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While he was still in Europe, the Trustees of Colby University had elected him to the institution's first professorship of History and Political Economy.
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HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE
At a time when political economy was considered scarcely respectable as a col- lege subject, Dr. Small made Colby students startlingly aware of the new and dynamic field of economics. The course that he introduced under the title of Political Economy was a blending of what would now be called economics, so- ciology, and political theory-all on a historical basis.
Albion Woodbury Small was a superior and determined scholar. He con- sidered that the then rare Ph.D. degree was more than a label. He wanted the distinction of accomplishing the scholarly tasks that the degree demanded. Se- curing leave from his Colby position, he completed his doctoral work at Johns Hopkins in 1889, so that he was actually in Baltimore when the Colby Trustees elected him to the presidency.
Dr. Small never forgot his family background nor his training at Newton. Even after assuming the college presidency, he was in great demand as a preacher, and his advanced scholarship never interfered with his warm, personal approach from the pulpit. He remained a faithful Baptist and continued President Pep- per's policy of cordial relations between the college and the denomination. His inaugural address as president accentuated, in its very title, his sound belief in the connection between education and religion. He spoke on "The Mission of the Denominational College."
There are philosophers who believe that knowledge begins and ends with the intellect. This college has always enlarged that view, has always taught that knowledge is frustrate if it is external to conscience. Noth- ing is known that seems unrelated to duty. Herein is justified the existence of this college. If all that the college communicated was the habit of correct thinking, if it initiated only unerring analysis and syn- thesis, we might well doubt whether it would be worth the cost. But the college stands for something better than that: the revelation that all upon which the mind works is the arena of duty, where every individual finds the sealed orders of personal obligation.1
Probably no denominational college has ever been entirely free from adverse criticism by die-hard conservatives in the denomination. Certainly such criticism assailed Colby almost from the earliest days. The regrettable quarrel between William King and Alford Richardson, which caused the loss of a valuable grant of land even before instruction had started, was occasioned quite as much by denominational feelings as by the political animosities of the time. Richardson led the group of conservative Baptists who resented the controlling influence on the Board of Trustees of such non-Baptists as William King and Timothy Bou- telle. There was thus a long history behind the words in Dr. Small's inaugural which dealt with Colby's direct relation to the Baptist denomination.
The character that Colby has developed as a denominational college is not wholly pleasing to its friends. To some the college seems not re- ligious enough; to others it appears over-religious. While the majority of those who have controlled its interests have been members of one religious denomination, some of the most devoted friends of the col- lege have been entirely disconnected with the founding denomination. It might seem prudent to treat this question with silence, and not pry too exactly into relations that had better be disguised. If, however, it is necessary for this college to seem something that it is not; if it is necessary for us to maintain a fiction to cover up actual differences; if, to support this college, it is necessary to profess in one presence an
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THE GREAT COORDINATOR
identity of aim which in another presence we deny, I confess that I cannot be the administrator of such stifled hypocrisy. I do not believe that any evasions are demanded. I believe that the fidelity of Colby's friends is so sincere and so intelligent that it cannot be destroyed by distinct recognition of different motives for attachment. The college was born of a desire for religious and denominational culture. It has developed into a promoter of universal culture. It has not surrendered its denominational allegiance, but denominational education has proved to be larger than the founders dreamed. The respect of the world for a religious denomination is won not by the denomination's peculiarities, but by its universalities. This college is an exponent of the unversal element in denominational character.2
One of Dr. Small's first acts as President was to preside at the dedication of the Shannon Physical Laboratory and Observatory. It is interesting that the man who presided over the college when physical science first won prominence was the man who first made social science respectable at Colby. The time had come when never again would the classical languages dominate the Colby cur- riculum. Of course the reaction went too far, as such movements usually do, and the mid-twentieth century has seen a healthy revival of Greek and Latin studies at Colby. If the humanities, especially in their dependence upon the classical languages, presented a lop-sided curriculum in the 1880's, the social sciences had tended to push both the sciences and the humanities into the background by 1950. It has been the task of Colby administrators for many years to lead faculties, whose members are absorbed in the importance of their own disciplines, into concerted efforts to maintain a balanced curriculum.
