USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 19
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Under the terms of the will there was no adequate endowment fund-that was to be the contribution of the city; there was a handsome building fund, a more than handsome fund for the pur- chase of books in perpetuity, and there was a far from handsome "Aid Fund" to support the city's contributions.
Northampton already possessed a public library. It had been begun in 1826 with a few shelves of books and was known as the "Social Library." In 1846 the Young Men's Institute was or- ganized for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a library. On May 10, 1852 Jenny Lind had presented the Institute with $700 from the proceeds of her second concert in Northampton, to be devoted to the purchase of standard works, well bound, to be deposited in this library.
In 1860 the Institute voted that the custody and use of all of its books were to be given to the city of Northampton to aid in the establishment of a free public library. In the same year the city voted to accept the offer, and during the next 14 years appropri- ated approximately $12,000 for its support.
At a Council Meeting in 1867, with gifts in hand of $ 1000 each from E. H. R. Lyman and Whiting Street, it was voted to pur- chase a lot on Main Street next to the Unitarian Church. It was further voted to appropriate $25,000 for the erection of a me- morial to the Northampton soldiers who had fought in the Civil War. The building was also to house the city's public library. An- other $2 5,000 was to be raised by public subscription.
In 1867, Mr. John Clarke, a prominent citizen of Northampton died suddenly leaving $40,000 to the city for the erection of a suitable building and for the increase and maintenance of its
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public library and for no other purpose. Memorial Hall was erected in 1871 and the John Clarke Library was established within its walls.
But the city of Northampton had appropriated another $25,000 in 187 1 to bring within its confines the great new experiment for the education of young females-Smith College. Although the obvious benefits the town would reap in return for its investment certainly influenced the town's voters in their decision to bring Smith College to Northampton rather than to leave these benefits for the improvement of the town of Hatfield, the consequences of this decision were not clearly foreseen. There was the perennial question of whether the financial and the intangible returns to the city of the presence of Smith College, were incommensurate with the possible loss of taxable property and the intangible objection of the citizens to sharing its town and institutions with an outsider.
This is the picture into which the Trustees of the Forbes be- quest must paint its new library: two libraries for the inhabitants of the pleasant city to support, and the uncertain liabilities of the Great Experiment. It was decided to take no final steps and to allow the estate of Judge Forbes to accumulate for 10 years. De- ploring the acrimony engendered by what the Springfield Re- publican called the "perennial rows," one is sympathetic with the City Fathers and with the beleaguered citizens whose grievances seemed so real. Some financial relief came in 1894 when the Earle bequest matured. Dr. Pliny Earle had been for 2 1 years superin- tendent of the State Hospital for the Insane. He had had an ex- tensive education and an excellent training for his work. Dr. Earle was a great traveler in this country and abroad, and a writer "widely known and greatly respected." He died in 1885 leaving $ 50,000 to be invested and held until $60,000 could be realized for his purpose:
The fund shall be designated "The Pliny Earle Fund" and the in- come used in the aid of the city of Northampton in defraying the current expenses of the Forbes Library, i.e., payment of the employees within and without, fuel, light, etc., but not the salary of the Li- brarian.
-a worthy and clear-headed gift of a civic-minded citizen in the service of his town.
Forbes Library was formally dedicated on October 23, 1894,
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and opened to the public on July 1, 1895. Charles A. Cutter had been selected as its first librarian and took up his duties in Septem- ber, 1894. A graduate of Harvard University, Mr. Cutter had been librarian for 24 years of the Boston Athenaeum. He was a man of distinction and one of the world's great librarians. His knowledge of books was profound and his handling of the munifi- cent Book Fund laid the foundation for the unusual and complete inventory of books to be found here today, making Forbes one of the country's foremost research libraries. His revolutionary sys- tem of listing and cataloguing known as the Cutter System is still widely used in the United States, and his is today one of the great names of library science. An imposing building, a renowned li- brarian-but two burning and disturbing problems still unsolved:
I. Why not consolidate the two libraries, one underprovided with books, both underprovided with funds?
2. Why did Smith College not have its own library and ease the added expense to the city for its use of Forbes-besides subjecting the town to the pervasiveness of the "college ladies with their fine clothes and manners and above all to the great danger of the ap- pearance of these ladies within its portals-bare headed !! "
The obstacles posed to answering the first question were purely sentimental. It was not until the death in 1915 of Mr. Christopher Clarke, nephew of the founder of Clarke Library, that the city voted on April 6, 1916:
that the Forbes Library and the Clarke Library be united as one li- brary and it is further ordered that all books, magazines and equip- ment etc. comprising the Clarke Library shall be transferred to the Forbes Library and that thereafter the income of the John Clarke Library shall be paid as it accrues to the Trustees of Forbes Library to be used in the aid of the city in the maintenance of said library.
This answered the first and thirty-five year old question of the best interests of the inhabitants of Northampton.
The answer to the second question was hindered by the lack of funds in the hands of Smith College and the nervousness of its Board of Trustees in the management of the very new institution where every forward step was a hazard which must be success- fully broached if the college was to survive. They simply, in 1894, could not afford their own library. This was neither a matter of sentiment nor law, and the controversy though shorter, was acute.
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However in 1908 the Trustees of Forbes Library cut the Gor- dian knot by voting to require every student of Smith College to pay $5.00 a year for the use of the library. The Trustees of Smith College thereupon decided that it would be for the best interests of both the college and the town that in this case there should be two libraries. The present relations of the Forbes Library and the Smith College Library are cordial and co-operative. A generous inter-library loan system exists and the ending of this problem too, is a happy one.
The growth of Forbes Library has been constant and it stands as one of Northampton's foremost possessions. Over the years its achievements have been many. It has been of inestimable help to the city's outlying districts in supplying Lilly Library in Florence and its own sub-stations in Bay State and Leeds with the books they have needed. The opening of the library on Sundays was a daring innovation which has lived on successfully. The emphasis on the work with children, and giving them their own room after the city had provided extensive steel shelving which released the necessary space; work with foreigners; and emphasis on the Art and Music departments, added to the many opportunities Forbes has provided.
Many gifts have been received. The Kingsley Collection, the Coolidge Collection, the War Archives, the Hawkes Collection, the Judd manuscripts-"the final authority on matters of local history, genealogy, ancient manners and customs and the topogra- phy of the Connecticut valley," are some part of its treasures.
Among the townspeople who have served the city longest as Trustees are: Haynes H. Chilson, 37 years, from 1898 to 1935; Miss Anna Gertrude Brewster, currently President of the Board, 30 years since 1924; Arthur Watson, 29 years, from 1893 to 1922; and Samuel W. Lee, 30 years (the first ten as Secretary), from 1894 to 1924.
Like the Trustees the secretaries and treasurers are elected by the voters at the regular municipal elections. Charles H. Chase, secretary from 1905 to 1938, had the longest term, and among the treasurers, Frederic A. Macomber served for 26 years from 1894 to 1920. The contemporary treasurer, Robert J. Miller, has held office since 1930.
Longest in staff service have been Miss Anna J. Hennessy, who retired in the spring of 1953 after 49 years; Miss Annie Clark
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Carlisle, 47 years from 1899 to 1946; and Miss Henrietta B. Schmitter, Art and Music Librarian, whose service began in 1907.
Following the death in 1903 of Charles A. Cutter, his nephew, William P. Cutter, was appointed Librarian. In 1912 after his resignation Joseph L. Harrison occupied the office until 1950. During his administration the Clarke Library merger took place, and the second floor departments were opened. The War Records and the Coolidge Collection were initiated by him.
