USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 15
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Other factors of success were Professor William A. Brewer, untiring in the cause of science and the public good,
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whose versatility of subject was only exceeded by the inex- haustible knowledge that his remarkable memory had col- lected; and Professor Thomas A. Lounsbury, who has long been an acknowledged authority on Chaucer and Shakespeare, and a brilliant writer on many and varied themes of schol- arship.
The patriotism of Yale, from the president down, during the Civil War, is an oft-told tale; and in the resulting Ala- bama Claims, and the Fisheries Dispute, President Woolsey's opinion as one of the world's experts in international law was sought and respected. The intellectual and material expan- sion of the college during his term made it an era of memor- able importance.
Noah Porter, Professor of Mental Philosophy, did not need to be introduced to the world of thinkers when he took the presidency in 1871; and there was no break in the development already begun. His sympathetic, personal, fatherly interest in the young men won their affection to a remarkable degree. His researches in the human mind did not prevent him from being an expert oarsman, and the coincidence seemed not inappropriate between his accession and the foundation of the Rowing Association of Colleges. In 1872, football was introduced at Yale; in the next year she was a leading member of the football association; then occur- red the first field games of the Yale Athletic Association; in 1877, Yale began her annual races at New London with her 'dearest foe,' Harvard; in 1879, the Intercollegiate Baseball Association was formed, and members of the class of 1881 secured by subscription from students and recent graduates the Yale Field, which after many years of careful prepara- tion became the scene of some of the great contests that have drawn the vast crowds of modern times; and has just now,
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free from incumbrance, been handed over to the University authorities, with Walter Camp as its director.
The effort to raise a fund commensurate with the expanded college was hampered by the panic of 1873, but yet resulted in the substantial addition of $173,000 to the treasury.
During this period death ended the long and faithful ser- vice of many of the old professors who had given Yale renown: Hadley, William A. Norton, Packard, Thacher, Loomis; while Gilman, Carter, Northrop, and Walker went forth to be college presidents themselves. The success of the Daily News proved that community of interests was growing between the different departments. Younger men came in, full of enterprise, and with new ideas. In 1872 also, a far- reaching change was made in the corporation, whereby the six senators who had formerly been selected from the Con- necticut General Assembly, to be members of the Corporation, were replaced by six graduates elected by the alumni. In this way, the graduates all over the country feel that they are in touch with the work in New Haven; and their satisfaction in being permitted to participate in the care of Alma Mater is shown by the wide-spread interest in the election of any new member of the Corporation. Graduate work was extended, and electives were cautiously introduced.
During President Porter's term, some beautiful and needed buildings were given, in most cases bearing the names of the donors; the Sloane Physical Laboratory, the Kent Chemical Laboratory, Lawrence Hall, and the complete building for the College Young Men's Christian Association given by Mr. Elbert B. Monroe, the residuary legatee of Mr. Frederick Marquand. It was named in honor of the elder Dwight, Dwight Hall, and is now regarded as the center of the religious life of the University.
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It was deemed a happy omen that the name of Timothy Dwight should appear a second time as the president of Yale, when he succeeded President Porter in 1886. The fact that he was one of the Divinity faculty, and was champion of the university idea, was a token of the change which occurred in 1887, when, by Act of the General Assembly, the title "Yale University" was authorized.
Genial and very witty, Dr. Dwight had long been well known as a scholar and a member of the Bible Revision Com- mittee, and in one way and another he had had a lifelong association with the college.
Expansion both in numbers and in scope continued under him. Electives, which had not been sincerely welcomed by President Porter, were now increasingly provided, and they in turn required a large force of instructors and enlarged equipment. This growth gave renewed opportunity for gifts, so that this administration became one of the great building periods. Dwight Hall and the two laboratories were com- pleted at the beginning of his term, and the walls of Osborn, Welch, White, and Winchester Halls, the last for the engi- neering department of the Sheffield Scientific School, all bear- ing the givers' names; Vanderbilt Hall, given by Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt in memory of their son, William Henry; Phelps Memorial Hall, in memory of William Wal- ter Phelps, given by his family; the Yale Infirmary, given by ladies of New Haven and New York; the Gymnasium, given by many graduates; Berkeley and Pierson Halls, built by the university,-all went up then. The new buildings for the Law School, called from its chief giver Hendrie Hall, was constructed gradually during this time, not being com- pleted till 1900.
