USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 10
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
The physical aspect of the Yard and its surroundings has been much altered since 1880. The huge mass of the Widener Library looms in place of old Gore Hall. The buildings for Philosophy, Architecture, Chemistry, Physics, Mower Hall, Langdell Hall, the Harvard Union, the Fogg Art Museum, the Germanic and Semitic Museums, are new. A new chapel has been erected as a memorial to the Harvard soldiers fallen in the Great War. At the bend of the Charles river, where Cambridge almost touches Boston, the noble Stadium and the picturesque group of the Business School buildings on one side, the freshman dormitories and the Harkness houses on the other, with the Anderson and Weeks Bridges connecting them and the two boathouses on opposite banks up and down the river, have transformed what fifty years ago was still a waste tract of low-lying marsh into a scene of enchanting loveliness.
And, if a university be regarded, not as a collection of buildings, but as an assemblage of scholars, training students seriously and worthily for leadership in the professions and in life, then, whatever may have been their status in 1SS0, it can be said with confidence today that Boston possesses in Harvard and the Institute of Technology two of the foremost institutions of learning in the world. Nor are their opportunities open, as some think, only to the well-to-do. Free scholarships and fellowships abound at Harvard as in, perhaps, no other similar institution.
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College had its beginning in the fall of 1879 when a committee of seven ladies offered to women students the opportunity of receiving systematic instruction of college grade from members of the Harvard faculty. In 1882 the committee, with some additional members, was incorporated as "The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women," and in 1894 the institution in their charge, popularly known as "Harvard Annex," was chartered as Radcliffe College. It was authorized by its charter "to confer on women all honors and degrees as fully as any university or college in this Common- wealth is now so empowered respecting men or women; provided, however, that no degree shall be conferred by the said Radcliffe College except with the approval of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, given on satisfactory evidence of such qualification as is accepted for the same degree when conferred by Harvard University."
In accordance with these provisions Radcliffe has granted the degree of Bachelor of Arts to 3,360 persons; of Associate in Arts to 57; of Master of Arts to 1,088; of Doctor of Philosophy to 124; of Master of Science to 2; and of
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Doctor of Science to 2. Its total enrollment in 1929-30 was 1,168 students, of whom 759 were undergraduates, 49 special students, and 360 students who had already earned the Bachelor's degree. The president is Ada L. Comstock, who in 1923 succeeded LeBaron Russell Briggs, previously the dean of Harvard College.
In its fifty years of existence, Radcliffe has accumulated invested funds approximating $5,741,650, and its grounds and buildings are valued at $1,508,397.55. A new lecture hall is now nearing completion, and within a few months construction will begin in new laboratories of Chemistry and Physics, made possible by a grant of $500,000 from the General Education Board.
Through its affiliation with Harvard, Radcliffe offers unique opportunities to the gifted undergraduate, and to the older woman who seeks membership in "the ancient and universal company of scholars."
Tufts College
Tufts College, founded in 1855 with four teachers and twenty students, has developed into one of the most prominent institutions of higher learning in the state. With its extensive campus of 150 acres, situated five miles from the State House in Boston, it offers the advantage of rural surroundings with ready accessibility to a great city. With Jackson College, its affiliated institu- tion for women, Tufts provides varied academic and professional courses.
The School of Liberal Arts, situated in Medford, offers courses leading to the Bachelor's degree in twenty-four major departments, and the Master's degree in the Graduate School may be obtained in one or more of seventeen departments.
As early as 1865 a course in Civil Engineering was offered, followed by one in Electrical Engineering in 1883. From then on Tufts Engineering School made rapid strides, and its graduates the world over have contributed in no small measure to the material progress of engineering.
From its founding by members of the Universalist denomination Tufts has maintained a Theological School, in which students are trained for the liberal ministry and for social service.
The naine of Tufts College has been associated with medicine since 1894 and with dentistry since 1900. The professional schools are located in the City of Boston in order to take advantage of the exceptional clinical facilities there. Today the graduates of these schools are well known in the professional world.
The present enrollment of the combined schools is over 1,800 with an · instructional staff of more than 300. During the last decade, under the presi- dency of Dr. John A. Cousens, Tufts College has made rapid progress in the educational field as well as in physical development, and has increased its endowment to approximately $10,000,000.
Jackson College for Women (The Department of Women in Tufts College)
In 1892 women were first admitted to Tufts College on the same terms as men, and the College remained co-educational until 1910, when Jackson College for Women was established as a department in Tufts College. The
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members of the faculty of the School of Liberal Arts form the majority of the faculty of Jackson College. In addition there are the dean and a few women members of the faculty.
