History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 44

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The internal affairs of the College progressed but slowly during the decade 1850-60. Jared Sparks, the historian, was President from 1849 to 1853, and was

1 See S. A. Eliot's Sketch of Harvard College, p. 116.

2 Sec article by Francis Bowen in the North American Review, Jan., 1850.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

followed by the Rev. James Walker (1853-60). The Elective System, of which an account will be found elsewhere, was not encouraged ; but the efforts to im- prove discipline and to check hazing were vigorous, and the standard of learning was perceptibly raised. Three professorships were endowed, one of Astronomy (Phillips, 1849) ; one of Christian Morals (Plummer, 1855), and one of Clinic (Jackson, 1859). Appleton Chapel was erected in 1858, and the (Old) Gymnasium in 1860. Mr. Everett was the last President to live in Wadsworth House; President Sparks dwelt at the corner of Quincy and Kirkland Streets, and President Walker at No. 25 Quincy Street. In 1860 a fund given by Peter C. Brooks in 1846 had accumulated sufficiently to pay for the erection of a new residence for the President. Doubtless the most important addi- tion to the University during this period was due to the energy and genins of Professor Louis Agassiz, by whom valuable collections in natural history had been patiently made, and through whose enthusiasm money was raised for the erection of the first division of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1859.

Professor Cornelius Conway Felton, eminent as a Greek scholar, was elected President in 1860, upon the resignation of Walker, and served until his death, in 1862, being succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Hill. This was a gloomy crisis in the history of the nation, and Harvard did not escape from its effects. The cost of living was considerably increased owing to the Civil War; nevertheless, the number of students did not diminish to the degree that might have been expected, The number of Seniors upon whom degrees were conferred between 1850 and 1859, average 82. The class of 1860 graduated 110-the largest up to that date; 1861, 81; 1862, 97; 1863, 120; 1864, 99; 1865, 84. President Hill's adminis- tration is memorable on two accounts : he initiated changes in the methods of instruction with a view to convert the College into a University, and he wit- nessed the final severing of the College from all interference by the State. On April 26, 1865, the Legislature passed a bill providing for the election of Overseers by " such persons as have received from the College a degree of Bachelor of Arts, or Master of Arts, or any honorary degree." The voting was fixed between the hours of ten A. M. and four P. M. at Cambridge, on Commencement Day; no member of the Corporation, or officer of government aud instruc- ion was elegible as an Overseer, or was entitled to vote; and Bachelors of Arts were not allowed to vote until the fifth Commencement after their graduation. The Board of Overseers, as thus constituted, consists of thirty members, divided into six classes of five members each, every class serving six years. In case of a vacancy, the remaining Overseers can sup- ply it by vote, the person thuselected being " deemed to be a member of and to go out of office with the class to which his predecessor belongs." Among the other noteworthy events of President Hill's term were the

building of Gray's Hall (1863), and the introduction of a series of University Lectures (1863) by specialists. These courses, rather popular in their nature, were open to all members of the University, and to the public on the payment of five dollar. The Academic Council, composed of the Professors and Assistant Professors in the various Faculties, was founded with a view to suggest the subjects to be lectured upon and to recommend lecturers.

President Hill resigned September 30, 1868; Charles William Eliot (class of 1853), at that time a member of the Board of Overseers, was chosen to succeed him, May 19, 1869. President Eliot's administration, which has now extended over twenty - one years, has been unquestionably the most memorable in the history of the University. Changes more numerous and more radical have been wrought than in any previous period of the same length ; and they have affected most deeply not only Harvard itself, but the higher education of the whole country. It is still too soon to pass final judgment on many of these changes, but it is not too soon to state that they mark the transformation of the College into a University. Foremost among them is the unre- served adoption of the Elective System, long and stubbornly opposed; its privileges were handed down from class to class, until at last they reached the Freshmen. As a corollary to this, voluntary attendance at College exercises has been accorded to undergraduates, the experiment being tried first with the Seniors in 1874-75. The Law School has been completely reorganized ; its course has been length- ened from two years to three, and its instruction has been made methodical and progressive. A similar improvement has been effected in the Medical School, whose standard was raised above that of any other in the country, and whose course has been fixed at three years, with an extra year for those who care to avail themselves of it. The Divinity School, long on the verge of dissolution, has been resuscitated, and although it cannot yet be said to flourish, this is due to the general temper of the age in religious matters, rather than to the inadequacy of the facilities of the School itself. Attempts have likewise been made to increase the efficiency of the Scientific School, but that institution seems to be inevitably ten ding towards absorption in the College. The School of Veterinary Medicine, the Bussey Institution, the Arnold Arboretum, the Peabody Museum of American Archæology, and the transference of the Museum of Comparative Zoology to the College, are landmarks in the extension of the University in different direc- tions during the past twenty years.

