college at the level desired by the trustees. Some of the principal was lost to foreclosures during the Long Depression, which began in 1873. The college closed again from 1881 to 1882 to allow the endowment to recover. Baseball milestone In 1869, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings began their inaugural season as the first professional baseball team, they played a preseason game at the site of