The resident students are housed in seven dormitories, two of which con- tain dining rooms. Each house is under the direction of a woman who is either a member of the faculty or connected with the College in some other additional capacity.
The requirements for admission and for degrees are identical for Jackson : and for the School of Liberal Arts. In the required courses of the freshman year the women students are organized into separate sections by themselves, but in the more advanced work in all subjects the classes are made up of students from Jackson and Tufts together. It is believed that by this arrangement the students enjoy the benefits of both co-educational and segregated institutions.
In extra-curricular activities the same advantage is presented. In each of the departmental clubs and in Phi Beta Kappa there is a single organization including both men and women, but the Jackson students are free to organize by themselves not only in athletics but in any phase of student life in which there is something to be gained by a separate organization for women.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861 through the efforts of William Barton Rogers, its first president, who early recognized the need for an institution for the extension of invention and industry by means of exact scientific knowledge and research, and formulated the plan of an insti- tute devoted to the inculcation of scientific principles and their practical appli- cation. To that ideal the practices of the Institute have ever since conformed.
Technology began its work in April, 1865, four years after its founding, with a class of fifteen students in cramped, rented quarters in a building at 16 Summer street, Boston. Meanwhile the Institute's first building was under construction on Boylston street and there Technology remained, growing steadily, until 1916, when all its departments except architecture moved into the great new group of educational buildings on the banks of the Charles river in Cambridge.
The present enrollment of Technology is approximately 3,000 students, with a staff of 575, and its endowment is fifth among American institutions. Its influence is exerted, not alone in the training of engineers, architects and business administrators, but also in direct assistance given to industries in their technical problems, and in the education of many men who hold leading positions in other technical schools. Its president, Karl T. Compton, is a scientist of high rank, a worthy successor to men like Rogers, Walker, Pritchett, Maclaurin and Stratton.
It is the steadfast purpose of the Institute not only to keep pace with the times, but to anticipate the scientific and engineering problems that arise in the swift progress of civilization.
More extended information on the subject will be found in Professor Spofford's article on Engineering and Professor Mark's article on Science and Invention.
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Boston College
Housed at first in the basement of the Jesuit Church in the North End of Boston, and later in a disused lodge-room on Hanover street, Boston College finally found more adequate quarters in new buildings of its own on Harrison avenue, in the neighborhood of the old New England Conservatory of Music. The exigencies of the Civil War led to the use of the new buildings for the first three years as a house exclusively for Philosophy and Theology, but in Scp- tember, 1864, the doors once more opened to lay students, and a period of slow but ever constant growth set in that finally necessitated another removal to ampler grounds suitable for the statelier and more numerous buildings that the greater Boston College demanded. This led to the transfer in 1913 of the College department to the present site on University Heights, just across the Newton boundary and overlooking the beautiful Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Boston College High School, now an entirely distinct institution, occupies the original buildings on Harrison avenue and James street.
The style of architecture chosen for the projected twenty buildings to house the various undergraduate departments was naturally Gothic. Four of these buildings are already in use - the Administration Building, whose majestic tower dominates the countryside; the Science Hall for lectures and laboratory work; the exquisite Library Building, and lastly a Residence Hall, St. Mary's, for the faculty.
The course of studies followed at Boston College is that prescribed by the "Ratio Studiorum" of the Jesuits, in general use in their schools throughout the world, being a careful synthesis of the finest traditions of the medieval universities, supplemented by the better features of the Renaissance educa- tion, the whole brought into touch with modern life by the addition of what- ever new educational material or methods the wisest exponents of nineteenth and twentieth century culture can suggest.
Among the many distinguished alumni of Boston College there stand out His Eminence, Cardinal O'Connell, Major-General Hugh A. Drum, U. S. A., Chief of Staff of the First Army of the American Expeditionary Force in France, Professor John J. Burns of the Harvard Law School, recently appointed a Justice of the Superior Court, and others of similar distinction in the lay and clerical worlds.
Boston College now includes a Graduate School and a Law School. Its total enrollment is given as 2,715, with seventy-seven teachers.
Boston University
Boston University was chartered in 1869. The founders were Isaac Rich, Lec Claflin and Jacob Sleeper. All three were inen of affairs, substantial means, unquestioned integrity and earnest concern for the common good.
Despite the handicap of limited funds, Boston University has grown rapidly, so that it is today one of the largest institutions of higher learning in the world, having a student enrollment of 15,445, representing every state in the Union and thirty-four foreign countries. The University is composed of four undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools, as follows: College of Liberal Arts, College of Business Administration, College of Practical Arts
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and Letters, College of Music, School of Theology, School of Law, School of Medicine, School of Education, School of Religious Education and Social Service, and Graduate School.
