USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > General catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1894 > Part 3
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Sixthly. I give and devise to my said Nephew James Temple Bowdoin and to his heirs in fee simple my Estate in State Street and Kilby Street formerly called the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, also my Brick House and small Brick tenements in Back Street and Richmond Street all in said Boston, and all the foregoing gifts and devises which I have thus made to him are under the hope and expectation that he will return to and continue to be a Citizen of the United States.
Of the two nephews selected by Mr. Bowdoin to hold his landed estates and maintain the family name, one, Mr. James (Winthrop) Bowdoin died unmarried in 1833. Ten years before, the college had sold him its contingent remainder in valuable lands on the Kennebec for $2,000, all that it seemed, but, unfort- unately, only a fraction of what it proved, to be worth. The other, Mr. James Temple Bowdoin, continued to live abroad with his family. At his death in 1842, President Woods was led to believe that the patron of the college, a strong Jeffersonian democrat, never intended any of his property should be held abroad by British subjects, and his study of the law of contingent
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remainders convinced him that the college could now justly advance its claims as residuary legatee. After consultation with eminent lawyers, he had this course pursued in spite of the lukewarmness of some of the Trustees, themselves jurists of eminence, and of popular disapproval in Boston of the particular steps taken to bring the matter before the courts. The case, however, was never tried. A compromise was proposed by the heirs of Mr. James Temple Bowdoin, and, in accordance with its terms, $31,696 was received by the college.1
In accordance with the provisions of the will, the college received at once Mr. Bowdoin's library. This consisted of upwards of two thousand volumes and of as many pamphlets. The books were largely purchased abroad, and were evidently chosen with much personal care and thought. The collection was especially strong in French literature and history, in science and agriculture, and in international law. In mineralogy it seems to have included almost everything in print. The works in English literature are well selected, but the absence of poetry is noticeable. If Greek and Latin poets, and Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope are excluded, hardly one volume is found where one might expect a dozen. Among the more expensive sets may be mentioned Bulliard, Herbier de la France, Le Moniteur Universel, 1789-1807, Tab- leaux Historiques de la Revolution Française, Memoires de l'Institut National, and the first American edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The library was appraised at $5,362.26. Time has made queer work with some of the values assigned by the ap- praisers. The " 131 bundles of pamphlets in number about 2117" contained some of the rare tracts on American history now so diligently sought for, and their market value to-day, instead of being one-twentieth, might well exceed that of the books.
With the library came the Haüy collection of minerals valued at $400, models in crystallography valued at $200, and other scientific apparatus appraised at an equal amount. The following
1 A fuller account of this transaction is given in Cleaveland's History of Bowdoin College, p. 108. The reader, however, should be cautioned against one sentence so unfortunately worded as to seem to reflect upon the honor of a most loyal Trustee of the college.
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chapter will show the influence these exerted on the character of the instruction in science in the college.
Of far greater value, though of less immediate service, were the seventy paintings and one hundred and forty-two drawings, bequeathed to the college with the library. Mr. Bowdoin in his repeated visits to Europe seems to have developed a love for art which his last residence in Paris gave him an excellent opportunity to gratify. Unfortunately no memoranda are extant of the many purchases he made there. No catalogue from his own hand exists, or appears to have existed at his death, of a collection then considered the finest in this country, and which still holds a most prominent place among those possessed by American colleges. The inventory furnished by the executors identifies each picture by its subject but fails to give the name of the painter except in case of twenty-two canvases. These belong mainly to the Dutch school and include good examples of Wouvermans, Hondeköter, Berghem, Van Balen, and Michael Carré. The Flemish school is represented by originals or fine copies of Rubens, Vandyck, and Teniers ; the French school by originals by Stella, Patel, Man- glard, and Laroix ; the Italian school by a Salvator Rosa and by copies from Raphael, Titian, and Guido Reni. Portraits of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, painted by Gilbert Stuart at Mr. Bowdoin's special request, are admirable specimens of American art. The Bowdoin family portraits which were received at later date include good examples of the work of Robert Feke, John Singleton Copley, and possibly of John Smibert.
