Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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1889 President Edward Hicks Magill 1889, the Second International was founded in Geneva. Kaiser Wilnelm succeeded his lather in Germany. Benjamin Harrison re- placed Grover Cleveland in the White House. And Swarthmore College celebrated its 25th. Still under President Magill in 1889, Swarth- more was wandering off the course set by its founders. Magill, who intended to increase the stature of the College, found he could not do this without sacrificing its distinctive Quaker atmosphere, and moving toward the widespread public conception of College Life. Despite the persistent efforts of the Board of Managers, certain worldly habits were finding their way into Swarthmore. There was no longer a wholly Quaker faculty or student-body, no longer the simple dress and simple speech. The three literary societies had existed from the first year of classes, but in the eighties there appeared also a Glee Club, a Cycling Club, a Chess Club, two fraternities (Kappa Sigma and Phi Kappa Psi), the Phoenix and the Halcyon. Men s sports and women ' s exercises had al- ways had some small place, but in 1888 they were institutionalized with the creation of the Department of Physical Culture. Intercollegiate sports contests in football, track, and tennis were given official sanction, and students were even allowed to attend (in suits) and cheer. Such revolutionary decisions were not made without dissent. A group of elders of Swarthmore Meeting deplored football and the degree to which it was yielding to professionalisation at the College : It is unbecoming and improper on the part of any one, and especially of those claim- ing the name of Friend, to indulge in such prac- tices, and we earnestly urge that this cause for reproach . . . shall be speedily removed by either abolishing the game or so modifying it as to elim- inate these objectionable features. Although Swarthmore was conforming to the college image in many respects, its peculiar institution of coeducation of the sexes remained completely foreign to any public conception of higher education. President Magill staunchly de- fended it, but had constantly to assure public and parents that adequate social restrictions were being take n : Their intercourse is almost entirely under the eye of watchful teachers and caretakers. ' Regulations were established so prohibitive and arbitrary that even the most sen- sitive could not protest ; an explicit code of con- duct. Laws of Swarthmore College Relating to Students (100 of them), was formulated and strictly enforced. By the mid-eighties, such restrictions were having bad effects on student morale, on appli- cations to attend College, and thus on College receipts. In response to the last cause more than 14

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Parrish Hall in 1881 the Greek and German Languages and Litera- ture and Acting Professor of Mathematics. This College faculty of three was supported on the Preparatory level by several more teachers, all female. To keep the students in line the College hired Matron Helen G. Longstreth, her official duties being to counsel and advise with those of the pupils who may need it, and direct their inter- course with each other. The Parrish administration had not gone six months when the Board found reason to ask for the resignation of their first President, whom they found too weak on discipline. In 1870 they appointed Edward Hicks Magill as new Presi- dent, his motto being Order, Silence, and Sys- tem. ' Parrish, downhearted but always willing to serve some cause, accepted an appointment by President Grant to arbitrate d ifficulties among the Indians of Oklahoma Territory. He died there of malarial fever in 1872. Swarthmore College was off and running, hum- ble in scope but noble in purpose ! From the first, it allowed electives and stressed the sciences, two factors that identified it with the forces of change in American education. V CUBA W Inauguration of the College, 1866 «S VJBfc

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1886 Orchestra any other, the Board in 1886 reluctantly liberal- ized its policies, and appointed a new Matron, Elizabeth Powell Bond, to create a proper atmos- phere of dignity and mutual respect among students, in which exhaustive rules would be unnecessary. In slow stages, singing, tea dances, theatre, and other wholesome activities were introduced. In 1889, Swarthmore girls even en- acted Antigone, by Sophocles, the first Greek play ever presented by young women in Amer- ica. Undergraduates called these years a period of reformation, and hoped it would last. Swarthmore College was coming of age in 1889, with 247 students, 31 faculty members, and with five College buildings (Parrish, Trotter, the Old Observatory, the Meeting House, and the President ' s House) , all heated by steam and lighted by gas. 1889 Tug of War Team