Boston University, from the first, has offered equal opportunities to men and women. It provided in its charter that religious opinion should not affect the admission of students or the engagement of instructors. In form of organi- zation it has souglit to combine the advantages of both the British and the German types. It has fostered, from the beginning, simple relations of mutual respect between its teachers and its students. In its internal administration it has placed its reliance not on rules and regulations but on the good taste, good judgment and good will of its members. In its aims, whether liberal or vocational, it has concerned itself most for high standards of scholarship and of personal character.
The faculty of Boston University has included many famous men, among whom are Borden Parker Bowne, one of America's foremost philosophers; Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone at the time he was Pro- fessor of Speech in Boston University, stringing his wires and making his experi- ments in the University; E. Charlton Black, Shakespearean scholar; Dallas Lore Sharp, one of the foremost American writers on nature themes; Henry C. Sheldon, renowned theologian, and others of almost equal fame.
The graduates of the University include many persons of distinction in their chosen fields, among whom are Owen D. Young of New York, chairman of the General Electric Company; Colonel Leonard P. Ayres of Cleveland, statistician; United States Senator David I. Walsh and former United States Senator William M. Butler of Massachusetts; Governor Chase of Rhode Island; the chief justices of the supreme judicial courts of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts, and four of the seven associate justices of the latter court; 142 judges; prominent church leaders, including seventeen bishops; sixty- nine college and university presidents, forty-three of whom are active and serving today - a larger number than from any other educational institution.
Boston University has had but four presidents in its long history. The first president, William Fairfield Warren, served from the beginning until 1903; William Edwards Huntington, from 1903 to 1911; Lemuel Herbert Murlin, from 1911 to 1925. Daniel L. Marsh, the present president, began his admin- istration on February 1, 1926.
The University is "in the heart of the city, in the service of the city," and scattered all over the city. A new building site has now been acquired on the banks of the Charles river, upon which buildings are to be erected to house all the departments. The central and dominating architectural feature of the plant will be the Alexander Graham Bell Memorial Tower.
Wellesley College
Wellesley College owes its existence to the generosity and enthusiasm of Henry F. Durant, a Boston lawyer, and his wife. Its doors were opened in 1875 to 314 students, of whom, however, only thirty were judged to be of college grade.
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Six presidents, all women, have shaped the policies of the institution. Among these have been Alice E. Freeman, afterwards the wife of Professor George H. Palmer of Harvard, Caroline Hazard, and Ellen Fitz Pendleton, who has been president since 1911. Women have also greatly predominated in the faculty, many of whom are distinguished as teachers and as productive scholars.
The buildings and grounds of Wellesley are of consummate beauty. To the public it is best known by its Tree Day processions and its boating contests on lovely Lake Waban, both expressing the simple joyousness of the college life and its democratic character. What is, perhaps, less generally known is that the requirements for entrance and graduation are severe and the standard of scholarship is correspondingly high. A keen sense of honor and of per- sonal responsibility is maintained by the long-established system of student government.
The purpose of the college has always been cultural rather than vocational, - that is, it does not train the students for particular occupations. Neverthe- less, its graduates have taken high rank in all the professions open to women. The present enrollment of students is 1,556, with a faculty numbering 154. With the exception of Smith, it is the largest of the women's colleges, surpassing Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, Radcliffe and Bryn Mawr. Greater Boston naturally contributes a large proportion of the students, but Wellesley is not in any sense a local institution.
Simmons College
Simmons College was incorporated in 1899 in accordance with the pro- visions of the will of John Simmons, a Boston manufacturer of men's clothing, who died in 1870. It was his purpose to establish a college for women which should give instruction in such branches of art, science and industry as would enable its students to maintain themselves. It was thus to be a technical college for women, the first institution of its kind in the country. As the will was drawn in 1867, it was probably intended to be the counterpart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then recently organized for men. The bequest consisted of real estate in the heart of the city which was to serve as an endowment, but the purchase of land and the erection of buildings were to be postponed until the accumulated income should amount to $500,000. The destruction of more than half of the buildings by the fire of 1872 postponed the realization of the bequest for nearly thirty years.
It was then organized with a plan of instruction combining the prepara- tion for a professional occupation with the mnost serviceable cultural founda- tion. The plan included four-year programs for high school graduates, including both liberal studies and the technical preparation for some vocation, while technical programs of one year were available for graduates of other colleges. At the outset instruction was offered in domestic and institutional arts and sciences, in secretarial and business practices, in library work, and in the various natural sciences. Since then the fields of training have been extended to include social work, store service education, public health nursing, landscape architec- ture and physical education. The rapid growth of the college was due to the
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need for trained, edueated workers in these oeeupations, and to the increasing desire of women to enter the vocational fields.