Less known to most graduates of the college, because not till recently arranged for public exhibition, is the collection of one hundred and forty-two drawings by old masters. These, there is reason to surmise, were bought at one time from an expert col- lector. In inherent worth as well as in representative char- acter they form a collection that is surpassed by only one or two on this side of the Atlantic. Among the famous artists repre- sented are Titian, Domenichino, Claude Lorraine, Poussin, and Rembrandt.1
1 A series of photogravures of some of the drawings and paintings, edited by Rev. Frederic H. Allen, was issued in 1886 and is still sold by the college librarian. It is also proposed to issue reproductions in color of the choicest drawings.
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This account of the Bowdoin benefactions would be incomplete without brief allusion to the interest taken in the college by the ladies of the family. Madame Elizabeth Bowdoin, the widow of Governor Bowdoin, requested President McKeen to indicate what books were needed at the opening of the institution in 1802, and these to the value of five hundred dollars were immediately purchased in England and delivered at Brunswick free of all expense. Mrs. Sarah Bowdoin at about the same time presented an elegant time-piece. To her subsequent gift of one thousand dollars for the foundation of a professorship of modern languages is due in great measure the prominent position early awarded that subject in the college curriculum, and the addition to the Faculty of one of its most honored names, Henry W. Longfellow.
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CHAPTER III.
PRESIDENT McKEEN'S ADMINISTRATION.
Rev. Joseph McKeen - Professor John Abbot-Requirements for admission -Inauguration of President-The curriculum-Methods of instruction -Salaries-Library and apparatus-Tutors-College disci- pline-Professor Parker Cleaveland-Cleaveland Recitation Room and Cabinet-Thorndike Oak-President's house-The old chapel-The first Commencement-President McKeen's death.
At a special meeting held in July, 1801, Rev. Joseph McKeen was chosen president of the college.1 President McKeen was born at Londonderry, N. H., October 15, 1757, and inherited from his Scotch-Irish ancestry a strong constitution and vigorous and athletic body. He was graduated at Dartmouth at seven- teen, taught in his native town for eight years, and then, after a brief course in natural philosophy and astronomy at Harvard, gave himself to the study of theology under Rev. Mr. Williams, of Windham, N. H. In 1785 he was called to the pastorate of the church at Beverly, Mass., which had been made vacant by the elevation of Rev. Dr. Willard to the presidency of Harvard. This position he had filled for seventeen years with great accept- ableness. He brought to the college the reputation of a sound divine, an able scholar, and a polished gentleman, and these qualities, with his keen and discriminating judgment, rendered his brief administration of highest value.
John Abbot, a graduate of Harvard in 1784 and for five years a tutor there, was chosen the first professor of ancient lan- guages. His long and faithful service in the various capacities of professor, librarian, and treasurer, has been very fitly marked by the giving of his name to one of the college townships. His reputation as a Greek scholar was won in the last century; it
1 Other gentlemen who were considered in this connection, are mentioned in Cleaveland's History of Bowdoin College, p. 7.
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was to the zeal and fidelity he displayed as a business man, that the college owes most.
President McKeen's acceptance of his election had been con- ditioned on the erection of a dwelling-house for the use of himself and family. Availing himself of the consequent delay, he visited in the summer of 1802, in company with Professor Abbot, Cambridge, Providence, New Haven, and Williamstown, to acquaint himself from actual inspection with the modes of government and the course of instruction pursued in the New England colleges. With a wise boldness le adopted the same qualifications for admission that were then required at Harvard. These were a knowledge of the principles of the Latin and Greek languages, the ability to translate English into Latin, to read the Select Orations of Cicero, the Æneid of Virgil, and an acquaintance with arithmetic as far as the rule of three. The young college stood in this respect in advance of others older and wealthier.
