Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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Around the upper margin of the Seal are the words of Lord Bacon: HOMO MINISTER ET INTERPRES NATURAE. Around the lower corner margin, the words: LEHIGH LNI ER- SITY. Below the Bible, the words: FOUNDED BY ASA PACKER. 1865 . Lehighs motto is taken from Francis Bacon s Novum Organum and may be translated: Man, the servant and interpreter of nature. Having been chartered by the state legislature of Pennsylvania February 9, 1866, The Lehigh University opened its doors to forty members of the first two classes on September first of the same year. The dream of Asa Packer and the hard, careful labor of Bishop Stevens had finally created a reality! The Lehigh Man of eighty-six years ago cer- tainly saw his college in a much different light than many of those who were to follow in his footsteps. A Moravian church which had been bought with the property and renamed Christ- mas Hall was the sole building on the campus and, as such, served as chapel, dormitory ' , reci- tation and lecture hall, and as the administra- tive offices. These hrst students, who were at least sixteen years of age and possessed good moral character, were required to pass rigorous prelimina n,- examinations to enable them to be- gin the first two years of general background studies vhich were thought to be necessary re- gardless of their eventual aim. Rooms were free but the cost of instruction was set at $90 per year for the Hrst and second classes and SI 00 per year for students in the Schools of Special In- struction. To aid deserving men who were un- able to afford the cost of attending Lehigh, three Foundation scholarships were established by Mr. Packer and two Competition scholarships per class were also set up. Of course. Holders of scholarships must be models of excellence and were required, as were all students, to re- frain from smoking, gambling, intoxication, or indecent language. On September 1 , 1867, the new University had gotten its wobbly legs under itself and began taking the first steps in expanding its under- graduate membership and in revising its aca- demic curriculum. The second college year PHYSICS BVILD1SG

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MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE CAMPUS nearby Bethlehem appealed strongly to the lounder of Lehigh. On July 27. 1865 the first meeting of the Board of Trustees for the rapidly forming institution of learning was held at the Sun Inn. Bethlehem, Pa., with Bishop Stevens as president. Plans were made for building on the tract of fifty-seven acres which the founder had donated to the school and much attention was given to the selec- tion of a man who would take over the admin- istrative reins of the embryo university and would guide it through the difficult first years. Thus it was that on November 4, 1865, Henry Coppee, LL.D.. was elected the president of Lehigh Uni- versity. At about the same time the original facult ' was elected and, according to the first register, consisted of Henry Coppee, President and Professor of History and English Literature; the Reverend Eliphalet Nott Potter, Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy and of Christian Evidences; Charles Mayer Wetherhill, Professor of Chemistry; Edwin Wright Morgan, Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics; Alfred Marshall Mayer, Professor-elect of Physics and Astron- omy; William Theodore Roepper, Professor of Mineralogy and Curator of the Museum (there was no museum) ; George Thomas Graham, Instructor in Latin and Greek; and Mr. George Washington Smith, Janitor. The University Seal was adopted by the Board on September 4, 1863 and is described by the minutes of that meeting as follows: In the upper part is a Sun; below is an open Bible; on the Bible lies a heart, thus bringing in the Three Persons of the Godhead, the Ever Blessed Trin- ity: the God of Love, Christ as the Light of tlie World, and the Holy Spirit as the Inspira- tion of the Word and the Spirit of Truth. . . .

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started with tnree classes in residence at Lehigh, the Special Schools having been opened, and no less than fifty students had affiliated them- selves with the polytechnic school. Packer Hall, a gilt of the founder, was first occupied in Sep- tember 1 868 and thus the University was off on its career as a full-fledged personality — as a real influence in the lives and thinking of the people who were destined to come in contact with it during the ensuing years. Extra-curricular life began as undergraduates formed the Junto, an honorary literary society of which all members of the faculty and Board of Trustees were automatic members and to which students were elected. Another phase of non- academic life created quite a stir on the campus and surrounding Bethlehem when several not too gentle pitched battles occurred between the Lehigh students and town roughs in Bethle- hem and South Bethlehem. Publications were also one of the first organ- ized student activities on campus. In 1875 mem- bers of the Junto established the Epitome as a publication of the sophomore class. Written in somewhat flowery language, the first Epitome was a paper-bound volume and, by its own ad- mission, did not claim to be a literary publica- tion. Responsibility for publishing the yearbook was taken over by the junior class in 1884; not until 1951. however, did the senior class begin publishing its own annual. Except lor a short- lived publication by the class of 76, the Lehigh Journal, the next literary endeavor to raise its staff among Lehigh students was the Burr which operated under the motto, Don t sit on me. The faculty apparently had little regard for the in- UNIVERSITY LIBRARY