St Louis College of Pharmacy - Prescripto Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 85 text:

-----'a Dnliscnlnro 1e---- The Missouri Botanical Garden 'tv l ' 1 ni., , w- , ' .l ,. If V The life of Henry Shaw is written in his work. A modest, cultured gentle- man, he never obtruded himself upon public notice. The ephemeral reputation of blustering nobodies who proclaim their imagined excellence from their own mouths, hoping thereby tof occupy a niche in some future Hall of Fame, never severed him from his chosen life of retirement. It may be doubted that he ever thought or cared that his naine should survive in connection with his great crea- tion-the Gardeng he himself designated that it be known as The Missouri Botanical Garden. But the public for whom he labored has not been ungrate- ful, and in their thoughts and words, it is f'ShaW's Garden. The title implies a sentiment of reve1'ence for the man as well as his work, even though few know the details of his personal history. Henry Shaw was born july 24, 1800, in Sheffield, England, where his father originally from Leicester, was a manufacturer of fire-grates, iron and other similar domestic implements. Henry was the oldest of four children and his primary education was obtained at the village of Thorne, not far f1'01'l'l Sheffield. A few years later he was sent to Mill Hill, some twenty miles from London, where was maintained one of the best private schools in England. Here he gained a sound knowledge of the classics and mathematics as did every English school- boy of those days, and he also became proficient in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. It is said that mathematics was for many years a favorite subject with him, and that, after his removal to the United States, he was one of the best mathematicians in St. Louis. From early childhood he was an intense lover of plants and plant-life, a trait that was a determining factor in forming his later career. Wheii he finished school he assisted his father for a year in his business and in 1818 came with him to Canada. It seems that his father was anxious that he familiarize himself with the growing of cotton and for that purpose sent him to New Orleans. The young man, however, did not find the South congenial, the climate, particularly, being to his distaste, and in 1819, supplying himself with Page SeventyfNme

Page 84 text:

Page SeveutyfEight ---1--at Dlaliscllallitro The Four Year Course VVithin the past year, The St. Louis College of Pharmacy has committed itself to the inauguration of a four-year course in Pharmacy leading to a standard aca- demic degree. ' The day for debating the advisability of such a step is past. NVe are pledged to a course of action, our sole province is to derive the greatest profit from our opportunities. , A It is both honorable and wise to criticise, adversely, any policy before it becomes an accepted course of action. After adoption, we do well to seek only merits-at least until after an unbaised trial has negated its usefulness. A W'hat then, are the probable benefits to be expected from a lengthened course of study? , P , The benefit most frequently argued and also the most susceptible to perversion is that professional standards will be raised. Such a change is to a greater extent dependent upon the need and desire of the profession to be elevated than it is upon the number of years invested in education. However, ignoring the truth or absurdity of the aspersions which have been cast upon the profession, we are erasing one of the most shopworn criticisms in destroying the temporal disparity between educa- tion for Pharmacy and education for other professions. The real elfect of a four- year course on the improvement of professional standards depends on those who are practicing, those who are studying and those who are teaching Pharmacy. A far greater and much more authentic improvement is to beexpected from the inclusion, in the curriculum, of a number of basic courses. The words f'Basic and 'fCultural' have been bandied around too freely in speaking of those contem- plated additions to the course of study. Culture is a subjective acquisition and cannot be handed from institution to student like a diploma. Wfhat we hope to do and have good right to hope to be able to do, is to incorporate certain courses which will serve as a solid foundation for the professional studies which are to follow. If these same courses open up some of the avenues which lead to individual culture we are the more to be congratulated. Professional proficiency is being able to carry on well, all phases of our pro- fessional lives. Professional education is that type of experience which professes to achieve this end. Just as the latter must precede the former, so preliminary training is a requisite precursor of specialized education. It is this need which we hope the addiitonal year will supply. Here is a real motive and one which should be fully appreciated. If we can, as a corollary of this ambition, extend to the individual so inclined, the tools and methods from which culture may be fabri- cated, we are accomplishing a scarcely less worthy purpose. VVhether we realize these ideals or others not now foreseen, or fail completely or partially, our hand is committed to a policy and our clear duty lies in the di1'ec- tion of turning our backs to the past and facing the future inspired by new ideals and new hopes. sb -Q IQ 3 2 ef Q 1.2:-

Page 86 text:

?---a Dlsfscullivro s------- a stock of cutlery, he went up the river to St. Louis where he arrived on May Srd. He found that the second lloor of a building was to be had at a modest rental and here he established both his business and his home, for the same room served for the display of his wares and for sleeping and cooking. He was an energetic young man, for his business expanded and flourished to such an extent that only twenty years later he had acquired what in those days was a splendid fortune, and 'in 1840, he sold his business. lVisely he devoted the first term of his retirement l r r to travel, making an extended tour of Europe. In 1842 he was traveling again, remaining abroad for about three years, and going as far as Constantinople and Egypt. In 1851 the first International Exhibition was held in London, and attracted by this, Henry Shaw again went abroad. His visit to England was a momentous one for it was, according to his own statement while walking through the grounds of Chatsworth, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Devonshire, that he tirst con- ceived the idea of establishing a garden of his own, if on a smaller scale, which should not be for his delectation onlyg but also for that of the lovers of flowers in general. Gn his return to St. Louis, Mr. Shaw was occupied with the construction of his town house on Seventh and Locust Streets, the mansion at Tower Grove, at that time a, country home in the strict sense of the term, having been completed in 1849. But the thought which had germinatedfat Chatsworth continued with him, and in 1857 he commissioned Dr. George Engelmann, who was at that time in Europe, to make a survey of the great European botanical gardens and obtain and transmit such suggestions as he might think pertinent to the subject that occu- pied Mr. Shaw's mind. In the same year the preliminary operations of surveying, entrenching, and so on were begun, and a correspondence was carried on with Sir Williaiii Hooker, who was then director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, in England. In one of his letters, Sir Williaiii called attention to the importance of a library and economic museum in connection with the garden, a point which Mr. Shaw adopted and which resulted in the construction of a library and museum building in the following year. Books were selected with the guidance of Dr. Engelmann, Hooker, Decaisne, Brown, and other botanists, but Dr. Engelmann had the good fortune to secure for the garden the large herbarium of Professor Bernhardi of Erfurt, who had recently died. Another plan in Mr. Shaw's mind at the time was the establishment of a school of botany in connection with the Garden. This was to be an elaborate institution, with library, laboratories, and residences for the members of the faculty. Dr. Asa Gray, who appears to have been consulted about the matter, did not, however, think the time ripe for an enterprise of such vast dimensions, but suggested that it might be begun in a small way. Mr. Shaw, therefore, abandoned the plan for the time, but his dream was realized in 1885 when he established the Henry Shaw School of Botany as a department of Washington University and in conjunction with the Garden. X ' L... sq 3, 2 I DQ .ff 1.-2 Page Eighty