Albion Woodbury Small, though thoroughly trained in the new discipline of sociology, was a man of such broad understanding and such liberal convictions that he welcomed heartily the new emphasis upon science at Colby. He rejoiced that among its alumni the college had such a man as Richard Cutts Shannon, builder of railroads, competent engineer and master of finance, who had made it possible for Colby to have a fine, new building for physics and astronomy and an outstanding physicist like William A. Rogers to use it.
No sooner had the Trustees accepted Col. Shannon's gift in July, 1889, than work started immediately on the erection of the building. A year later, at the end of Small's first year as president, the structure was completed. Designed by Stevens and Cobb, architects of Portland, according to explicit directions of Professor Rogers, it had cost a little more than $18,000. Col. Shannon had supplied $15,000, and the balance was appropriated from current funds. From the report made by the Building Committee in 1890, we learn just how the ex- penditures were distributed.
Stevens & Cobb, Architects
$ 350.00
J. & G. Philbrick, Contractors
15,025.00
Webber & Philbrick, Machinists
792.91
Learned & Brown, Plumbers
1,427.08
B. F. Sturtevant for Engine
400.00
W. B. Arnold & Co. for Hardware
251.76
C. H. Blunt, Carpenter
72.96
$18,319.71
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HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE
The man who was chiefly responsible for Col. Shannon's decision to provide funds for the new building was his Colby classmate, Edward Winslow Hall, libra- rian and professor of modern languages. During the spring vacation in 1889 Hall had visited Shannon in New York and had persuaded the Colonel to make the subsequent gift. It is to be noted, in passing, that Hall was naturally devoted to the humanities, but like Albion Small, valued the contribution of the sciences to education. In his final report to the Trustees, President Pepper said: "The building will be an ornament to the college campus, while its utility in serving the department both directly by its provision for class work and indirectly by its adaptation to the original physical investigations of Professor Rogers, cannot be over-estimated."
In the summer of 1889 the Colby Echo was able to supply its readers with a description of the new building that was going up north of the gymnasium.
The Shannon Physical laboratory and observatory will be located along the line of the river bank, about 125 feet north of the gymnasium and a little nearer the river. The dimensions are 68 by 40 feet. The outside dimensions of the tower are 20 by 18 feet. The height of the apex of the dome is 64 feet from the ground. While the principal object of the tower is to secure entrances to the building and afford independent support to the observatory dome, it is so designed as to add to the architectural appearance. There are two rooms in the tower which serve a useful purpose in connection with experimental work in photog- raphy and photometry. There is also a commodious waiting room with an outside balcony, which is situated directly beneath the room covered by the dome, and which can be kept at a comfortable temperature dur- ing the winter, without affecting the temperature of the observation room above. The dome, sixteen feet in diameter, will accommodate a telescope of ten-inch aperture. The present telescope has a diameter of 41/2 inches, and no provision has yet been made for a larger one. The upper story of the main building consists of a large lecture room, conveniently arranged for laboratory work. There are also two ad- joining rooms on the north side, one of which will be used for special investigations in physics by advanced students, and the other as a store- room for apparatus.
The first story consists of a single room, 56 by 30 by 16 feet, to ac- commodate experimental work in electricity, and for the special inves- tigations in meteorology in which Professor Rogers is engaged. It is in- sulated by a brick wall, ten feet thick, which completely encloses the main room, leaving an air space between the inner and outer walls, two feet in width.
In the original plans an underground room with a clear height of ten feet was provided, but as the lowest bid for the building's construction, with that room, was $16,000, it was found necessary to reduce that room to a single cellar, thus enabling a construction bid of $15,025, awarded to the contractors J. and G. Philbrick. It will cost $3,000 more to equip the building.