The School of Music assumed its place as a department,
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and is evidently destined to exert a deep influence in develop- ing musical taste in New Haven as well as in student life.
Organized effort was seen in many directions. Clubs devoted to things religious, scientific, literary, mathematical, philosophical, linguistic, archeological, anthropological, ath- letic, social, in short, fitted to touch every kind of scholarly interest, arose; fellowships, scholarships, and prizes in increasing numbers stimulated the ambition of the students ; the great variety of graduate and elective courses, bringing students from all parts of the country and of the world, rendered the machinery of education very complicated in com- parison with that of the beginning of the century or even ten years before.
College periodicals flourished, and have now become very numerous and important. Of these, the "Lit," or "Yale Lit- erary Magazine," deserves notice. Established in 1836, it is the oldest permanent college magazine in America; and hav- ing started with a board of editors that included Evarts, the future statesman, and Lyman, the future astronomer, its edi- torial list has had many a brilliant name, such as Donald G. Mitchell, Henry B. Harrison, D. C. Gilman, Andrew D. White; and a high standard of literary excellence has been sedulously maintained.
Professor Tracy Peck, the profound Latin scholar, repre- sented Yale in Rome for a year as the head of the American School of Archeology; and Yale graduates have won a large share of honors there. An honor came to Yale in 1899 by the invitation given to Professor Ladd to lecture on the Phil- osophy of Mind before the Imperial University of Japan. His lectures there, and before the National Education Society of Japan, as well as in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, were received with great enthusiasm. Until the time of the second
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President Dwight, the different departments, while on most friendly terms, pursued each its own course, a natural result of the fact that most of them had to clear their own way and earn their own living, literally. Under him, however, the process of incorporating them into one body, of welding together the different parts of the structure, progressed rap- idly.
The day of specialists and special study had come, requiring complicated educational machinery and great executive abil- ity. With all these changes came vital questions as to policy, and the probable effect, near and remote, of the new order of things, the answers to which must be worked out in the slow school of experience. It was with melancholy forebodings that some recited "The old order passeth and giveth way to the new;" while others, seeming to see the glow of dawning day, were full of joy.
President Dwight, whose constant benefactions were as timely as secret, and who never drew his salary, refused all entreaties to continue to preside through the two hundredth anniversary of the college, and preferred to observe the unwritten law of retirement at threescore and ten. The mantle fell on his successor, the gifted Arthur T. Hadley, the son of Professor James Hadley, amid the imposing cere- monies of the most brilliant inauguration that Yale had wit- nessed; graduates, undergraduates, and distinguished dele- gates from other seats of learning, all contributing to the dignity and picturesqueness of the occasion.
The new president, who resembled his father in his wide range of exact learning and grasp of intellect, and had acquired a brilliant reputation as an authority in Railroad Science, differed from his predecessors in being the youngest of the line, and in being the first who was not an ordained
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minister of the gospel. Those who surmised from the latter circumstance that the cause of religion would suffer found themselves greatly mistaken.
The note to which his ideas were keyed may be heard in the oft-quoted passage in his inaugural address :- "What shall it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our own soul, if we develop the intellectual and material side of our educa- tion and lose the traditional spirit of democracy, and loyalty, and Christianity ?"
One of the first objects of attention presented to the new president was the proper preparation for the approaching Bicentennial Celebration in October, 1901. The harmonious and systematic labors of the committee, most judiciously chosen, working untiringly during the next two years, were effectual in bringing to pass a jubilee which has never been equalled in the history of this country, and in the opinion of competent observers from foreign countries, has seldom been surpassed anywhere.