To this period belongs also another wise reform- the abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services. In 1869 the Faculty ceased to require those students who passed Sunday at home to attend Church, except as their guardians or parents desired ; and it reduced the number of services to be attended

CAMBRIDGE.

by those who remained in Cambridge, from two to one. After much discussion and many petitions, attendance at prayers as well as at Sunday services, was left to the choice of the student. The old system of regulations was completely recast : the Faculty recognized that it had a more useful work to perform than to inspect the frogs and buttons on the student's coats, or to fix the hour for going to bed. The decorum of the undergraduates has improved in proportion as their independence has widened. Hazing has disappeared, and cases of serious disorder have been rare. Crib- bing at examination, which a majority of students deemed venial when studies were prescribed, has alınost passed away, since studies have been elective.

In 1869 the semi-annual exhibitions, which used to be held when a committee of the Overseers visited the College, were abandoned, since it was found that they no longer served their original purpose of stimu- lating the ambition of students. In the following year the system of conferring "honors" on students who had passed a successful special examination in some one department-as the Classics, or Mathe- matics-at the end of their Sophomore or Senior year, was introduced. In 1872 the Academic Coun- cil was remodeled, to suggest candidates for the higher degrees, A.M., Ph.D. and S.D., and these degrees acquired a real value from the fact that they represented a specified amount of graduate work. Indeed, the policy of the University has been to abolish the old custom of conferring meaningless de- grees. Even those which are purely honorary in their nature (LL.D. and D.D.) have been bestowed more sparingly. The venerable practice of confer- ring the degree of Doctor of Laws on the Governor for the time being of Massachusetts-a practice which arose when that dignitary was ex officio the President of the Board of Overseers-was broken up in 1883, when Benjamin F. Butler was Governor of the Com- monwealth, and it is probable that the precedent will never be revived.

The salaries of the teachers was raised in 1869- that of professors being fixed at $4000, that of assist- ant professors at $2500, and that of instructors at $1000; but these figures represent the maximum, and not the average sums received in the respective grades. In the current year (1890) another small increase has been made; but the smallness of the teachers' stipends, when compared with the income which successful doctors, lawyers and clergymen re- ceive for intellectual work of relatively the same quality, indicates that public sentiment still holds educators dangerously cheap. Fine dormitories, spacious halls, vast museums and costly apparatus do not make a university ; men, and only men of strong intellect, of wisdom and spirituality, can make a university ; and they can be secured only by pay- ing them an adequate compensation. Until society recognizes that the ideal educator is really beyond all price, it will go on suffering from evils and losses

which a proper education might prevent. To lighten the work of the Harvard professors, the Corporation. have grauted them a leave of absence for one year out of every seven. Further, a subscription has recently been opened to a fund to provide a pension for those professors who, after a long service, are incapacitated from either age or feebleness. In 1872 the experi- ment of conducting "University Lectures" was found to be unsuccessful ; but it was still maintained with good results in the Law School till 1874. Sum- mer courses in Chemistry and Botany were offered to teachers and other students (1874), and they have coustantly grown in usefulness, so that similar courses in other departments have been added. In 1875 spring examinations for the University were held in Cincinnati, and this scheme, too, proved so beneficial that it has been extended to several other distant cities, and to some of the preparatory schools. In that same year Evening Readings, open alike to the public and students, were introduced; and they were repeated from year to year. Latterly, more formal lectures, College Conferences, etc., have partly super- seded them.

