Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 45

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194

USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 45

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

442

LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

suits. The second, and more practical question is, how far it is pos- sible to prosecute any industry profitably while relying upon student labor, which must necessarily be afforded in limited amount, and at intervals accommodated to the intellectual work of the student. If the opportunity for manual labor was furnished at a pecuniary loss, and at the possible sacrifice of the physical health of the student, why not make it a gift outright? These two factors have practically decided the possibility of success in this experiment. Competition is so keen, even with skilled labor, working with the entire time and under the most favorable opportunities on the part of the operative, that when brought into comparison with work relying upon labor at irregular intervals, the latter must necessarily suffer defeat, from the standpoint of mere business success. Looking back upon those carly years, we see that many students who belonged to the labor corps, as it was called, were successful to an eminent degree in maintaining them- selves during their university life, and in attaining a distinguished rank among their fellow students. It would be possible to enumerate many now occupying leading positions in the educational and scientific world, whose education was obtained by heroic sacrifice, by willing limitation of pleasure, and by lofty devotion to an ideal of learning. But, as a rule, we must confess that the limitations inherent in the system itself have been too great to be set aside. Many students who came here with exaggerated hopes of maintaining themselves were disappointed. The amount of work which the university could furnish, even at a loss, was not sufficient to support all students who came rely- ing upon it. The plan, too, gave the impression that self-support, so far from being an incident in the university life, constituted an essen- tial feature; and for many years, in spite of specific statements sent out calculated to avoid holding out undue hopes, the impression pre- vailed in educational circles throughout the country that the university was in large part a manual labor or trade school.

COEDUCATION.

It was a part of Mr. Cornell's original plan that the university should be open for the instruction of both young men and women. It was in accordance with his natural training and mode of thought; he was of Quaker ancestry, and was familiar with the traditions of that body in which an equal prominence is given to women in public meet-

443

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

ings. To the eloquence and pure moral sense of women who have ad- vocated moral reform, education, and the abolition of slavery, the ad- vance of our country has been largely due. It was, therefore, natural that in any conception of the university, he should include cocducation of the sexes. In a letter written from Albany to his only grand- daughter, February 17, 1867, nearly two years before the opening of the university, he said: "I want to have girls cducated in the university as well as boys, so that they may have the same oppor- tunity to become wise and useful to society that the boys have." He cven asked that his letter might be preserved, so as to show to the university authorities in the future what his wishes were. In his address at the opening of the university, he had distinctly stated : "I believe we have made the beginning of an institution which will prove highly beneficial to the poor young men and poor young wo- men of our country." In a letter written a few months later to his wife, in which he paid a beautiful tribute to her sacrifices in his behalf, he expressed a hope that she may found a system of industry in connection with the university, by which girls through labor can secure the means of obtaining the highest and most useful education. He urged some plan through which this may be possible. President White in his inaugural address met the question with great frankness, when "he said: "As to the question of sex, I have little doubt that within a very few years the experiment desired will be tried in some of our largest universities. There are many reasons for expecting its success. It has succeeded not only in the common schools, but what is much more to the point, in the normal schools and academies of the State. It has succeeded so far in some of the lecture rooms in some of our leading colleges, that it is very difficult to see why it should not succeed in all their lecture rooms; and if the experiment succeeds, as regards lect- ures, it is very difficult to see why it should not succeed as regards reci- tations. Speaking entirely for myself, I would say that I am perfectly willing to undertake the experiment as soon as it shall be possible to do so, but no fair-minded man or woman can ask us to undertake it now, as it is with the utmost difficulty that we are ready to receive young men. It has cost years of hard thought and labor to get ready to carry out the first intentions of the national and State authorities which had reference to young men. I trust the time will soon come when we can do more."

