Goucher College - Donnybrook Fair Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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Wecoyectz'ons W By DR. HANS FROELICHER HEN the building of Goucher Hall was started, the area on which it now stands belonged to Baltimore County. North Avenue was then called Boundary Avenue. But before the building was completed the territory ex- tending to what is now University Parkway was incorporated into the city proper. At the time there was a toll-gate at the corner of Charles Street and University Parkway, the original name of which was Merrymanls lane. Dr. Goucher told me of his being criticized when he built First Church for building ua cathedral in the corn fields. As a matter of fact, there were very few houses beyond what is now Twenty-flfth Street, and was then Huntingdon Avenue. We could take our children out into the country where the cows were pastur- ing by going two blocks beyond Goucher Hall. Dr. Goucher's idea in choosing the style of architecture for First Church and College rested on the symbolism it suggested. Strong, rugged and plain in externals, of the highest refinement and beauty within, thus the buildings were to be, and they were to serve as a pattern to those who lived and worked in them. And, indeed, there could have been in those days few buildings in this country which carried out this idea so consistently and so successfully. The chapel, which was finished with a Byzantine effect, evoked, in its lldim, re- ligious twilight, both the spiritual and aesthetic sentiment. Today, alas, the chapel is very sadly altered. THE WOMANts COLLEGE The name of the college was something new and challenging. Why was this college called by so odd a name as The Woman's College of Baltimore? Some years later Dr. Goucher himself explained. It was, in the first place, to break down all the prejudice against the word woman in a part of the country where all ufemales above childhood age, colored included, were called ladies or females, and where the region teemed with llLadies' Academies , or Female Seminariesl', or HLadies' Finishing Schools . Woman, so he said, was the sweetest, finest term by which the sex could be known. Furthermore. in the days when colleges for women closely followed the Johns Hopkins curriculum, on the principle that there should be no difference in the education of the two sexes, this was to be, not a college for women parading in menls attire, but a college for women as women. Woman, it was argued, had her particular and exclusive place in creation, and as her vocation in life was different, so should also be her preparation for her particular vocation; as wife, mother and ministering angel. Hence, the Womanls College. It was, moreover, not to be an uacademy , or HLyceum , or UFinishing School nor strut about under the pretentious title of university as so many half-baked high schools did, but it was to be a college in the true sense. It was to be first of all, a college for E231

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member of the present faculty who was a member at the foundation of the college. He has held chairs in the departments of French and German since 1888. In 1896 he organized the department of Art, to which he now devotes most: of his time at Goucheri His interesting and instructive art courses are very popular. One-lifth of the entire student body enrolls in the art depart- ment each year. Dr. Froelicher has never confined his activities to Goucher alone, however. He has given lectures at Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Institute of Art, and Walters Art Gallery. He has also given public lectures under the auspices of the Municipal Art Society for the people of east and south Balti- more. Besides his work as a professor, Dr. Froelicher has been interested in the theory of education. He was influential in the founding of the Park School in Baltimore fifteen years ago. This school is organized and run upon progressive educational methods. Dr. Froelicher was offered the head- mastership of the school. He did not accept this position, but he became chairman of the board of trustees. Although his work as an educational leader has given him prominence in that line, it is his comprehensive knowledge of art, his skill as a leCturer, and his fineness of purpose that have made him beloved and admired at college. :1: 3k :k :k :k :k Fools, we are told, commit errors which angels avoid. yet we are adamant. Dr, Froelicher has been an active and vital force in giving the college those fine and rare qualities which are his own. Albeit this is one of those Hwell- known facts which, mayhap, are best left ungarnished simply because the embellishment must fall short of its purpose. But we are dissatisfied with passively taking him for granted. It is not possible to forget that he has left an indelible academic record in his departments of Art and German, and that he has worked with independence but always with the administration and for the college. What we would not have escape any hurried passer-by, however, is the other equally real stamp he impresses upon the people hereaboth those to whom he imparts knowledge and all the rest Whom he teaches by his very presence among them. So on this occasion of his fortieth year of unparalleled service, the veri- table giving of himself with increased rather than lessened powers to give, we crave one favor more: That he will be generous in understanding that we, like the little girl who lives in his Recollections, would like to be so uwise and good as to merit his friendship. Dr. Froelicher has been supremely cooperative in making it possible to see the early years of the college through his Recollections. It is a distinct dis- appointment that this book cannot afford them a truly fitting exposition, But if he should be moved to make more permanent and complete his invalu- able pictures of the beginnings of things, we should feel even more highly fortunate to have been able to claim them in their first form. This is not at all a conjecture; it is a definite hope, l221

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the women of Baltimore, the educational key position for the whole south and a region where the higher education of women was taboo. College edu- cation prepared women to teach, and a Southern lady, as you know, my dear, a Southern lady never teaches , said a horriiied post-secession war starving maiden lady to her niece, who, to relieve the misery of their situation, had made the proposition to enter the vocation of a teacher. This was, then, to be a college to break down the prejudice against higher education for women among women of Baltimore. Hence, The Womanis College of Baltimore. Finally, the college was planned to do work of such a high character, that for all times to come, it was to be The Womanls College of Baltimore. The college seal consisted of a triangle inscribed in a circle. The legend within the triangle said UI Thess. V: 23 . From this legend rays of light radiated against the circle. Verse 23, referred to, reads: uAnd the God of Peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be pre- served entire, Without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The triangle represented the three natures in man: mind, soul and body. These, enlightenedein collegeeby the Scripture and by education, should in turn radiate their gain upon the universe. This was the symbolism. Today, the legend has been changed to verse 21 of the same Epistle and chapter. It reads: HProve all things, hold fast that which is good . The seal and legend were changed during the Presidency of Dr Eugene Allen Noble, third President of Goucher College, in 1910. THE FORMAL OPENING Goucher Hall was not yet completed. and the first faculty meetings, the first classes. were held in the Sunday School Rooms of First Church. I see myself, a German Swiss, almost ignorant of English, beginning to teach my French classes mainly through the French. Gradually room after room in Goucher Hall became available. The lirst day Mrs. Froelicher and I entered Goucher, Mr. Gustav Kahn, superintendent of the building, showed us the building and gave us the choice of class rooms and offlce. And the selection remained permanent. At the formal opening of Goucher, President Gilman of J. H. U. gave the main address on the subject: HWhat Constitutes a Liberal Education? We marched in solemn procession from Goucher Hall to First Church, our faculty paired with members of the J. H. U. faculty. THE FACULTY The first Goucher faculty consisted of young men and women or of such as were in early middle age. It was inspiring to be part of it. Each one was bent on doing his best, on making his department the best in the college. Teachers were exacting in demands on their students, but they were equally exacting in their demands on themselves. Out of this ambition arose, of course, the danger of overworking the students, and from time to time we had to come to terms with each other and learn to respect each others claims on UN