The method of instruction is now by lectures and not by recitations in all those courses where lectures can be given to greater advantage. The marking system-a survival from the old seminary days, when marks were sent home regularly every quarter-has been overhauled and reduced to the least obnoxious condition. Formerly, the maximum mark for any recitation was eight; the students were ranked for the year on a scale of 100, but, though the scale was the same, no two instructors agreed in their use of it. Some were "hard " and some were " soft " markers; some frankly admitted that it was impossible to get within five or ten per cent. of absolute exactness ; others were so delicately constituted that they could distinguish between fractions of one per cent. One instructor was popularly supposed to possess a mark- ing "machine; " another sometimes assigned marks less than zero. These anomalies were long recognized before a simple and more rational scheme was adopted, in 1886. " In each of their courses students are now divideil into five groups, called A, B, C, D and E; E being composed of those who have not passed. To graduate, a student must have passed in all his courses, and have stood above the group D in at least one-fourth of his college work; and for the various grades of the degree, honors, honorable mention, etc., similar regulations are made in terms of A, B, C, etc., instead of in per cents. as formerly." 1 The increase in the number of instructors in the various depart- ments has also brought about what was first proposed in President Kirkland's time-the autonomy of each department over its own affairs, subject, of course, to' the approval of the governing boards.

Examinations are now held twice a year, at the

1 W. C. Lane in the Third Report of the Class of 1881.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

end of January and in June, lasting about twenty days at each period. The examinations, except in courses involving laboratory work, are nearly all written, of three hours' length each. President Eliot, then Tutor in Mathematics, was the first to introduce written examinations, in the course under his charge, in 1854-55. Before that tests were oral. The Col- lege calendar was reformed in 1869, previous to which date a long vacation had been assigned to the winter months, chiefly for the benefit of peor students who partly supported themselves by teaching school for a winter term. As re-arranged, the College year extends from the last Thursday in September to the last Wednesday in June, with ten days' recess at Christ- mas and a week at the beginning of April.

The remarkable expansion of the University dur- ing the past twenty years-to which expansion these changes bear witness-has been as great in material and financial concerns, as in policy. In 1869 the resources of Harvard amounted to $2,257,989.80, and the income to $270,404.63; in 1889 the capital was $6,874,046.25, and the income was $913,824.72. Five large dormitories have been erected, viz. :- Thayer Hall, the gift of Nathaniel Thayer, in 1870 ; Holyoke, erected by the Corporation, in 1871 ; Matthews Hall, the gift of Nathan Matthews, and Weld Hall, the gift of William F. Weld, in 1872; and Hastings Hall, the gift of Walter Hastings, in 1889. An addition to the Library, hy which its capacity was more than doubled, was completed in 1877. Austin Hall, the new Law School, was built from plans by H. H. Rich- ardson in 1883; the same architect designed Sever Hall (lecture and recitation rooms) in 1880. In 1871 a mansard roof was added to Boylston Hall, the Chemical Laboratory; and College House was enlarged during the same year, when also the lecture- room and laboratory of the Botanic Garden were completed. The Jefferson Physical Laboratory (for which Thomas Jefferson Coolidge was the chief con- tributor), was finished in 1883; that year the new Medical School in Boston was first occupied. The Museum of Comparative Z >ology has grown by succes- sive additions, the cost of which has been largely de- frayed by Alexander Agassiz, until it now (1890) covers the two sides of the quadrangle originally proposed by Louis Agassiz; and on the third side the Peabody Museum of Archæology, begun in 1876 and added to in 1889, has almost reached the point of junction. The Bussey Institution (1870), the School of Veter- inary Medicine (1883) and the Library of the Divinity School (1886) are further monuments of President Eliot's administration. For athletic purposes several buildings have been erected during this period : the University Boat House (1870), the Hemenway Gym- nasium (1879), the Weld Boat House (1890) and the Cary Athletic Building (1890).