444

LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

At the opening of the university, coeducation had already received a successful trial of more than thirty years in Oberlin, by the noble and devoted citizens of New England who settled the Western Reserve in Ohio. Horace Mann and his cqually enthusiastic supporters had set on foot a similar experiment in 1853. Mr. Mann had declined the nomi- nation to be governor of Massachusetts, in order to accept the presidency of the Antioch College, and to pass through the pathetic struggles which accompanied the foundation of that institution. Other institutions in the east had adopted the Oberlin plan, but the movement had occurred on so small a scale that its presence as a decisive factor in educational life had not been widely felt. Michigan, which possessed the largest State university, had felt the powerful demand among the people, and even in the Legislature, for the admission of women. In the years 1862 and 1868 the Legislature passed recommendations urging the regents to admit women to all the facilities of instruction in the State univer- sity. President White, while accepting theoretically the justice of the demand for the higher education of women, felt the limitations, both financial and otherwise, which would make immediate favorable action in that direction impossible. Upon the day on which the university was formally opened, the Hon. Henry W. Sage went to President White and said: "When you are ready to carry out the idea of educating young women as thoroughly as young men, I will provide the endowment to enable you to do so." With Mr. Sage, the higher education of women had become a thorough conviction, and the wisdom and naturalness of educating both young men and women in the same institution admitted of no question. He was not at that time a member of the Board of Trustees, to which he was elected two years later on June 30, 1870. During the first year of his connection with the university, he offered to erect and endow a college or hall for the residence of young women, and at the meeting of the Board of Trustees held in Ithaca, June 21, 1871, President White, in presenting his annual report, discussed and favored the admission of women to the university. His recommenda- tions were referred to a committec consisting of Messrs. White, Weaver, Sage, Andrews, and Finch. The formal report of this committee was presented at the meeting of the Board of Trustees, which was held in Albany, February 13, 1872. The report was adopted unanimously, one member alone withholding his vote. The gift of Mr. Sage was formally accepted, and a special committee was appointed to decide upon the plans for the proposed building. In the mean time one soli-

445

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

tary woman student, Miss Emma Sheffield Eastman, who had attended leetures in the university, was formally admitted, constituting the first female student, although Mrs. Jennie Speneer had presented herself as early as September, 1870, with a certificate entitling her to a State scholarship, and passed with credit the additional examinations re- quired.

The committee to which had been referred the investigation of the question, visited the leading institutions which had already admitted women students. They condueted an extended correspondence with eminent educators, seeking to obtain their views upon the principle in- volved. The majority of the responses to the committee were over- whelmingly against the admission of women. Some regarded it as eon- trary to nature, as likely to produce confusion, dangerous, at variance with the ordinances of God; on the other hand, several principals of norm. 1 schools reported in favor of the success of the experiment in those institutions. The testimony was most positive from those who had seen the experiment of coeducation tried. Some of the oldest and most venerated educators of the country, men whose temper would cause them to be ranked with conservative educational forces, favored the experiment. President Hopkins of Williams Col- lege believed that a continuation of the association in study which had begun in the common schools would present many advantages, and he hoped that the experiment would be tried. President Nott, in a letter to a committee of the Board of Regents, had said : " I would like to see the experiment tried under proper regulations, and were I at the head of the university in Michigan, and public opinion called for the trial of the experiment, I should not oppose obedience to the call. Corpora- tions are conservative; it is their nature not to lead, but to follow pub- lie opinion, and often far in the rear. That it [coeducation | will not be approved by college corporations generally may be taken for granted." The testimony was, however, decisive from such institutions as Ober- lin, the State University of Michigan, the Northwestern University at Evanston, the State Industrial University in Illinois, and Antioch Col- lege. The testimony as to the influence of the young women in con- tributing to a higher tonc in university life, to the abolition of certain rudeness and uncouthness in student manners, was abundant and con- clusive.