The university buildings, and the city even to remote quar- ters, were dressed in gala attire, which, following the sug- gestions of Louis Tiffany, was most effective; the crowds of happy alumni, pouring in from Maine to California, and even from the isles of the sea, the unprecedented assemblage of dis- tinguished guests who came as delegates from institutions of learning in this country and in Europe as well as in Japan, moving about in their sometimes brilliant and always impos- ing gowns of state, the illuminations of city and university by night, the music and gorgeous processions by day, and, bath- ing all in an ideal glow, the festive air of every man, woman, and child who crowded the streets; the golden atmosphere of four perfect October days,-all conspired to make this cele- bration one that can never be forgotten.
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This was the time when each department put forth its best to do honor to the venerable parent of them all; and the addresses by the honored representatives of Yale in theology, medicine, law, science, and letters, set forth the glories achieved by each for her. The story of the years was told in other ways also; there were collections to be seen that would easily have absorbed all the time. At the Art School was an historical exhibition of paintings which covered nearly the period of the existence of the college, from Smybert to Inness; the Steinert collection of musical instruments was dis- played so far as space allowed; the Peabody Museum, in addition to the general remarkable collection, exhibited some gigantic fossils which had taken months to mount; and in the Library, a never-ending crowd lingered over the surprising display of relics pertaining to college history, and the scores of greetings from the universities of the world. These greet- ings, in languages dead and living, on parchment, vellum, or paper, engrossed with all the cunning of mediaeval art, expressed in varying words one sentiment, that of friendly congratulation. Princeton, with her glowing arabesques of the violet and the chrysanthemum entwined. Harvard, with her stern simplicity, and Tokio, with a scroll five or six feet long, and a special letter from the Yale Club in Japan, won perhaps the most attention.
The crowning event was the presentation of honorary degrees; and the final touch was given to that day by the presence of Theodore Roosevelt, who amid applauding throngs, came as the President of the United States to receive the honor that had been designed for him as a private citizen. In all this crowded series of events, ministering to eye and ear, to mind, heart, and college patriotism, involving thousands of persons in a bewildering variety of situations, there was
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not a flaw or a hitch in the arrangements, which moved on as smoothly as if bicentennial celebrations had been a part of the college curriculum for years.
When the pageant had ended, and the orator's voice was not heard, when the famous visitors had gone home, and the town and university had laid aside their fine array of bunting and evergreen and electric lights, there was time to see how well the traits of systematic thoroughness, of perfection in de- tails, of inexhaustible patience, of power of co-ordination-in short, of the administrative ability of the university, had served the exigencies of that extraordinary time, even as they had been for generations serving the every-day needs of the college. Each man had done his part, knowing that it could never be repeated, and that it admitted no mistake. The uni- versity had lived up to the resolution of Jonathan Edwards, on that occasion at least.
German universities have often presented a volume of scien- tific studies on some academic anniversary, and with this in mind it was at first proposed to issue a few books setting forth the researches of Yale professors; but the material afforded was so abundant and represented so many different lines of work, that upwards of twenty-five volumes were published, the financial guarantee of $15,000 being provided by a grad- ute. These Bicentennial books will be touched on later, and are really the most lasting and significant commemoration of the time.
One notable feature of the occasion was the Bicentennial Fund, which was contributed by graduates and friends to the amount of $2,000,000, by means of which the group known as the Bicentennial Buildings came into being as a monument of the anniversary. These are the Administration Building, dedicated as Woodbridge Hall in Bicentennial Week; the
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new dining-hall, called University Hall, where another effort is made to solve the problem of College commons; and, con- nected with that by the spacious rotunda known as Memorial Hall, the Auditorium, named in honor of President Wool- sey. To give the ear as well as the eye its share of pleasure in this gem of architecture, the Newberry Memorial Organ was placed therein by the family of John Strong Newberry. This organ, one of the largest in the country, was made as complete and as nearly perfect in every detail as possible. These large buildings were not all finished until 1903. At the same time were rising the walls of Fayerweather Hall and the Lampson Lyceum; and the Scientific School was the recipient of munificent gifts in buildings,-Kirtland Hall, much needed for Mineralogy and Geology; Byers Hall, one of the most beautiful of the college possessions, filling a keenly-felt want for a religious and social centre for the Sheffield men, who will hereafter find within these refined and artistic surroundings the headquarters of their Young Men's Christian Association, and opportunities for recreation and enjoyment; and last, but by no means least, was the gift of Mr. Frederick Vanderbilt, of the S. S. S. class of '76, by which the Scientific School came into possession of a large block of land on which he has built a most tasteful as well as massive dormitory, fitted with careful eye to the best life of the students.