It is the present plan to light the building by means of a storage bat- tery of fifty cells, giving forty lights of sixteen candle power. The charg- ing of the cells will require the duty of a five horse power engine run- ning about five hours twice a week. There will remain an abundance of surplus power for experimental work. By doubling the capacity of
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THE GREAT COORDINATOR
the battery, all the recitation rooms of Champlin and Coburn halls can be lighted at little additional expense.3
In 1957, after the College had abandoned the old site on the bank of the Kennebec for the beautiful new plant on Mayflower Hill, the Shannon Building was demolished. Thanks to the alertness of the College Director of Public Re- lations, Richard Dyer, there was recovered the cornerstone box with its contents, which had reposed in the building for sixty-eight years. The box was found to contain the annual catalogue of the College for 1888-89; reports of the Presi- dent and the faculty for the same year; the report of the Treasurer; printed copy of the charter and all subsequent acts and resolves affecting the College, up to 1875; the General Catalogue, listing all who had attended the College, up to 1887; four printed obituary records, 1822-70, 1870-73, 1873-77, and 1877-84; the Laws of Colby University, 1889; Services at the Laying of the Cornerstone of Me- morial Hall, 1867; President Champlin's address at the fiftieth anniversary, 1870; the Colby Oracle for 1889; the Colby Echo for May 31, 1889; the annual report of the City of Waterville for 1889; the business card of the architects, Stevens and Cobb; a set of forms to be filled out by students concerning matriculation, absences, elective studies, etc .; the class schedule for the spring term of 1889; various blanks for ordering supplies and for use at the Library; and copies of the Waterville Mail for July 19, September 19, and September 20, 1889.
In the new building, dedicated in 1890, William A. Rogers brought the study of physics to marked distinction at Colby. Rogers was that rare combination of competent research scientist and inspiring teacher. Not only did he develop in his uniquely constructed laboratory the standard yard for the United States Bureau of Standards and arrive at notable conclusions affecting meteorological investigation for many years, but he also inspired a number of students to pursue graduate study in science, especially in the rapidly developing fields of mechanical and electrical engineering.
When Professor Rogers left Colby in 1897, to join the faculty of his favorite Seventh Day Advent College, at Alfred, N. Y., he made it clear that the research rooms in Shannon had not only been built according to his specifications but also that he regarded their construction as temporary. He wrote:
When the plans for the Shannon Building were drawn, I told the Build- ing Committee I was sure the construction could be such that, when I should sever my own connection with the College, the part built es- pecially for my accommodation could, with slight expense, be converted into recitation rooms, thus relieving the crowding of Champlin Hall. I now find that, by removing the inner walls of the equal temperature room, there can be made a spacious entrance hall and two large recita- tion rooms. There are in the walls of this room about 80,000 bricks which can be removed for fifty cents a thousand, and can, after cleaning, be sold for five dollars a thousand. Such sale will bring a sum sufficient to build partitions and put the two rooms in order, including the seat- ing. The building can thus be converted to new use practically with- out cost.+
Rogers' research at Colby had indeed been impressive. First had been his measuring the heating effect of hot air and the heat generated by pure radiation from heated masses of matter in close proximity to small masses. The result of that research was an address before the physics section of the American Associa-
246
HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE
tion for the Advancement of Science on "Obscure Heat as an Agent Inducing Changes of Length in Metals under Air Contact."
Allied to the first problem had been Professor Rogers' successful use of an instrument invented by Professor Edward Morley of Adelbert College, to measure minute changes in length by counting the corresponding number of wave lengths of sodium light. At Rogers' invitation Morley had come to Waterville in 1891, had spent several weeks in the Shannon Laboratory with Rogers, and the two scientists together had shown the practical use of Morley's instrument. This resulted in an article by Rogers in the Physical Review.