In September, 1802, the president and the senior professor were formally inaugurated into their new positions. The ceremony took place in the pine grove that still occupies part of the campus ; for no building at hand was large enough to accommodate the assemblage which the long-desired opening of the college had attracted from different parts of the state. The scene must have been an impressive one, when, at the close of a brief address, in which he had set forth simply and plainly the purpose and the policy of the institution, President McKeen besought all present to unite in the prayer that the new seminary might "eminently contribute to the advancement of useful knowledge, the religion of Jesus Christ, the best interests of man, and the glory of God." The next day, eight young men, of whom two were from Beverly, Mass., were admitted, and college work began in the newly-com- pleted Massachusetts Hall. The President's house was not entirely finished, and for a few weeks one roof covered both Faculty and students, while the President's study served as chapel and recitation roon. Of the exact course of study pursued by these young men, or rather boys, for only two of them were sixteen, no definite statement seems to be extant. There is little
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doubt, however, that it was similar to that pursued a few years later and outlined below.
Latin, Greek, and Mathematics were studied almost continu- ously during the first three years, Horace, Juvenal, and Cicero being the Latin authors read, while Dalzel's Collectanea Græca Majora and Webber's Mathematics were the bulky text-books that supplied material for study in the other two branches. Rhetoric and elocution were taught by exercises throughout most of the course. Geography was a Freshman, logic a Sophomore, and Locke on the Human Understanding, a Junior study. Paley's Evidences of Christianity, Butler's Analogy of Religion, Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind, Priestley's Lectures on History, Burlamaqui's Natural Law, Enfield's Natural Philosophy, and Chaptal's Chemistry were text-books used during the Senior year. As a rule, college recitations were literally recitations. The words of the author and not of the learner were sought. In the classics, construing, i. e., giving the equivalent of each word rather than translating into connected sentences, was every- where in vogue. President MeKeen evinced a disposition to break away from the old methods, as may be inferred from the following account by one of the first pupils :
"As a teacher in mathematics he was lucid, and uncommonly suc- cessful in his illustrations. The exemplification of abstract propositions by models has been introduced into modern practice ; but at the time referred to, it was, if at all, very sparingly used. With Dr. McKeen it was a familiar custom. Some of the properties of conic sections, in particular, were so illustrated. As a teacher of historical science, he evinced a philosophic mind and generalized its lessons with happy effect and useful results. As a teacher of intellectual and moral philosophy he exhibited a thorough comprehension of his subject and was felicitous in gathering illustrations from actual life. Dr. McKeen had eminent administrative and gubernatorial talent. He very highly estimated the efficiency of what is termed "moral suasion," but prob- ably never dreamed of its being the exclusive means of government. He never mistook men for angels." 1
If consideration be had of their limited resources, it is clear that the Trustees pursued at the outset a liberal policy in regard
1 Manuscript address by John M. O'Brien, Esq., Class of 1806.
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to salaries and apparatus. President McKeen received one thou- sand dollars a year, the use of the President's house erected for him at an expense of about $2,500, and one thousand acres of the wild land which made up in such large measure the collegiate endowment. His salary was soon increased to $1,200 and that of the first professor who was unmarried raised to $800. President Willard of Harvard received only $1,400, while the expense of living in Cambridge was much greater, as will appear from the following extract from a pamphlet advocating the separation of Maine and dedicated to Rev. Dr. Samuel Deane, the vice-presi- dent of the Trustees : "But in order to shew that the sum of £300 (equivalent to $1,000) is ample for the support of a Gov- ernour, it may be said that there is no part of the District where that sum regularly paid and economically expended will not sup- port a family in as good a style as will be consistent with the present state of society in this part of the country. The refine- ments of luxury in this wooden world would be ridiculous."