It was deemed best that a separate home on the university grounds should be provided for the young ladies, and there seemed to be a peeul- iar fitness in connecting the departments of botany and horticulture

446

LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

with it. The committee, therefore, recommended that in connection with the new college there should be associated a botanical lecture room, conservatory, greenhouse and botanical garden. The question which has been variously settled in different colleges for women, whether the "cottage" system, by which separate attractive homes are erected upon the college grounds for a limited number of young ladies, or the system by which all are accommodated in one large building, was dis- cussed. It was decided to erect on the university grounds a large col- lege building, complete in all respects with lecture rooms, special reci- tation rooms, infirmary, gymnasium, bathing rooms, study and lodging rooms for from 150 to 200 lady students, a building which would form a striking architectural feature in connection with the university. The gift of Mr. Sage was formally accepted under the conditions named by him, and the establishment created under it designated as the Sage College of Cornell University. The corner-stone of this institution was laid on March 15, 1873. Among those who participated in this occasion were the Hon. Henry W. Sage, the Hon. Ezra Cornell, Presi- dent Angell, of the University of Michigan; Chancellor Winchell of Syracuse University, Dr. Moses Coit Tyler, Professor Goldwin Smith, and Col. Homer B Sprague who had been the first professor of rhetoric and oratory in the university. The address of the Hon. Henry W. Sage upon this occasion is noteworthy, as it illustrates the noble purpose which he had in view in making his gift. He said: "We meet to-day upon this beautiful hillside to inaugurate an enterprise which cannot, I think, but have an important influence upon the future of this Com- monwealth and of our race. It has been wisely said that 'who educates a woman educates a generation,' and the structure which is to be erected over this corner-stone will be especially devoted to the education of women, and will carry with it a pledge of all the power and resources of Cornell University, to provide and forever maintain facilities for the education of women as broadly as for men." He closed with the words: "When this structure shall be completed and ready for its use, let us look up and forward for results; and if woman be true to herself, if woman be true to woman, and both be true to God, there ought to be from the work inaugurated here this day an outflow which shall bless and elevate all mankind." The corner-stone was laid by Mrs. Sage with these words:

I lay this corner-stone, in faith That structure fair and good Shall from it rise, and thenceforth come True Christian womanhood.

447

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

Among the articles deposited beneath the corner-stone was a letter addressed by Mr. Cornell to the coming man and woman, the contents of which were unknown save to the author. In closing his remarks he said: "The letter, of which I have kept no copy, will relate to future generations the cause of the failure of this experiment, if it ever does fail, as I trust in God it never will." The mysterious contents of this letter are reserved for the information of some distant generation. The college was formally opened for the admission of women at the opening of the fall term of 1814. From that date, women have been admitted freely to the university. They have attended recitations and lectures, and engaged in laboratory work in all departments. Some have entered in agriculture, and in architecture, and one or more even in mechanical engineering. The proportion of lady students during the first years of the university was about one-tenth of the entire number of students. Since then it has somewhat increased. The character of the scholarship which they have sustained, the scientific investigations which have been embodied in the theses submitted for graduation, and the high merit which has attached to their work as a whole, all bear witness to the wisdom of the policy by which young women were originally admitted to the university.

THE NON-RESIDENT LECTURE SYSTEM.

The non-resident lecture system which had been emphasized in the plan of organization was a characteristic part of the proposed university. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held in Albany, September 26, 1867, six lecturers or non-resident professors were appointed. The most prominent of these were Louis Agassiz, in Natural History; James Russell Lowell, in English Literature; George William Curtis, in Recent Literature; Theodore W. Dwight, in Constitutional Law; James Hall, in General Geology; and Governor Frederick Holbrook, of Vermont, in Agriculture. Most of these lecturers had exhibited a general interest in the new university and had co-operated by counsel and suggestion as to the form which it should assume. Lectures of the character proposed, so far as they were substituted for systematic instruction in a given department, were necessarily unsatisfactory. They were either popular and general in character, or, if scientific, they stood alone, not supplementing, save indirectly, any given course of study. Of such general lectures, treating of detached authors or periods in literature, or presenting a popular outline of science but constituting