The library possesses in its present Librarian, Lawrence Wi- kander, a worthy successor to Mr. Cutter and his other predeces- sors and Northampton may look forward with confidence to fu- ture years of growth and service, for, as the Trustees Report for 1923 succinctly states, "it is the aim of Forbes Library to provide everything mortals desire of a library." The Trustees and Li- brarians have, during the 73 years since the death of Judge Forbes, justified his faith and hopes. Northampton has today the largest public library in a town of its size in the country, and probably in the world, and its inhabitants, for whom Judge Forbes hoped so much, dare to say that it is the best.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Faith Builds a College
By EDITH N. HILL AND ANNETTA I. CLARK
I. UNDER LAURENUS CLARK SEELYE
W HO knows what the history of Northampton would have been if the town on March 20, 1871 had not voted to raise and pay over the sum of $2 5,000 to the Trustees of the nebulous, newly incorporated Smith College, an institu- tion whose leading object as stated in the will of Sophia Smith of Hatfield, signed only three months before her death on June 12, 1870, was to "furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our colleges to young men." The will stipulated that if the town, lacking faith, voted "No" the new college was to be located in Hatfield.
If that had happened, there would be no occasion for this ar- ticle in the historical series, and certainly the Hampshire Gazette could never have carried a story in a September 1953 issue with the headline: "Education a Good Neighbor Here. Local Mer- chants Say Smith Alone Means Millions." Millions, not only in money but in all sorts of assets, tangible and intangible. It means a city whose streets are forever young and vivid with youth from every state in the union, for the college has a national, even an international constituency; a city to which automobiles bearing licenses from near and far bring families, friends, and distin- guished visitors who spread the news of Northampton's vitality and beauty; it means that the name of Northampton is spoken wherever the far-flung line of Smith alumnae go throughout the world. Surely it is no distortion of the truth to say that that long- ago vote of the citizens of Northampton had a profound effect on the history of the city for it was an act of faith, and "faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen."
The story of the origins of Smith College makes good reading. It is the story of the struggles and the soul-searchings of Sophia
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Smith after she found herself encumbered with the unwanted for- tune left her by her brother Austin; of the good counsels-and also soul-searchings-of her pastor, the young and far-seeing John M. Greene whose favorite text for many a sermon was, "Without knowledge people and nations perish"; of the encouragement given by his young wife, Louisa Dickinson Greene lately gradu- ated from Mount Holyoke Seminary; of the goings and comings of prominent, hard-headed citizens of Hatfield, Northampton, and Amherst -- "mud up to the hubcaps"-in many patient jour- neys to Miss Smith's home. Among the books in which the tale is told are: Foreshadowings of Smith College, by Helen French Greene, daughter of John M. and Louisa Dickinson Greene; The Beginnings of Smith College, by Miss Greene and Elizabeth Deer- ing Hanscom; President Seelye's Early History of Smith College; Laurenus Clark Seelye, an altogether delightful biography by his daughter Harriet Seelye Rhees; and Miss Sophia's Legacy, mov- ing excerpts from Sophia's diary put together by Gladys Wookey Davis, wife of President Davis, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of Miss Sophia's college. Most vivid of all, however, is the story as told by the students themselves in their play, Heritage, edited by Hallie Flanagan Davis and George B. Dowell of the theatre department, which was beautifully dramatized for that same oc- casion. It is good to know that they have continued the story in Covenant, a play put on in honor of Northampton's 300th Anni- versary.
At the risk of devoting too much space to the founder of Smith College, it seems important to emphasize that in a day in which education, even at grammar school level, was hard to come by if you were a female, Sophia had faith that women would one day take their places not only with the prominent men in the valley, but in the world. "It is my opinion," says she in her will, "that by the higher education of women, what are called their wrongs will be redressed, their wages adjusted, their weight of influence in reforming the evils of society will be greatly increased, as teachers, as writers, as mothers, as members of society, their power for good will be incalculably enlarged." Well might the students call their play, Heritage.
Smith College, chartered March 3, 1871 was the first woman's college to be chartered in New England. Determined to be "noth- ing but a college" from the start, it had no preparatory school to
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feed it students as did the female seminaries of Wellesley and Mount Holyoke, and Vassar. A daring venture indeed! Its dis- tinguished Board of Trustees, nearly all of whom were college graduates, met in April for organization and named William S. Tyler of Amherst president of the board, Edward Gillett, vice- president, George W. Hubbard of Hatfield, treasurer, and John M. Greene, secretary-all persons whose memories, like those of many other men and women who have had a share in shaping the destinies of the college, are perpetuated in the names of college buildings.