Steps were taken carly for the formation of a library, and the collection numbered nearly five hundred volumes at the opening of the college for instruction. Madame Bowdoin's timely gift added greatly to its efficiency as well as to its size. In 1803 the Trustees appropriated one thousand dollars for the increase of the library and a thousand more for apparatus. The college already possessed a valuable air-pump, costing $300 and given by several gentlemen of Salem, an equatorial, and other astronomical apparatus. To these were added within a few years a telescope valued at $500, the gift of Hon. William Phillips of Boston, the electrical, chemical, and mineralogical apparatus of Hon. James Bowdoin, with his elaborate collection of minerals and models in crystallography. These, with the purchases made from the appro- priation referred to, enabled the young college to claim during the first quarter of the century that only Harvard surpassed it in equipment for the study of science.
On the admission of a third class in 1804, Mr. Samuel Willard, a recent graduate of Harvard and for many years afterward pastor of the church at Deerfield, Mass., was engaged as a tutor. For the next two decades the practice was followed of increasing the
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body of instructors by the annual appointment of one or more tutors, who lived in the college buildings and were expected to exercise personal influence upon the students and maintain control over those who showed themselves unruly. Among those who thus served the college and unquestionably left the impress of their character and scholarship upon many of the early graduates, were the gentlemen afterwards known as Rev. Dr. Benjamin Tappan of Augusta, Prof. Andrews Norton of Harvard College, and Rev. Dr. Nathan Parker of Portsmouth, N. H.
The punishments inflicted for misbehavior during this adminis- tration and the two following were fines, public admonition, and suspension. The first were imposed for neglect of college duties and minor irregularities. The second was employed when private reproofs and warnings seemed without avail. Suspension or rusti- cation was always for a considerable period of time. The culprit was required to reside with and be instructed by a clergyman selected by the Faculty. The result was usually a change in the character of the young man or his permanent separation from the institution. The public admonition given in the chapel before the student body was so characteristic of the day in its formality, that the following extract from the records of the Faculty is cited to convey a clear idea of it :
At a meeting of the executive government of Bowdoin College 2 April 1805, present, the President, Messrs. Abbot and Willard. On examination, it appeared that A. B. and C. D. had been guilty of repeated acts of violence committed on each other under the influence of ungoverned passion, therefore,
Voted, that the said A. B. and C. D. be publicly admonished for the same.
Voted, that their names and offenses be entered on the record.
The following admonition was accordingly administered.
It is with pain that we find ourselves under a necessity of calling you forward in the presence of your fellow-students to be reproved and admonished for the repeated acts of violence into which you have suffered yourselves to be hurried by ungoverned passion. We did indulge a hope that the remembrance of the disgraceful scene exhibited by you on the fourth of last July and the parental admonition then given you, would have had a better effect. We are sorry to say we are
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disappointed and that we have perceived less indication of remorse or penitence in this instance than in that. We earnestly recommend to your serious consideration the solemn warning in the first verse of the twenty-ninth chapter of Proverbs, 'He that being often reproved hard- eneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed and that without remedy.'
You can not plead in extenuation of your last offence, that it was the effect of a sudden impulse, which allowed you no time for reflection. After your anger was kindled but before you proceeded to acts of violence it might have been hoped that the ringing of the bell for prayers and your attendance at the devotional exercises in the chapel would have awakened different sentiments in your breast ; but it appears that immediately after prayers you walked deliberately together into the woods, where, as your faces show, your treatment of each other resem- bled that of savage beasts much more than of Christians or young gentlemen who are receiving a liberal education. Tenderness to you and your friends heretofore restrained us from entering your names and offences upon the college records, but in this instance we think you have no right to that indulgence. The aggravations of this offence would in our opinion have clearly justified us in suspending for a time your con- nection with the college ; but, as our object is your reformation not your infamy, we were unwilling to inflict so public a censure, till a fair experiment was made of the more private methods of discipline. That we engage the co-operation of your parents, we have thought it our duty to acquaint them with your behavior. Should their endeavors and ours prove ineffectual, we shall be under the painful necessity of ban- ishing you for a time from the society of your fellow-students, lest your example should corrupt their morals and tarnish the reputation of this infant seminary.