448

LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

no distinct chapter in the curriculum of a given course, the number might be increased indefinitely. These lectures were delivered first in the spring of 1870. It is interesting to note the subjects. George William Curtis presented a Review of Modern Literature, the Novel, Dickens, Thackeray, Women in Literature, George Eliot, Carlyle, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Amer- ican Literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mr. Lowell discussed the Ele- ments of Literature in three lectures, a Review of Literature, the Imaginative in Expression, Wit and Humor, the Troubadours and Trou- vères, Piers Plowman's Vision, Dante, Chaucer, the authors between the time of Chaucer and Spenser, early English ballads, Pope and higher culture. Professor Dwight's course upon Constitutional Law embraced twelve lectures the subjects of which included a defini- tion and explanation of terms; the sources of the constitution ; mode of generating governments; difference between the State and general gov- ernment ; structure of the United States government, and powers of Con- gress and restrictions upon Congress. There is no doubt that the names of these accomplished lecturers were a brilliant contribution to the university at its opening, as they would have been at any subsequent time. The personality of Professor Agassiz and his enthusiasm for Science not only interested the general students of the university, but incited some to an enthusiastic pursuit of science. His lectures were confined to a single course, as his engagements did not permit him to continue them. Professor Lowell's subjects, while more critical and remote than those of Mr. Curtis, possessed all that charm of composi- tion, that ample knowledge, that grace and delicacy of humor which have made him one of the prominent figures in American literature. Mr. Curtis, whose graceful style and pleasant discursive criticism charmed for so many years the readers of Harper's Monthly, won an enthusiastic reception from the student world. The lectures of Gover- nor Holbrook, who had a popular interest in agriculture, and of Pro- fessor Hall were never delivered. Professor Curtis delivered his lec- tures a second time during the spring of 1871. Mr. Bayard Taylor delivered a course of lectures upon German literature, first in the spring of 1870, and repeated them in 1875 and 1877. These lectures were held in Library Hall, which enabled the citizens of Ithaca to at- tend them, as well as the students. Mr. Taylor who was widely known for his books of travels, and later for his translation of Faust, although not in a technical sense an authority upon German, was a master work-

449

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

man in literature, and the lectures which he delivered, though popular in character and prepared expressly for the occasion, were suggestive from the interesting comparisons introduced, covering a wide range of reading, and from his sympathy with the writers whom he selected for treatment. The translations with which he illustrated his lectures were often very felicitous. Few American writers have possessed so remark- able a power to reproduce the words and metre, and to imitate the style of earlier and contemporary writers. The "Echo Club," which he wrote for the Atlantic Monthly, illustrates in a remarkable degree this peculiar gift.

Professor George W. Greene, the author of the elaborate life of Gen- eral Greene, of the Revolutionary army, delivered several extended courses of lectures upon American History in the years from 1872-4. A bust of this distinguished scholar and delightful man, presented by his friend, the poet Longfellow, was placed in the library in 1879. Mr. John Fiske also delivered seven lectures upon the same subject in April, 1881. Mr. Froude, the English historian, delivered six lectures on the History of English Rule in Ireland, in October and November, 1872. Professor Von Holst, of the University of Freiburg, the eminent au- thor of the great work on American Constitutional History, delivered ten lectures on that subject, May 19-30, 1879. Mr. Edward A. Free- man, the historian, also delivered several lectures, in November, 1881, in which he discussed the political institutions of Greece, Rome and Modern Europe, which, however, as they had been in part previously published, won but limited recognition.

The system of non-resident lectureships has proved a valuable feature in Sibley College, under the skillful guidance of the Director, Dr. Robert H. Thurston. Eminent specialists have been invited to discuss some subject in technical or theoretical science of which they are the acknowledged masters. These subjects have constituted brilliant illustrations of certain investigations, which have already formed a part of the instruction of the students, who had thus been qualified to understand the latest discoveries in applied science. Many of the most eminent scholars in America have during the last eight years lectured before the students of Sibley College, among them Professor Bell, the inventor of the telephone; Horace See, on modern marine construction ; George H. Babcock, on the steam engine; Elihu Thompson, on electric distribution ; Henry Metcalfe, U. S. A., on costs and manufactures; Thomas C. Clarke, on the construction of large railroad bridges;

450

LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.