This-to be called the "Vanderbilt," in memory of the donor's father-will be followed by another similar building ; and thus at last the Sheffield Scientific School will be enabled to have the dormitory life which has been much needed, and which is acknowledged to be most conducive to the best col- lege spirit.
Without dormitories, the increasing number of scientific
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students (837 in 1903) has led them to group themselves in small houses, more or less comfortable and elegant, and to thereby be in danger, by comparative isolation, of losing the feeling of unity, of esprit du corps, which has always proved to be very valuable.
In 1900, owing to the generosity of Mr. James W. Pinchot the Forest School was founded, having its headquarters in the fine house bequeathed by Marsh, and doing field work accept- ably in tracts of land placed at its disposal by the city, State, and friends in Pennsylvania and the State of New York.
In 1903, was celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Yale's great son, Jonathan Edwards, with appropriate addresses and an exhibition of some of the relics in the pos- session of the university, including his desk, on which he wrote the "Freedom of the Will," and portions of the pre- cious manuscripts, which to the number of some thousands have been presented to the University.
Unbroken harmony has always prevailed between the Cor- poration and the Faculty. It is almost needless to say that there has been a steady increase in numbers, both of students and faculty, through the century; the former in 1903 num- bering 3,142; the latter, including assistants in administra- tion, 384. The students in Yale's nine departments in 1903, assembled from forty-two States and Territories, including Hawaii and the Philippines; and from nineteen foreign countries : England, France, Greece, Holland, Sweden, Tur- key, Armenia, Asia Minor, Canada, Nova Scotia, Cuba, Chili, Brazil, Mauritius, and from such uttermost parts of the earth as India, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zea- land.
Space fails for showing the lighter side of the picture, for describing the varying forms of student life which have made
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it dear to its participants. One thing is certain; that the ever-widening provisions and opportunities for college study which are now offered to all sorts and conditions of men, and the increasing liberality of feeling among the intellectual chiefs of the world have broken down many barriers, and the old animosity between Town and Gown has become only a tradition.
In the course of years, the forty books have had accre- tions which, with the various departmental libraries, amount to over 370,000 volumes, and include some precious collec- tions, among them the Count Riant collection of Scandi- navian literature. The Salisbury collection of Oriental Man- scripts, books and works of reference; the valuable Count Landberg library of rare Arabic manuscripts; the library of the American Oriental Society, together with the well-stocked Semitic section of the University Library-befit the home of Oriental scholarship which has been nurtured by such men as Salisbury, Whitney, Williams, and Sanders, and where the Department of Asiatic History is more fully cared for and taught than anywhere else in America. There is also a His- torical Library of Foreign Missions, comprising about 7,000 books in various languages, designed to furnish the latest and fullest missionary intelligence, which is owing to the gener- osity and indefatigable interest of the Rev. Dr. George E. Day. It has become one of the two largest mission libraries in the world, the other one being in Denmark. The Lowell Mason Library of Church Music, of 4,000 volumes, recalls the labor of love of Joel Sumner Smith, who gave, for more than three years, four hours a day without any compensation to the work of cataloguing it in admirable style. Nor was that all: during ten years he expended most of his salary in collecting a library of about 6,000 Russian books, which,
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with an anonymously printed catalogue, he presented to the University, exacting strict secrecy as to the giver. In like manner, he gave a collection of works on the history of music, with an outlay of at least twelve thousand dollars for both.