Further investigation enabled Rogers to submit results to the National Academy of Science which had a distinct bearing upon the question of the amount of work done by solar radiation in heating the earth, and the way the heat which supports life is produced. Rogers' supreme accomplishment in this respect was his discovery of new methods of measuring minute changes in length due to minute changes in temperature. He succeeded in measuring changes as slight as one millionth of an inch. It was this mastery of minute measurement that enabled Rogers to perfect the standard yard.
Perhaps Albion Woodbury Small's greatest contribution as President was his establishment of a system of coordination rather than coeducation at Colby. In a later chapter devoted entirely to Women at Colby the full story of the Women's Division will be told. In this chapter a brief account of President Small's part in its development must suffice.
As a member of the college faculty, Small had been well aware that the admission of women had not been greeted with unanimous approval, and that powerful voices among the alumni were frequently raised in protest. As the number of women increased, both faculty and alumni became alarmed. Demands that the enrollment of women be stopped were made to the Trustees at every session.
In his inaugural address in 1890, President Small faced the issue squarely and courageously. He declared that Colby must soon decide whether it would be a college for men, for women, or for both sexes. He pointed out that, while in the nineteen years since women had been admitted, the percentage of their number in each class had ranged from one to nineteen percent, in a few years the number of entering women would probably equal the number of entering men. He praised the accomplishment of those women who had successfully braved the curriculum in a men's college, but he insisted the situation had never been satis- factory either to the women or to the men. He said:
There have been constraints and irritation which those who have looked on from a distance have never suspected. We know that it would be simply inviting calamity to allow the number of women to exceed the number of men. I regard the arrangement by which young women in our classes engage in direct personal competition with the men as tem- porary. It can be abolished by the simple expedient of admitting no more women, but that would be to repudiate the wise decision made in 1871. I see no plan, at once progressive and just, but to declare that within Colby University a women's college shall be founded; not an annex, not a subordinate school, but a company of women with the same claim as the men to the use of all facilities of the University; pursuing, so far as they may choose, the same courses of study as the men, but in no case entering into personal competition with the men for the honors which the University bestows.5
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THE GREAT COORDINATOR
How could such a coordinate college be financed? Small declared that no more than an additional $100,000 of endowment would found such a woman's college. "A hundred thousand dollars devoted to the endowment of a woman's college in Colby University will make it possible for us to offer a more symmetrical education to 200 men and 200 women than either can get in exclusive institutions. Here we should have the advantage of association between young men and women, with common intellectual and moral ideals, with none of the disadvantages that go with the competitive relation."
At the annual meeting of the Trustees in 1890, President Small presented a definite plan of coordination. It called for organizing within the University a college for young men and a coordinate college for women. Entrance require- ments would be the same for both colleges. Beginning with the next entering class, freshman instruction would be separate, and as soon as income permitted would be separate throughout the college course, except for lectures. Many of the same faculty members would teach in both colleges, though such fields as physical education would require different instructors. Under an expansion of the already accepted elective system, courses more applicable to one sex than to the other could be introduced into the particular college concerned. As one of the most important features of the plan, Dr. Small announced that, under it, the members of the two colleges would be treated entirely separately in class or- ganization, rank, prize contests, appointments and honors.
On June 30, 1890, the Trustees voted to accept President Small's plan for two coordinate colleges, to go into effect with the class entering in September, 1890. It was not a unanimous decision, the final vote being 16 to 5 for adoption of the plan.
Colby alumni are well aware that the conception of two distinct colleges under one university administration never completely materialized. What did occur was the establishment of two distinct divisions, with many separate classes in the freshman and sophomore years. Complete separation of instruction was never accomplished, and since 1875 there has never been a time when a majority of the classroom sessions did not contain both men and women students together.
