Berea College - Chimes Yearbook (Berea, KY)

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OUR THEME It is not difficult to find a theme for THE CHIMES dedicated to President and Mrs. Frost, for their contributions to Berea are so many that almost every aspect of the college is a tribute to them. Great material gains were made during the administration of President Frost — attendance jumped from 3 54 in 1892 to 2,675 in 1920, and the money value of Berea College increased from $200,000 in 1892 to $4,000,000 in 1920. Great as these material advances were, even more im- portant to Berea was President Frost ' s recognition of the needs and possibilities of the mountain people of Appalachia, and his attempt to realize these possibilities by meeting these needs. Not the least hindrance to his objective was the extreme poverty of the people in the area Berea served, and so in an effort to make education possible for all, President Frost developed the labor system. Mrs. Frost was President Frost ' s active companion and helper in his effort to realize his aims. But aside from the part she played in carrying out her husband ' s plans, Mrs. Frost is important to Berea. She was one of the first art teachers in Berea, and whenever her name is mentioned, art and beauty are mentioned. She tried continually to incorporate the beautiful with the practical, and Berea ' s continued emphasis on beauty is due in no small part to Mrs. Frost. Having decided to find a beautif ul aspect of the labor system for the theme of our annual, we happened upon some lovely photographs of Berea hands at work, made by Mrs. Doris Ulmann. We knew immediately that these pictures were what we were looking for and through the courtesy of the administration we are allowed to to present seven of them on our division pages. Well known for some years as a photographer of merit, Mrs. Ulmann is particularly noted for her char- acter studies of Southern mountain people, a number of which appeared in Roll, Jordan, Roll, a book on Southern life created by Mrs. Ulmann, in collaboration with Mrs. Julia Peterkin. A close friend of Berea College and a frequent visitor to our campus, Mrs. Ulmann upon her death in 1934 left to Berea thousands of her photographs, over 3,000 of which are already in our Art Building, and also gave $10,000 for the housing and care of these pictures. In actually working out the book itself, our first problem was the cover. No modernistic, air-brushed, embossed cover seemed consistent either with the Frosts or with Berea. In fact, the more we thought the more we realized that we had to have Berea homespun covers, and after several exciting weeks of figuring and corresponding, we started Mr. David Gilliam, a Mountain Weaver Boy, weaving THE CHIMES cloth. He finished the necessary 198 yards in about 198 hours of hard work. Many of us would have balked at the prospect of doing so much of one thing, but David tackled the job joyrully, telling us again and again that he felt honored in being per- mitted to weave this cloth. With such a fine spirit woven into each and every cover, we may be sure that when we pick up the 1937 CHIMES, we literally pick up a little piece of Berea. Our dedication, our theme, and our cover all combined to limit our design for THE CHIMES. No elaborate, flowery curlicues would do. Our book had to be simple and strong. Some, no doubt, will be disappointed in this year ' s CHIMES because it lacks a certain showman- ship and dash, but let them remember that here we are trying to catch a spirit — the spirit of Berea — which simply is not to be found in the professional pens that turn out dandy college annuals, but which must be found in us Bereans. For this reason, guided by what we think are the outstand- ing characteristics of this spirit — simplicity and strength, we have done all the art work ourselves, trying in it to express what Berea means to us. THE EDITOR

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DORIS ULMANN

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THE CAT-LOVER —FRANK LONG Frank Long again generously contributes to THE CHIMES one of his lovely woodcuts. Mr. Long, who is at present working on murals for the Hagerstown, Maryland, post office, exhibited some of his interesting work in our Art Building this year. No artist could better catcli the spirit which we .ire trying to express in this annual.