NYU Washington Square College - Album Yearbook (New York, NY)

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bearing the title: Considerations upon the Expediency and the Means of Establishing a University in the City of New York. It is quite evident that the establishment of a university on a liberal and extensive foundation had occupied the minds of these men for some time. At a meeting of which General Morgan Lewis was chairman held for the purpose of considering the subject, the following resolution was passed by the assembly: That it is highly desirable and expedient to establish in the City of New York a University on a liberal foundation, which shall correspond with the spiritual wants of our country, which shall be commensurate with our great and growing population and which shall enlarge the opportunities of education for such of our youth as shall be found qualified and inclined to improve them. These words express the chief matter uppermost in the consciousness of the Founders. They felt that the colleges which were already in existence were places of education for a privileged class, and such institutions served only the learned professions. Discerning the fact that a college education was a necessary adjunct to the future of the student, these broad-minded men saw that, under the existing conditions of learning, students who wished to follow lines of endeavor other than those offered by the learned professions would not be materially aided by as intense a study of classics as was then necessary. One must remember that the universities of that period required nearly as much Latin for entrance into college as is usually studied in the whole collegiate course of the present day. The ideas of the Founders were closely related to those which opened the way for the present-day technical schools in Germany. VVith these ideas of reform. in mind, the Founders began at once to put their plans into a more complete and concrete expression. To form the financial basis of this educational venture, shares in the new institution were sold, and by October of the same year the shareholders, about three hundred in number, had chosen a council of thirty-eight members. The selling of shares in an educational institution may strike us as rather odd in this present day, but it was a common method of raising fundsat that time, for we know it was patterned after the precedent of earlier institu- tions. Of this Council the Hon. Albert Gallatin was chosen president, but in October of 1831 he resigned because of ill-health and because he was out of sympathy with the later aims of some of the members of the Council who wished to reestablish the classics in the new college. General Nlorgan Lewis, a Revolutionary soldier and the chairman of the first meeting of the nine men, was elected to fill this vacancy. N spite of all this work of preparation it was not until September of 1832 that the work of instruction actually began. The entering Class numbered about two hundred students, the majority being residents of New York City or of villages in the immediate vicinity, but there was also a fair representation of other parts of the E261

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The History of the oundiin of New York University sie HE origin and early development of New York University is the story of the perseverance and the idealism of a small band of men, prominent citizens who had the welfare of this country and the youth of this country at heart. Radically departing from the standardized types of the centers of learning so far established, they centered their hopes on an institution which would prepare men not only for the learned professions, as did the contemporary colleges, but also for other lines of endeavor of a more practical nature. lVlere superficial research will surely fail to show the innumerable benefits which the sons of this University have derived from their foster mother, but we all know that the influence of New York University has been world-wide in scope and has entered every field of action. The first beginnings of the institution now known as New 'York University were made at a time when this city was substantially an American rather than, as it is now, a cosmopolitan city. At this time New York had not as yet dared to aspire to the heights of wealth and importance which it now enjoys, but it was rather an enlarged village than a world metropolis. The various elements which were to form what now has come to be known as American characteristics were just completing the fusion process, and the people as a whole were just beginning to realize the importance of their own nationalism. N such a community, then, and at such a time was inaugurated the movement for a new kind of institution of learning. On January 4, 1830, a call was issued to the gentlemen interested in such a project for a meeting to discuss the possibilities of establishing a university in the city of New York on a liberal and extensive foundation. To this invitation responded nine men to whom we, the students of New York University, are most seriously indebted, for these nine men alone formed the project for the establishment of this institution. These nine men were J. M. Mathews, later the first Chancellor of the College, Valentine hlott, the most eminent surgeon of the country, Myndert Van Schaick, one of the greatest benefactors of New York University in its formative period, J. M. Wainwright, J. Augustine Smith, Joseph and John Delafield, Hugh Maxwell and Isaac Hone. As the movement expanded, the Founders' ideas, aspirations and h01JCS WCYC CXpressed in a pamphlet E251

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country. The classes were held at Clinton Hall, which was the temporary home of the University. Here, with much ceremony, the Chancellor, Rev. James NI. Mathews, and the members of the faculty were inducted into their respective ollices by the Rev. Dr. Milnor. The average number of students who entered the University in the period from 1833 to 1835 was a little over two hundred. Those students who were not candidates for degrees studied modern languages, engineering or painting. In the same year that the college opened at Clinton Hall, a site for the new University Building was purchased on the eastern side of Washington Square. The development of the city at that time may be noticed from a remark of a contemporary newspaper which observed that the University was moving out toward the suburbs. The corner stone of the new building, which embodied all the ideals of its founders, was laid in July, 1833. Although the actual construction of the building went on smoothly enough as regards the financial condition of the Council, labor troubles in New York City during the years 1833 and 1834 hindered the work to such an extent that the building was not completed until the Spring of 1835. The following Fall the first classes were held there. However, it was not until two years later that the building was at last dedicated to the Purpose of Science, Literature and Religion with an address by the Hon. James Tallmadge, who was at that time the President of the Council. This new building, Norman Gothic in style, and splendidly equipped for that time, if we may believe contemporary accounts, housed all the departments of the college. Part of the building was let out for use as a preparatory school, while the ollices of the professors, recitation and lecture rooms, the rooms of the liucleian and Philomanthean Societies, and an elaborately decorated chapel occu- pied the remainder of the structure. Early in the Fall of 1838 the infant university became the center of a contention which threatened to block all progress in the development of the institution. A con- troversy arose between the Chancellor and the faculty which resulted in seven out of the eight professors who made up the undergraduate teaching stalf being summarily removed. This fact coupled with the financial crisis of 1837 dealt a stunning blow to the young college, which was even then struggling for existence. Then, too, through this controversy the Council lost many friends and supporters who would have been of great assistance to them at a time when their help was sorely needed. ln the following Spring Chancellor lllathews, as a result of this disagreement in the Uni- versity, retired from the Chancellorship, although he maintained his seat in the University Council until 1847. HE institution and growth of the literary associations is organically connected with the development of the University, for, as the catalogues for the earlier years of the college have been lost, the rosters and minutes of these societies take on E271