Earlham College - Sargasso Yearbook (Richmond, IN)

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Historical Sketch ITUATED on a tract of land of one Innidred and twenty acres, adjoining the western limits of the city of Rich- mond and overlooking the city and picturesque valley of the Whitewater River, is an institution which reaches, this year, the fiftieth anniversary of its history as a college and the sixty-second as an educational institu- tion. Plans for sucli an institution were begun as far back as the early thirties and by 1837 were well under way. Like the beginnings of all great movements, the progress was slow JK . and it was 1847 before the doors were thrown open for students. From the start, both sexes were admitted w ' ithout restriction or reserva- tion. The school was maintained as a board- ing school of advanced grade until 18. 9 when it was organized as Earlham College. Among the early contributors to the endowment of the col- lege was a prominent English banker, bv the name of T iseph John Gurney, a highly educated man and a prominent minister among Friends. His timely gift was later supplemented by a larger one which was contributed bv his widow and the college was given its name from Earlham ITall , the ancestral seat of the Gurneys, at Norfolk, England. The earliest officers and teachers of Earlham were largely men and women from New England, whose refinement, force of character and scholarship gave it from its beginning an enviable reputation throughout the Ohio valley ; a reputation which it has consistently -iiiai itained for half a century. Earlham College enjoys the distinction not only of being one of the first co-educational institutions in America, but of having been one of the foremost institutions in the West in pro- moting the advanced practical study of science. As early as 18.-i3, it took the lead in Indiana along the lines of Natural History, by starting a collection of materials for the study of Geology,

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Ihriiugh the wIkiIc coniposilinii and cnricliiiiy the harmony. witli its i i ' duth. licyoi Looking- Iwck over Earlham Colleije frmn this, its liftieth state and ennntrynien. anniversary, we can see more clearly than ever hel ' ore, what it is, in , and amither and an l appreciate more fidly what Stednian said uf the fuimding of sticli institutions: Whenever an educational foundation is estab- lished for the study of elemental matters — of scientific truth or human ideality — we return to the primary motive for educa- tion. The founders would restore a balance between arbi- trar - and fundamental education. The resulting; gain is not the overflow of collegiate resources, not the lu.xury of learning, not decoration, but the enhanced use, +.. jov, and worth of existence. such institutions are a fresh search for the verities, the inmo.st truth of things, inevitable in that they are the means for man ' s ad- vancement and for the conduct of life. F,. ce|)t in a conspectus of some kind, in which the later years of the college are seen against the earlier, one is not apt to see the enlargement of life and the uplift that have come from it. It was founded in a love of truth, and in its later years it loves iiipiiies it — not less, but seeks it more widely, and finds it more al)imdant- olence tl ly, in fields hardly known to its founders. It was founded on a h arlhaii love of church, and it has not departed from it, but the idea of uttered. church has widened with widening knowledge, and the brethren are rapidly becoming all men. It was founded on the fear of ( lod. and there it abides, steadfast, but the fear is less austere, more reverent, f.asi softening into a deep and comforting love. It was foundeil on s ni])athv and fellowship, and they have grown d the narrow lionndaries of clinreh ;ind The sentiment against war is still grow- a wider is springing u]) beside it. Per- haps the founders thought that the world was made for man — its forests, its flowers, its fruits, its animals, its birds, its fishes — all for man, alone, principally. If so, in the planting of Earlham they planted even better than they knew. That narrow and selfish conception is fast passing with the increasing light and the increas- ing appreciation of the cosmos of all things. When we look back over the fort -si.x colle.ge-.generations, the fifteen thousand to twenty thou- sand students, the eight hundred and more . lumni and . lumnje — lights — which the college has al- ready sent out, and find hardly an individual that has goin- wrong; and remember that a large |)ropor- tion of those lights have set up light plants of their own — on the Pacific Coast, in Mexico, in our eastern cities, in the .South and the Xorth, in the West Indies and the b ' ast Indies, in China, Japan, -Africa. Hawaii, the Phil- er their light shines their bencv- . lask, -and that wberi iws to all things both great and small. we can .see that is indi-ed an instance of the great tnUb that .Stednian ( r, in Whittier ' s terms: Nnt vainly tlic gift uf it-, f.uinclcrs «av iiunle ; Noi Praycrless the slmics of iis o.rreis were lai.l : Tlir l lessiii.. s ,,f Hill, wlii.ni in M-crct they souglil I Lis ..kiumI llu- K nil ..rl that tlic fathers have wionglit Wm N. TuflCllI.dOU.

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Miiicralotjy, I ' .iology. ArcliC(ilog . and kindred hranclKS. Its present museum, tlie uutyrowth (it tliat Ix-j finning-. exceeds in co:ii])letencss and value must cither Cdlleetiuns in the colleges and imiversities of the Middle West, . biint the same date, the first astroniimical dhservatdry in tile state was estabHshed (in the campus. Here. also, the first chemical laboratory in Indiana, for the use of college students, was equip])ed, and. as an out- growth from this. Earlham has today five well-equipped scientific laboratories. Earlham llall was the scene of all the activities of the col- le.ye life until 18S7. Then the C(.irner stones of two new build- ings were laid and the following year saw the Cfjmpletion of Lindley .Memorial Hall and Parry Science llall. The history of these has been given in a ])revious number of the Sakg. sso, and need not be given here. The two new buildings provided com- modious class rooms and laboratories and gave room for a chapel, a museum, society halls, offices and the like. To Earlham Hall was left the home life of the college. Keeping pace with a general broader movement in the col- lege world, new interests were taken up and Earlham ' s influence was rapidly widened. The new claims of athletics were met by the building of a gymnasium, and. a little later, by the laying out of an excellent athletic field. The year 1907 marked another step in the material progress of the institution. To meet the demand for home life on the cam]jus which had grown out of increased attendance, provision was luade for the building of a men ' s dormitory, known as the Edwiti S, Rundv Memorial Hall. This is one of the best equipped dormitories in the Middle West and olifers accommodations for about one hundred young men. The hall was made possible by a gift of Mr. and ?vlrs. Zcnas L. riimdy, of Greenfield, in memory of their deceased son, who was a foriuer Earlham student. The building is of red brick trinuued with stone and its architecture is based on that of l ' .arlham llall. The interior is arranged on