One other edifice, Memorial Hall, deserves a more extended notice. In May, 1865, a large number of graduates hield a meeting in Boston to discuss plans

for erecting a memorial to those alumni and students of Harvard who lost their lives in behalf of the Union during the Civil War. A Committee of eleven were appointed, consisting of Charles G. Loring, R. W. Emerson, S. G. Ward, Samuel Eliot, Martin Brimmer, H. H. Coolidge, R. W. Hooper, C. E. Norton, T. G. Bradford, H. B. Rogers and James Walker. At another meeting, in July, they presented a report, in which was the following resolution : " Resolved, That in the opinion of the graduates of Harvard College, a 'Memorial Hall'. constructed in such manner as to indicate in its ex- ternal and internal arrangements the purpose for which it is chiefly designed ; in which statues, husts, portraits, medallions and mural tablets, or other appropriate memorials may be placed, commemo- rative of the graduates and students of the Col- lege who have fallen, and of those who have served in the army and navy during the recent Rebellion, in conjunction with those of the past benefactors and distinguished sons of Harvard now in her keeping,- and with those of her sons who shall hereafter prove themselves worthy of the like honor,-will be the most appropriate, enduring and acceptable commem- oration of their heroism and self-sacrifice; and that the construction of such a hall in a manner to render it a suitable theatre or auditorium for the literary festivals of the College or of its filial institutions will add greatly to the beauty, dignity and effect of such memorials and tend to preserve them unim- paired, and with constantly increasing association of interest to future years." At Commencement this resolution was brought before the alumni. After considerable discussion, in which some speakers pro- posed that a simple monument or obelisk would be more appropriate than a building, the matter was referred to a Committee of Fifty, which, on Septem- ber 23d, reported in favor of a memorial hall. Messrs. Ware & Van Brunt, architects, were requested to submit plans, which were formally adopted at the following Commencement. It was also voted that the hiographies of the Harvard men who served in the war be printed. Subscriptions were immedi- ately solicited and the College conveyed the land known as the Delta for the site of the new edifice. The corner-stone was laid October 6, 1870, with a prayer by the Rev. Phillips Brooks, addresses hy the Hon. J. G. Palfrey, the Hon. William Gray, the Hon. E. R. Hoar, a hymn by Dr. O. W. Holmes and a ben- ediction by the Rev. Thomas Hill. The dedication ceremonies took place July 23, 1874. The total sum raised was $305,887.54. Sanders Theatre, to whose erection was devoted the accumulations from a be- quest by Charles Sanders (of the class of 1802), was completed in 1876, in time to be used for the Com- mencement exercises of that year. The portraits and busts belonging to the College were placed in Memo- rial Hall, which has since been used by the Dining ' Association.

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CAMBRIDGE.

Thus has the University augumented its resources during the past twenty years. The gifts have been most generous, but as they have for the most part been designed by their donors for especial purposes, the unrestricted means at the disposal of the Corpora- tion have not increased in proportion with the needs. Two curious bequests may be cited to show how unwise are benefactions subject to restriction. In 1716 the Rev. Daniel Williams left an annuity of £60 for the support of two preachers among the " Indians and Blacks," and in 1790 Mrs. Sarah Wins- low gave £1367 in support of a minister and school- master in the town of Tyngsborough : the Treasurer of the College is still paying the income from these donations for the benefit of the nondescript Marshpee Indians and for the schooling of the children of Tyngsborough. The great fire in Boston in 1872 seriously affected the revenue of the College, but the deficit caused thereby was made good by a subscrip- tion. The only other untoward event was the burn- ing of the upper part of Hollis Hall in 1876.