Needless to say, when, after his death, the facts could be made known, a movement was immediately started to re- turn this sum to his widow.
The Art School is the repository of the Trumbull Gallery, fifty-four of the works of the patriot painter, John Trumbull, most of them of great historical importance; of the Alden Bel- gian wood-carvings of the sixteenth century, from a chapel in Ghent; of Chinese porcelains and bronzes of great value from the collection of the late Dr. S. Wells Williams; of casts, modern paintings, some original sketches by Correggio and others of the old masters; and, most important of all, of the Jarves Gallery of 122 Italian paintings, cassoni, and trip- tychs, dating from the eleventh to the seventeenth century, and most suggestive and interesting in the illustration of the development of the art of the old masters.
The Steinert Collection is a rare exhibition of antique- and in some cases historic-harpsichords, claviers, and spin- ets, as well as of autograph letters of great musicians.
But when we come to the scientific collections of the Uni- versity, we speak of matters of world-wide reputation among scholars. The palæontological collection in the Peabody Museum is unsurpassed by that of any educational institu- tion in this country, and affords great opportunities for investigation and study. It was a chance remark by Presi- dent Gilman at a dinner in London that brought Huxley to this country to see this. He expressed himself as feeling fully repaid by the study of a collection for which Europe did not offer an equal. And there are literally car-loads of similar
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specimens packed away, waiting for time and space to see the light of day.
Since Huxley's visit, the labor of putting together and mounting many more of these fossils has been completed; among the Museum's special contributions to the Bicentennial were a skeleton of the primitive dog, the only complete one in existence, and a slab containing the skeleton of a Cretaceous Dinosaur measuring more than twenty-nine feet in length by thirteen feet in height, the last requiring more than a year of labor on mounting by Professor Beecher and his assistants. Among these huge remains are the skull of a gigantic Dino- saur from the Cretaceous of Wyoming ; part of the thigh bone of Atlantosaurus, the largest of Dinosaurs and of land ani- mals yet known; the remains of a Jurassic Dinosaur about thirty feet long, which had immense plates on its back and spines on its tail; and two skeletons of gigantic Moas, extinct birds of New Zealand, besides a Brontosaurus-only partly shown, for lack of room-which was seventy feet long and twenty feet high. Of a vast number of footprints, only a few slabs are exhibited; some showing long lines of tracks of biped reptiles ; and one about twelve feet long, covered with the prints of raindrops that fell in a remote period of time.
The Peabody Museum collection of fossils is the monu- ment of Marsh, who with a devotion that was a life-long passion, expended time, strength, fortune, in the acquisition and study and mounting of these silent revealers of vanished forms of life. Sometimes months are spent in mounting one specimen; and it is work which only a scientific expert can do. Marsh's successor, the greatly lamented Beecher, who gave a valuable invertebrate collection to the Museum, was one of the few experts in his difficult science; and his
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recent death, following that of his great master, has been a severe blow to the cause of science.
The Peabody Museum also contains the noted Blum col- lection of pseudomorphs, a very fine one of corals and marine life, results of the labors of Dana and Verrill; a very import- ant collection of skeletons, mostly given by Marsh, who bestowed much care on securing them; an anthropological collection of interest, and a remarkable collection of Indian baskets deposited by Mr. and Mrs. Seth Moseley.
In minerals, the Museum is very rich. The candle-box of specimens which Benjamin Silliman took to Philadelphia in 1802, was a small beginning of a collection so brilliant and extensive as the present one. It includes the "Gibbs cabinet," which contributed so largely to excite public interest in the department of knowledge to which the Museum is devoted. Its collection of meteorites is also one of the largest in the country, and includes the celebrated mass of meteoric metal weighing 1,635 pounds which fell in Texas; nearly two thou- sand small meteorites from two falls in Iowa; the famous Western meteorite of 1807, which was then described by Professors Silliman and Kingsley, and was the beginning of this remarkable treasure of meteorites; and the collection made by the late Professor Newton, whose life-work made him one of the great authorities on Meteoric Astronomy.
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