Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS The purpose of the founders, as expressed in the charter and adhered to in all subsequent amendments, was to establish and maintain a College of Liberal Arts. This is the character of the school today. It is not a theological school. It aims to educate young men and women for the business of life, bearing ever in mind that no education is complete or genuine that neglects the factors of moral and spiritual worth. Albion College is distinc- tively a Christian school. It imposes no theological tests and no religious exactions beyond regular attendance on the daily chapel exercises and at the church of the students ' choice on Sunday. While Albion College demands true scholarship first, last and all the time, she consistently teaches that higher life that is above text-books and laboratory classes and that manifests itself in use- fulness to society as well as to the individual who possesses it. She holds a high ideal of service, and few students leave her halls without this impress deep-seated in their characters. LIBRARIES, LABORATORIES AND OBSERVATORY LIBRARIES. The Library Building, the gift of the late Mrs. Charlotte T. Gassette, of Albion, Michigan, is a substantial new brick structure, well equipped, containing 21,600 volumes, besides about 4,000 un- bound volumes and pamphlets. The Reading Room, commodious and attractive, is abundantly supplied with encyclopedias, dictionaries, lexicons, and general works of reference, together with such books as are temporarily assigned

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12 ALBION COLLEGE stories high, with a round tower which rises to three stories and is surmounted by a dome. On the lower floor are the lecture rooms of the departments of Astronomy and Mathematics and the pier- room, through which pass the brick supports for the fixed instru- ments. On the second floor are the transit room, containing the Transit Circle, Clock and Chronograph, a computing room, a room for portable instruments, and a room containing the Astronomical and Meteorological Library. In the round tower is placed the Equatorial. The Gymnasium was completed in 1892. The first story is of field stone; above this the building consists of a heavy frame inclosed with brick. The building has a frontage of 54 feet, and is 92 feet in depth, surmounted with a gothic roof to provide suffi- cient height. The McMillan Chemical Laboratory was erected in 1893, the gift of Hon. James McMillan, of Detroit. It is a substantial and modern building, three stories in height above the basement. It is occupied by the departments of Chemistry and Physics. The Lottie L. Gassette Memorial Library is a building of classic design, occupying a central position on the campus. It is 45 by 90 feet. It was given by the late Mrs. Charlotte T. Gassette, of Albion, in memory of her deceased daughter. Four Fraternity Halls have been erected on the east portion of the college grounds, the institution having granted leases of sites for a period of years. The Winter-Lau Athletic Field, of twelve acres, less than two blocks from the College, presents one of the best equipped athletic fields in the West.

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14 ALBION COLLEGE by members of the Faculty for reference work and collateral read- ing. One hundred twenty periodicals are regularly received. Bound volumes of the leading magazines are made available by the use of Poole ' s Index and its supplements and the Reader ' s Guide to Periodical Literature. The Dewey system of classification is used and a card catalogue makes the books easily accessible. Free access to the stack-room is allowed, and in addition to their use in the Library building, books, with some restrictions, may be drawn for home use. The Library is open on school days from 8 a. m. to 12 m. ; from 1 :30 p. m. to 5 :30 p. m., and on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30; Saturday from 8 a. m. to 12 m. Departmental Libraries are also maintained in the Chemical, Biological and Physical Laboratories and in the Astronomical Observatory. ASTRONOMICAL EQUIPMENT. In Astronomy, the facilities offered by the College are ex- cellent. The equipment is fully adequate for purposes of instruction or research. The Equatorial Telescope is of eight inches clear aperture, made and mounted by Alvan Clark Sons. It is pro- vided with circles, coarse and fine, driving clock, filar micrometer, with field and side illumination, and eye pieces giving range from a low-power comet-seeker to eight hundred diameters. The Transit Circle, by Fauth Co., is of a four-inch aperture and is provided with micrometers in right ascension and declination, levels, sensitive to one second of arc and vertical circles reading to single seconds by micrometer microscopes. The Sidereal Clock and Chronograph are by the same makers. All of the instruments are in electrical connection. BIOLOGICAL EQUIPMENT. The Biological Department occupies the new Biological Labora- tory, erected as an addition to Robinson Hall. This addition is 45 by 60 feet, three stories high, above the basement. It contains large laboratories for the classes in Zoology and Botany, accommodating respectively 60 and 40 students. Besides the large windows at the end of each table there are electric lights and gas arc lights that afford ample illumination for evenings or dark days. There are commodious lecture rooms adjoining each. Besides these labora- tories there are smaller laboratories for more advanced classes,