It is impossible to specify more particularly the be- quests which have enriched Harvard during the past two decades. The income now at the disposal of the College for beneficiary purposes amounts to more than $45,000 per annum-a sum sufficient to warrant the assertion made in the College Catalogue " that good scholars of high character but slender means are very rarely obliged to leave College for want of money." Nor can space be spared to enumerate the various prizes for essays, speaking, reading, etc., which are an- nually awarded. Mention should be made, however, of a few matters upon which it would be pleasant to en- large. In 1870-71 the Corporation negotiated with the Trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the consolidation of the Institute with the Scien- tific Department at Harvard-the united institution to be called the Technological School, and to have its seat in the Institute's building in Boston. After sev- eral propositions and much deliberation, however, the two bodies could reach no satisfactory agreement, and the project was abandoned. Another scheme which may be realized hereafter-the admission of women to the privileges of the University-has been agitated from time to time during the past twenty years. In 1869 one woman asked to be admitted to the Divinity School, and another to the Scientific School, but the Corporation refused. In 1873, however, at the solici- tation of the Woman's Educational Association, they consented to hold entrance and final exami- nations, and to give certificates to those candidates who passed creditably. The number of women who have availed themselves of this concession has never been large; but in 1880 an association for the Colle- giate Education of Women opened in Cambridge an institution, popularly known as the " Annex," where courses are offered similar to those given in the Col- lege, and are conducted by Harvard professors and instructors. From this unofficial connection, it is pos-

sible that the co-education of the sexes may ultimately be introduced into the University.

In 1880 an act passed the Legislature amending the' College Charter so as to allow persons who are not inhabitants of Massachusetts, but who are otherwise qualified, to be eligible as Overseers. This change was due to the fact that in New York there is a large body of alumni who wished to have a representation on the Board of Overseers. In 1884 an Overseer was elected from Philadelphia. The question of allowing graduates of the Law and Medical Schools to vote for Overseers has recently been discussed, but it has not yet met the approval of the governing boards. In 1889 an amendment was passed modifying the count- ing of votes. The celebration, in 1886, of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the College, is still too recent to require a detailed notice.

In concluding this portion of this historical sketch it may be well to give a few statistics, from which the remarkable recent expansion of the University can be more clearly seen :

Membership.

1869.

1889.

Undergraduates .

563

1271

Graduate Scholars

. .

Resident Graduates

Divinity School

Law School .

120

254

Scientific School .

School of Mining

. .

Medical School

306

290

Dental School .

Bussey Institution

Veterinary Department

Non-resident Graduates

1084

2097

University Courses

. .

Summer Schools

220

In 1869 the corps of instructors numbered 84; in 1889, 217. The College Library in the former year had 121,000 volumes, and the libraries of the other departments, 63,000 volumes; in 1889 the College Li- brary had 268,551 volumes, and 256,737 pamphlets, and the other departments had 86,868 volumes and 29,041 pamphets.

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL .- In the year 1780, Drs. Samuel Danforth, Isaac Rand, Thomas Kast, John Warren and some others formed an association called " The Boston Medical Society." On November 3, 1781, this Society voted, "that Dr. John Warren be desired to demonstrate a course of Anatomical Lec- tures the ensuing Winter." Dr. Warren was the younger brother of Joseph Warren who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. His course was popular, and led President Willard, and some of the Fellows of Harvard, who had attended his lectures, to discuss the organization of a Medical School to be attached to the College. Dr. Warren drew up a scheme, which was placed before the Corporation September 19, 1782. Twenty-two articles were adopted, among which was one establishing "a Professorship of An- atomy and Surgery ; a Professorship of the Theory

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and Practice of Physic ; and a Professorship of Chemistry and Materia Medica." It was further re- quired that each professor should be a "Master of Arts, or graduated Bachelor or Doctor of Physics ; of the Christian Religion and of strict morals." The first professors were Dr. John Warren (Anatomy and Surgery), Dr. Aaron Dexter (Chemistry and Materia Medica) and Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse (Theory and Practice of Medicine). They lectured in Cam- bridge in 1783; a few medical students, and such Seniors as had obtained their parents' consent, at- tended. Three years of study, involving attendance on two courses of lectures-which was reduced in some cases, to attendance on one course, the longest being only four months-were required of those who pre- sented themselves as candidates for a degree. Students who were not graduates of the college had to pass a preliminary examination in the Latin Language and in Natural Philosophy. The degree of Bachelor of Medicine was first conferred in 1785; that of M.D. in 1788, upon John Fleet.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034