The Board straightway proceeded to buy property: Judge Dewey's estate (the fine old Colonial mansion was to be the first college dwelling) for the sum of $26,000, and the adjoining estate of Judge Lyman for $25,000-some 12 acres in all-in the very heart of the town for, said the Hampshire Courier and Gazette, "Most of the best colleges for young men are located in the heart of towns and there is no good reason why a college for young women should not be similarly placed near the center of the town." But, although Northampton made room for this "dubious experiment" and paid its $25,000 for the privilege, none of the communities in the state, however eloquently importuned by the zealous John M. Greene, would risk a cent on such a crazy ven- ture.
L. Clark Seelye, a young minister who was contentedly teach- ing rhetoric, oratory, and English literature at Amherst, after a year of wooing in 1873 accepted the presidency of the college; a prospectus was sent out; in 1874 the President's House (now Gateway House) was built at a cost of $19,000; and College Hall which included classrooms, laboratory, art museum, chapel, and social hall was erected at a cost of $76,000. On July 14, 1875 in this social hall, crowded to capacity with the interested and the curious, the 37-year-old president was inaugurated, although only one student had passed her examinations for entrance and only two teachers had been engaged. Once again Faith, this time with a capital F, was in the ascendant as President Seelye's voice rang out: "Let the requirements for admission be determined not by the number of students desired but by the demands of the highest intellectual culture and you have done much to put an end to the lack of system and many of the shams which have been the bane of female education."
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Fourteen young ladies sat at first chapel on September 16, 1875 in a room that would seat several hundred. Six states were repre- sented, and seven families in the valley had had faith enough to commit their daughters to the young president's care. Since that day, to the mutual benefit of town and gown, the college has offered free tuition to hundreds of Northampton and Hatfield girls in acknowledgment of the debt it owes both communities. (It is interesting to note that in this year alone-1953-54-the amount given in scholarships to these girls is $25,700; the town's investment of $25,000 has been repaid many times over in 75 years.)
President Seelye almost literally was the college in those days. Every student was known to him personally, every department was under his control, every teacher was chosen by him; line upon line, precept upon precept, brick upon brick, dollar upon dollar he built the college with extraordinary sagacity and devotion. Later someone said: "He built foundations as solid as his own character, and established the lines along which the college has grown." For 37 years he carried the college forward; the assets increased from the original bequest of about $365,000 to over $4,000,000, half endowment and half equipment; the faculty from three to 122; the students from 14 to 1635; the buildings from three to 35. He proved the skeptics to be wrong: women are capable of receiving the same education as men; their health is not endangered by using their minds; their womanliness does not suf- fer nor are they unfitted for the privileges and duties of a woman's life. In the words of President Neilson years later: "He stamped upon several thousand graduates the mark of his own ideals and of his own integrity." And joyously proclaiming in ringing tones, "You are the advertisement of Smith College, my joy and crown," he sent them forth to justify his faith in them.
Locating the college in the heart of the town meant of course that town and gown were co-workers in civic affairs from the start. Mr. Seelye himself set the pace by his willingness to preach at First Church whenever an emergency arose, and men and women of the faculty and staff have been and are working mem- bers on community boards, church committees, and city govern- ment-they are citizens of Northampton as well as teachers at Smith College, and conduct their lives accordingly. It was Presi- dent Seelye who gave the welcoming speech for Northampton at
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the time of its 2 50th Anniversary in 1904; he who played host to the famous men and women who visited the town and the college in his day: Jenny Lind, Joseph Jefferson, Matthew Arnold, Presi- dent Mckinley, the list is long, and it was to him that the town turned to make the chief address at the memorial service for the martyred president.