The Colby catalogue for 1890-91 published the names in each of the three upper classes in alphabetical order regardless of sex, and the names of the fresh- men in two separate lists: Freshman Class Gentlemen and Freshmen Class La- dies. Since 1894 every Colby catalogue has published separately the lists of men and women students. As will be told in more detail in a later chapter, Colby is now in fact a coeducational college, but in organization it still has the two coordinate divisions into which Dr. Small's intended two colleges gradually developed.
Even before Small became President, measures had been taken that seemed to show the acceptance of women in the college as a permanent policy. In 1886 the Trustees had authorized the purchase of the Bodfish property on College Street, as a dormitory for women students. The purchase price was $5,550, in addition to which the College expended $525 for furnishings. They sold the stable for $125 with the provision that the buyer should move it away. The pur- chase was made from current funds, with the result that the Treasurer reported, "While the invested funds have lost the amount put into this property, the real estate used for college purposes has correspondingly increased.
The building received the name of Ladies' Hall and served as the principal dormitory for women until the building of Foss Hall, nearly twenty years later. It was then turned over to the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, who made it their home
248
HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE
until the removal to Mayflower Hill. Dr. Small was thus well aware that the previous administration had accepted the enrollment of women as permanent policy.
It also seemed best, in 1890, to increase the charges for dormitory rooms in the men's buildings. The new rate ranged from twelve to eighteen dollars a term for each occupant. The lowest rental was for body rooms on the first and fourth floors of either South College or North College, with fourteen dollars a term charged for similar rooms on the second and third floors. Corner rooms on the first and fourth floors brought sixteen dollars, while highest priced of all were the corner rooms on the second and third floors, at eighteen dollars. Since there were, in 1890, still three terms in the college year, a male student paid for room rent an amount ranging from $36 to $54 a year. Tuition was then $60 a year, fuel $15, light $2.50, incidentals $18, bringing the fees collected directly by the College to $95.50. At that time the College operated no dining service for men, but boarding clubs, usually promoted by the fraternities, met that need at $2.25 a week, or $83.25 for the 37-week year. The catalogue for 1890-91 es- timated total expenses at $233.75 a year, allowing $14 for room furnishings as the annual average for four years. The estimate also included $15 for books, $12 for washing, and $5 for sundry expenses.
As assistance to students, in Small's first year as President, the College had seventy endowed scholarships amounting to $76,322. The income from those scholarships, varying from $36 to $60 a year, was awarded to needy students who were "obedient to the laws of the college" and did not use liquor or tobacco, or frequent billiard rooms. There was a graduated scale of scholarship awards during a student's four years in College. Once a freshman had been selected for aid, he received $36 for that year. As a sophomore he got $45, in his junior year $57, and as a senior $60.
By 1890, the efforts of Horace Mann and other noted educators to make teaching a true profession had begun to bear fruit, and even the conservative faculty at Colby had come to admit that college students might be prepared for teaching in the academies and high schools by giving them something more than mere subject matter. In the years since 1890 the trend has been to the opposite ex- treme, with too much emphasis on methodology and too little on subject matter. But in 1890 there was indeed a well supported demand that teachers ought to know something about psychology, about the history of education, especially in the United States, and about accepted teaching methods. Although several mem- bers of his faculty did not approve, President Small urged the Board to authorize at least some experimentation with what he called "pedagogy." The Board agreed, with the result that Small engaged the part-time services of the Waterville Super- intendent of Schools, William C. Crawford of the Class of 1882, to teach pedagogy to seniors in their final term.
A word should be said about student enrollment and size of the faculty during the Small administration. In the three college years from September, 1889, through June, 1892, the total annual enrollments were 153, 176, and 184. As President Small had predicted, the increase of women students was dispropor- tionate to that of the men. In 1889-90 the women numbered 25; the next year there were 36, and in the third year 47. In President Small's last year, in fact, the number of men actually decreased from 140 to 137. Numbers of both men and women, however, increased appreciably over the enrollment during the previous administration, for the largest total registration in any year between 1882 and
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