Blackstone College - Acorn Yearbook (Blackstone, VA)

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and no farther ? Can any one measure the far-reaching significance of the countless influences that shall have emanated from her walls? What of Chris¬ tian idealism, of Christian character, of high resolve and purpose she shall through future years inspire in the hearts and lives of the many young women who shall pass in and out of her doors! It would be a bold prophet indeed who would attempt to measure in words what the Blackstone influence is to be and where that influence is to end. Blackstone’s future lies in the hands of her friends. The Board of Trus¬ tees, the Alumnae, the Faculty, and the student body must each make their contribution. But we believe that the future of our beloved Alma Mater is to be finally determined and measured by us, and by the many other girls who live within her walls, who share her gracious privileges, and who go out as graduates of the Old College. A great responsibility rests upon us who have been to Blackstone. We have been great receivers, we must be large givers. We have been beneficiaries, we must become benefactors. Blackstone is a spirit! A college does not consist of materials alone, of brick and mortar, of porphyry and stone. Curricula and endowments and faculties do not make a college. Blackstone is a spirit. We find here the spirit of good-will, the spirit of service, the spirit of heroism, the spirit of unselfish¬ ness, the spirit of ministry. And we must take this spirit with us into life, and translate it into such terms as a needy world about us can understand and appreciate. Our obligation is to dedicate our lives to this task of disseminating the Blackstone Spirit wherever we may go. To carry it into our homes, into our churches, into our communities. Thus will the Spirit of Blackstone become immortal, eternal! THIS IS THE FUTURE OF BLACKSTONE! 7

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Slarkatnur—flaat ati 3htturp LACKSTONE lias a history. Like every living thing the College has a background, its roots run way back into the past. About thirty years ago there came into the minds of a small group of men in the vicinity of the town of Blackstone a vision and a dream of a school for the higher education of the women of our State and of other southern States. It was only a dream, but as every great and worthy undertaking has first started as a dream in the mind of some seer, so this dream began rapidly to take on shape. It was partly realized when some acres were purchased, a small build¬ ing erected, and a young, ambitious minister by the name of James Cannon, Jr., was selected as the first principal. The first session began in the year 1894 with twenty-nine boarders. It is hard to realize that Blackstone College, great and influential as she has since grown to be, had a beginning so inconspicuous. But her history is romantic. Under the energetic leadership of Cannon and Adams there was soon no school in the State doing more for young womanhood than Blackstone Female Institute. Daughters began coming from every direction, and before long there could be found in almost every church and community one or more “Blackstone girls,” who were engaged promi¬ nently in the religious life of the community, and who were making a definite contribution to the home and to the church. What a record ! What a history ! It would take many pages to tell the whole story of the sacrifice on the part of officer-s -and teachers that was put into the erection of the buildings, into the enlargement of the student body, into the building of the Blackstone Spirit. The dream for the higher education of women was finally realized when the Institute became, under the laws of the Commonwealth, a College for young women. And when the work was at its highest and best, then came the fires! Not one but two! And it seemed as if the dream and the vision of many years was finally to go up in smoke and fail to be realized. This was not for long, however. For out of the ashes of the old, there soon began to rise the walls of the new and better Blackstone, until to-day we have an equip¬ ment and a student body of which every friend of the College may feel justly proud. But the future of Blackstone! Who can tell ? Who has the eye to be¬ hold this dream in all its completeness? What prophet is so bold as to place limits and boundaries, and who would rise up and say to such a spirit “thus far

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JlUXi ( (f= MISS NATHALEE THOMPSON Acorn Sponsor Arnrn LURLINE JOHNSON . Editor-in-Chief EVELYN HOWERTON . Business Manager HELEN ADKINS . Advertising Manager MARY OWEN BLACKWELL . Organisation Manager LOUISE HEFLIN . Athletic Editor FLORENCE SEWELL . Art Editor ELIZABETH MILES . Miscellaneous Editor GRACE GOODE . Social Statistics Editor MARGARET SKELTON . Assistant Editor-in-Chief - ETTA HAAKE . Assistant Business Manager ELIZABETH BIZZELL . Assistant Advertising Manager BILLIE MEADE . Assistant Organisation Editor KATHERINE WILSON . Assistant Athletic Editor RUTH HENDERSON . Assistant Art Editor PAULETT JOHNSON . Assistant Miscellaneous Editor RUTH SMITH . Assistant Social Statistics Editor LILY MOLLART . Treasurer VIRGINIA FERGUSON . Secretary ✓ A esI