We feel it to be our duty to exhort you to repentance, and we pray God to work in you sincere contrition for this and all your sins, to clothe you with humility, and to put upon you the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, that, putting away all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamor and evil speaking, ye may be followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.
The year 1805 was marked by the establishment of the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and the inauguration of Parker Cleaveland as its occupant. Professor Cleaveland was graduated at Harvard in 1799, and his success as a tutor at Cambridge led to his appointment at Brunswick. His attention was early directed towards mineralogy and chemistry, and these
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two sciences in succession won his complete devotion, and the teaching of them before long required his entire energies. Lect- ures upon chemistry and mineralogy became a part of the collegi- ate course of study as early as 1808. In 1816 he issued his Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology, which embodied the subject matter of his lectures and the results of several years of indefatigable study with the best helps then available. This book put him at once in the front rank of American mineralo- gists. It combined the excellences of the French and German theories as to the classification of rocks, presented the labors of European mineralogists in attractive form, added new species and localities, and thus began to pay the heavy debt in science which America owed Europe. The commendation it received from fellow-scientists on both sides of the ocean was warm and hearty. Silliman's Journal of Science and Arts ends a long review with : " In our opinion this work does honor to our country and will greatly promote the knowledge of mineralogy and geology, besides aiding in the great work of disseminating a taste for science generally." The Edinburgh Review styled it "the most useful work on mineralogy in our language." It was used by Dr. Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge, and was employed as a text-book in all American colleges where the study was pursued. Humboldt, while in London, borrowed the copy belonging to the Geological Society, whose collection was arranged according to its system, and carried it home with him. Goethe, in one of his miscellanies, coupled his name with that of a German geologist and extended a kind salutation. As many as sixteen scientific societies abroad and in this country added his name to their membership rolls. He received more or less formal offers of professorships from Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia, in several cases at more than double his salary at Bowdoin, which began at $800 and never exceeded $1,200 and house rent. His attachment to the college and his dislike of change, a marked characteristic of the man, led to the refusal of proposals which others would have eagerly grasped. The book which had so quickly brought to the attention of the world the character of the scientific instruc-
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tion in the Maine college passed through a second edition in 1822, and then was, so to speak, abandoned by its parent.
On the establishment of the Medical School, in 1820, Pro- fessor Cleaveland was appointed professor of chemistry and materia medica, and secretary of the Medical Faculty. These new duties involved the extension of his course in chemistry, and added much administrative detail to the work of instruction. They led him to gradually neglect his former favorite science, and to devote most of his time and attention to chemistry and the interests of the new school. Henceforth, teaching and not research engrossed his energies. His chemical lectures, of which a full account is given in a later chapter, were delivered with clock- like regularity in Massachusetts Hall. This alone remains of the three college buildings completed in this administration. Though the interior and the roof have been twice remodeled and rebuilt, the exterior as portrayed in the earliest view of the college campus will seem familiar to the latest graduate. The belfry that then adorned it was removed when the old chapel was enlarged in 1818. The first floor now contains the offices of the college treasurer and the Cleaveland recitation room. In the corner of the latter may be still seen the old brick fire-place with its iron crane and several pieces of the rude apparatus used by the teacher who met his classes here for half a century. It is a coincidence worthy, perhaps, of mention that his apparatus for the manufacture of gases came from Dr. Beddoes' Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, and was made while Sir Humphrey Davy, then a youth, was acting as assistant there. The latter, grown to manhood and to fame, was one of the first to congratulate Professor Cleaveland on his labors in mineralogy. The two original upper stories of the building have been thrown into a single hall, called the Cleaveland Cabinet, forty-eight feet in length by thirty-eight feet in width and twenty-three feet in height. A gallery, reached by spiral staircases, surrounds the room. Fourteen alcoves and many large cases on the main floor contain the collection of minerals he made, as well as several other scientific collections belonging to the college. A projection on the east side provides a spacious entrance and staircase. On ascending, the visitor notes two interesting .
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