Simmons College is beautifully situated in the Fenway distriet. Its stu- dents number 1,400, with 125 instructors. The president is Henry Lefavour, who has served since 1902.
Wentworth Institute
Wentworth Institute was incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts in 1904 for the purpose of furnishing education in the mechanical arts. It was endowed by Arioeh Wentworth with a sum amounting now to something over $5,000,000. It began operations in September, 1911, sinee which time it has trained 32,073 men, of whom 4,077 were soldiers and sailors in the World War. It is located on Huntington avenue, opposite the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Three types of courses are offered by the Institute. One-year day courses are given for young men who wish to become skilled meehanies or who desire a thorough mechanical training after completing their high school education. Two-year day courses are given for young men who are high school graduates, or who have had an equivalent education, who desire a longer and more diversi- fied course. Evening courses are offered to young men already employed in trades and industries who wish to continue their self-development in the evenings.
The Institute opened in September, 1911, with 250 day students and 300 evening students. The enrollment has always been limited to the effective capacity of the facilities and the teaching staff. In 1911 the day faculty num- bered eighteen teachers, and the evening faculty twenty-four. The school has had a gradual growth until the day enrollment has reached 650 and the evening enrollment 1,200. The day faculty now numbers forty-eight, and the evening faculty seventy.
Young men eome to Wentworth Institute from nearly every state in the Union. However, eighty per eent of the enrollment is made up of Massa- chusetts boys. Graduates are employed in all parts of the world, many New England boys seeking employment in other seetions of the United States and in foreign countries. The principal is Frederie E. Dobbs.
Northeastern University
The foundations for Northeastern University were laid in 1896 when, with the appointment of Frank Palmer Speare as director of the Y. M. C. A. educational program, the courses were gradually inereased in number and grouped into separate sehools in charge of full-time executives. In 1916 the educational program was given a university organization and was incorporated under the name, "Northeastern College." In 1922 the name was changed from "Northeastern College" to "Northeastern University."
The University is organized into two divisions. The Day Division, operated upon a co-operative plan, whereby the students alternate in spending five weeks in the classroom and five weeks in supervised employment, ineludes the day sehools of Engineering and Business Administration, enrolling 2,111
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students. Three hundred and fifty business concerns co-operate with the Day Division. Curricula are five years in length and are available in the Engineering School in civil, electrical, mechanical, chemical and industrial engineering, and in the School of Business Administration in accounting, banking and finance, and in business management. The degree of Bachelor of Science, with speci- fication, is conferred by these schools. The School of Engineering was the second co-operative school to be established in the United States. In addition to its academic program, the Day Division has an extensive program of extra- curricular activities embracing sixty-six student organizations.
In the Evening Division is found the School of Law, established in 1898, which has graduated inany outstanding lawyers. Northeastern also took a lead in the field of evening instruction of collegiate grade in business, establishing in 1907 one of the first collegiate schools of business in the country. The School of Law confers the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and the School of Commerce and Finance the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Business Administration. These schools enroll 1,061 and 598 students respectively. The undergraduate curricula in the School of Commerce and Finance require six years of attendance, and the curriculum in the Law School requires four years.
The growth of the institution has been remarkable. In 1896 there were 726 students taking single isolated courses in the Young Men's Christian Asso . ciation and the annual budget was only $2,800 a year. There are now 6,163 students, including the collegiate students in Worcester, Springfield and Provi- dence. Most of these students are taking complete curricula. The budget during the period has increased until it is over $1,000,000 a year. The president is Frank P. Speare. The University is co-educational.
Emmanuel College
Emmanuel College, under the direction of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, the first Catholic college in New England for women, is situated in one of the most picturesque parts of Boston's beautiful Fenway district. It is incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and invested with the power to confer degrees. It is affiliated with the Catholic University of America at Washington, is registered "in full" by the University of the State of New York, and is on the list of colleges approved by the National Catholic Educational Association.
The College offers a four-year course of undergraduate study leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The curriculum embraces a comprehensive scale of subject groups in which major subjects in fixed combination enable all candidates for degrees to specialize in two subjects. Students must elect their courses in accordance with this system of prescribed groups, each of which offers an intelligent and earefully correlated selection. A Graduate Depart- inent, open to students who have degrees from approved colleges, offers courses leading to the degree of Master of Arts and to the degree of Master of Education.
The purpose of the College is to inculcate in its students sound fundamental principles, a just judgment, a well-trained power of reasoning, a cultured appre-
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ciation of high ideals, a clear sense of their threefold obligation to God, to themselves and to their neighbor, and a realization that their future will be of value only so far as it will be a record of service.
Emmanuel College was founded in 1919. Its students number 320, with thirty-seven teachers.
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