Lieutenant Zalinski, on the pneumatie dynamite gun: R. W. Hunt, on the manufacture of Bessemer steel; B. F. Thurston, on the theory of patent law; C. J. Woodbury, on the modern mill; Charles E. Emery, on the governing proportions of steam boilers, etc., etc.

The first demand of a university lecturer is that he should be didaetic. Other gifts, of philosophical generalization and description have also their place, and the ability to interest and inspirc, even where the content of the lecture is less, is a quality of high value in a university teacher. Professor Dwight was a great teacher. He had the power to group his material and present it in the most effective manner. His lectures had unity in themselves, and the course which he delivered here in successive years, while not supplemented by the study of text books and recitations, constituted a valuable, series, upon a subject of importance to every eitizen, when the resources of the university were insufficient to equip the necessary chairs of instruction.

A university in which adequate provision has been made for instrue- tion by eminent seholars in all departments of learning which form a part of its curriculum, will not need external assistance. If its means are not ample, and its teaching force inadaquate, the use of its resources for costly attractions from without is not justifiable. The province of all courses of extra leetures should be to supplement the established eurrieulum, and not in any sense a substitute for it. Superficial and merely popular knowledge cannot take the place of the accurate and scien- tific training required in a university. The most illustrious professors lecturing to minds unprepared would be a waste of intellectual power. Where students are specially prepared, the work of eminent scholars may be added to present brilliantly some phase of knowledge. Modern courses of study are, however, so crowded that the introduction of ad- ditional subjects can only divert, or be done at the expense of essential and systematic work.

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION.

The plan of organization presented to the trustees two years before the opening of the university must be regarded as an expression of the views of a single trustee. It is signed by Mr. Andrew D. White in behalf of the committee on organization. There is no reference in the records of the trustees to the appointment of such a committee, and Mr. White himself states that the plan of organization as presented was

451

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

prepared at the suggestion of Mr. Cornell. Mr. Cornell studied it care- fully, gave it his approval, and a copy with the notes in his own hand is still preserved. There is no evidence that at the time this report was prepared, Mr. White was even a prospective candidate for the presidency. He states that he did not know the purpose of Mr. Cornell to present his name for such an appointment until he was formally nominated for election on October 21, 1866, by Mr. Cornell. The report, however, was published under the authority of the trustees and may be regarded, in connection with the election of Mr. White as president at the same meeting, as receiving the endorsement of the board and as an expression of its views regarding the proposed form of the university. The charter was bestowed upon a corporation of ten persons, viz., Ezra Cornell, William Kelly, Horace Greeley, Josiah B. Williams, William Andrus, John McGraw, George W. Schuyler, Hiram Sibley, J. Meredith Read and John M. Parker, who were to constitute a body politic and corporate to be known as the Cornell University, having the rights and privileges necessary to the accomplishment of the object of its creation, and sub- ject to the provisions, and with the powers enumerated in the revised statutes of the State of New York as regards college corporations. This is a general grant or bestowal of power, without the specification of details, such as is made in the charter of other universities in the State and elsewhere in the country. Similarly, there is no specification of the duties or province of the faculty in regard to the consideration and determination of important questions in the educational policy of the university. The question of the establishment and approval of courses, the requirements for admission and graduation, the settlement of questions of discipline, or any specification of the important functions, which, by common university law and tradition, are possessed by the faculties of other institutions of learning, were not specified in the charter. A delimitation of the respective powers and prerogatives of the two bodies was not made until a formal codification of the Univer- sity statutes by a committee of the trustees, of which Judge Douglass Boardman was chairman, was adopted on May 19, 1891. We find in the early history of the university the executive committee exercising functions, which later, and naturally, were assigned to the faculty; such as changing the standard of requirements for admission, pre- scribing the uniform to be worn by the university students and even inflicting discipline. An amusing, but not serious, difference of opinion arose at one time between these two bodies as to the expediency of re-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 45

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194