Millersville University - Touchstone Yearbook (Millersville, PA)

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Seventy-five years ago the seniors of Millersville State Normal School published a yearbook, establishing a tradition honored for three quarters of a century. The book was dedicated to Mr. J. P. Wickersham, teacher at the Normal, soldier, author, and was even named The Wickersham in his honor. We have tried. the editors wrote, to depict the character of the school by word and picture, to reflect credit upon our instructors who have guided us through our school days, and to present to the Alumni a souvenir by which they may be able to call to mind their many happy school days of yore. Not very different from the purpose of today's yearbooks. Those happy days were at a school founded in 1855. following a successful summer institute held the preceding year. The first and principal building, later to be called Old Main and since razed to make room for Ganser Library, contained dormitories (the sexes had wings at opposite ends of the building), a chapel, administrative offices, recitation rooms. and a model school. Other buildings extant in 1899 were the gym, which later students named the Rat Race and which is now Dutcher Hall, the library, and the Science Hall, which was to become the Industrial Arts Building and then be demolished to make way for Dilworth. The Wickersham terms this campus the most valuable Normal School property in the United States. It encompassed twenty acres, was beautifully planted as now with trees and flower beds, and boasted a lake used by merry skaters in winter, and in summer by the ladies for boating. It also had two fountains, which still stand and still function. The athletic field to the west held a baseball diamond and a football ground. Tennis courts lay to the northwest. Possibly the greatest difference between then and now. apart from size, lies in the calendar. The school calendar for the following year was published in The Wickersham in its entirety, possibly to attract new students. It starts with the remainder of the summer session: June 25—Sunday morning. Baccalaureate Sermon: June 27—Tuesday evening, Literary Exercises; June 28—Class Day Exercises and Alumni Meetings; June 29—Commencement Exercises. The winter session: August 28-Winter Session begins; December 22—Christmas Holidays begin; 1900, January 1—Christmas Holidays end (imagine returning to classes on New Year's Day!): January 26—Anniversary of the Normal Literary Society; March 15—Winter Session ends. Summer session: March 26—Sum- mer Session begins: May 25—Anniversary of Page Literary Society; June 24—Sunday morning. Baccalaurate Sermon; June 26—Tuesday evening. Oratorical Contests; June 27—Class Day Exercises and Alumni Meetings; June 28—Commencement Exercises. Total—a full ten months of classes. The senior curriculum for all consisted of History of Education. Solid Geometry, Teaching. Methods. Classics. Cicero, and Physics. The Wickersham staff advised the juniors: Immediately after classes. Cicero till 5:15; to library for book for Model School Lesson and book for debate; after supper copy Methods notes for the day and work on debate. Study period (evening) begin with History of Education—2Vi hours. Put two hours in in the evening, one-half hour before breakfast and again at 8 a.m. 9-9:45 (p.m.) study geometry—will have five theorems. Complete three, finish in the morning. Get up early, set clock for 3 to be at study by 3:15. Finish Geometry by 3:30. 3:30-4 write out lesson plan, neatly done in ink.

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7 i A portion of the new campus, left below, with a corner of Myers Hall at the lower right corner. Byerly behind it. Witmer Infirmary, center foreground, and the roof of Stine to Witmer's left. To the left of Byerly is the stadium fronting on the football field, and the baseball diamond farther left. That is the view to the east as a balloon rises over Ganser Library, its rainbow colors washed by the early morning sun. This page, very modern Ganser is contrasted with the old bridge across The Lake. Students today don't know that the bridge once rose high enough to permit ice skaters to glide from one end of the Lake to the other. On the title page, the Civil War Monument looks blue in the shade of the old trees; the battles that took the lives of students, staff and alumni are still read: Chickamauga, Appamattox. Bull Run—they seem quite distant. Below, one of the two fountains here and operable for nearly a century. Opposite page, the old library, that architectural gem. is awarded the place of honor in this seventy-fifth anniversary of the yearbook.

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9 Physics one hour. It is now 5 o’clock. Prepare the lesson for the eleventh grade Geography class. 6-6:15 read Classics and finish that after dinner (lunch). This plan is warranted to work for any pupil of average ability. Classes were continuous from 7 a.m. to noon when lunch was served. After lunch in fine weather, a female teacher might take some female students on a nature walk down beautiful, tree-lined Shenk’s Lane. At 1 classes resumed. A letter from a homesick girl to her mother says classes were held from 7 to noon and 1 to 5. Classes were assembled by the ringing of a bell that hung in the tower of Old Main—and which awaits the building of a new tower to house it— a bell which also signaled when to wake up, go to meals and devotions, and for eventide. It weighs 1,050 pounds. The faculty was headed by Elipha-let Oram Lyte. A. M.. Ph. D., principal, who taught Psychology, Logic, and Pedagogics. Other familiar names among the faculty of 1899 are Byerly. Hull, Roddy. Brooks and Harbold of the men, and Lyle, Gilbert, Landes and Myers of the women, all of whom have buildings named for them. The faculty totaled thirty-seven, less than one-tenth the number of full-time teachers here today. The Class of 1899 first met to organize September 16, 1898. At later meetings a constitution was written, a class emblem and a class flower— yellow and white roses—adopted, and a motto chosen: Studemus Excellere (We study to excel). The class colors were gold, white and black. A class yell was composed: E. O. L.! Walla. Walla, Will! Ninety-nine! Ninety-nine! Millersville! Boom!!! The entire history of the class from that first meeting is recorded in that first book. On October 20. 1898, for instance, the class went on an excursion to Washington, which is recounted at length. It planted a circle of poplar trees on the west campus November 22. While admitting that tree planting by a class was not new, it has never been done here before on such an extensive scale. On December 17. the seniors entertained at a sociable for faculty and students. According to the photographs in the senior section. 115 graduated that year, a far cry from the 1,250 or so MSC now graduates. Today this ancient book is a delight to read. Yet it set a tone of self-conscious boasting of its accomplishments that numerous subsequent books tried to outdo. And it tells how close the tide of war rolled in the 1860's, when the flames of the burning bridge at Columbia, which was destroyed to prevent the Confederate troops from crossing the Susquehanna. were plainly seen from the grounds. The school was closed at one period of the war on account of the proximity of the enemy. Those who died in that war are remembered on the monument that faces George Street. The 1899 book contains humor. what today we would call inside jokes. For instance, since conversation be- tween the sexes was taboo, dates were made by snapping fingers, hence a phony book: How to Exterminate Snappers by Mae I. Horan — This exhaustive treatise upon animals which thrive upon our campus ... In the ad section: Ladies' shoes sold from $1.50 to $6. oxfords $1 to $4.50, men’s $1.50 to $7. Ads tried to entice graduates of MSC to enrol at Penn State or F M. both degreegranting institutions even then. That was the beginning. From THE WICKERSHAM the name was changed in 1901 to THE MILLERS-VILLIAN and not until 1909 was the name TOUCHSTONE adopted. But from the first the yearbook was intended to be a permanent record of a college year, a bit of history. It still purposes to be that. Therefore, in the spirit of that first book, we offer the Diamond Edition as a true and faithful record of the 1973-74 school year, to have, to enjoy, to treasure—for the next three quarters of a century. The Editors