The visit of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Carnegie brought attention to both town and gown, for the newspapers of the country car- ried the news that L. Clark Seelye, President of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts had been named one of the first trustees for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which was to provide retiring allowances for teachers all over the land. Yes, it was proven very early in the history of Sophia's college that as the prestige of the college grew, so the prestige of Northampton grew. The students too were early identified with the social service of the town as teachers in the Home Culture Clubs, later to be known as Peoples' Institute. Over the years it is fair to say that hundreds of students have faithfully performed this service. Student participation in many other town activities has acquired great momentum.
President Seelye retired in 1910-37 years after he had driven over the Hadley flats with his five children, their nine cats, and his beloved wife, Henrietta Chapin Seelye, the epitome of the In- telligent Gentlewoman which was his ideal for the students of his college. There was a valedictory meeting which crowded the new John M. Greene Hall to its doors. It is given to few men "to plant and to water, and to see the harvest" in such full measure as did he, and the city and the college did their best to tell him of their affection and esteem.
Nor was that day in any real sense a farewell. For 14 years thereafter on almost any day the citizens of the town and the girls of the college were greeted with his stately salutation as he walked down town from his home on Round Hill. As a moving editorial appearing in the student paper after his death expressed it: "Any girl included in the sweep of his courtly, old-fashioned greeting straightened up and felt as if she had been presented at court." He was the center of all gala days at the college. Again to quote from the student paper: "The real touch of grandeur was missing without the presence of President Seelye." He was the chosen speaker of the town for important occasions. When a sub-
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committee of the National Republican Committee came to North- ampton in the summer of 1920 to notify Governor Calvin Cool- idge of his nomination for the vice-presidency, it was Mr. Seelye, then 83, whom the city chose as presiding officer, and on the ath- letic field of Smith College he called the great crowd to order with the Alumnae Association gavel.
He died on October 12, 1924, only a few months before the Fiftieth Anniversary of the college. The closing words of Presi- dent Neilson's tribute to him at the service in John M. Greene Hall were: "As far into the future as our dim eyes can see, the spirit of the great first president will pervade the life of Smith College."
II. UNDER BURTON AND NEILSON
Marion Leroy Burton came in 1910 straight from a pastorate of a Congregational church in Brooklyn, but with a breezy out- going personality which was his heritage from the open spaces of Minnesota, his native state. He possessed high qualities of leader- ship, great organizing ability, keen business acumen, and in the seven crowded years of his administration proved, as Mr. Neilson said later, that "Mr. Seelye had built his ship on lines so sound that it could be successfully steered by other hands."
In short, Mr. Burton was the type of president that Smith Col- lege needed in this time of almost frightening growth. It had out- stripped its means, and the young president proceeded forthwith to modernize its business methods; improve the ratio of instruc- tors to students; raise faculty salaries; provide better equipment. All these projects meant money, and President Burton set out to raise $1,000,000, a prodigious undertaking in those days before millions became a commonplace. Spurred on by his faith and en- thusiasm, the Alumnae Association, always in the forefront on any venture to benefit the college, raised $ 100,000, students con- tributed joyously, the General Education Board gave $200,000: net result, $ 1,000,000 added to the endowment.
Under Mr. Burton's leadership the curriculum, too limited to meet the expanded needs of women, was revised-an activity said to be the favorite indoor sport of the faculty. And why not? Had not Sophia, that extraordinary, far-sighted woman, written in the curriculum section of her will: " ... and instruction in such other
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studies as coming times may develop or demand for the education of women and the progress of the race."
Not the least of President Burton's attributes was a "kind of magnetism that enabled him to sway an audience anywhere at any time." Ask anyone who ever heard him preach at Edwards Church, as he sometimes did; ask anyone who ever heard him deliver an address; above all ask his students who sat under him at chapel, at vespers, at baccalaureate services-they have not for- gotten.
It was in his day that alumnae clubs began to raise scholarship funds to augment the large sums allocated by the college; that the Self-Help Bureau and Student's Aid proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Smith is no "silk-lined college"; and it was in his day that the shadow of war fell across the campus. Long before April 1917 the college branch of the Red Cross was teaching home nursing and first aid; scores of baby outfits were sent to Belgium; the campus clicked with the never-ceasing sound of knitting needles.
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