Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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College year. The number of students for this new year was 274. fifty more than were accommodated in the re- stricted quarters in Media, and eight more than the number of any previous year. This paper has reached the limit of space allotted, and I will close it by a list of a voluntary committee of Al- umni, who called a meeting three days after the fire to consider what action can be taken by the Alumni in con- nection with the sad calamity that has befallen the College : John B. Booth, President ; Herman Hoopes, Chair- man of Executive Committee : Caroline E. Burr, Secretary ; William J. Hall. Treasurer ; Abby M. Woodnutt. Ellen S. Preston. ---: --- t ■■-■-- ■ 16

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loan of all the money needed in the emergency. Among others who came to our rescue in this time of need our friend Henry Bentley should he mentioned, who connected with telephones (then much less used than now) the President ' s house with the Grove House, in Media, the students ' boarding place, and where the classes of the Col- lege were held. The Meeting House was used as a Library, and the new books were then arranged upon the seats, and a messenger went daily to and from Swarthmore and Media, to carry and return the library books de- sired by the students. In four days after the fire the Managers issued a circular calling for needed aid in the re- construction of the College. The first cost of the building lost was about $225,000. But this was exclusive of the valuable Museum of Natural History, collected by the faithful and persevering labor of Dr. Joseph Leidy dur- ing the previous ten years, in which he was liberally supported by the contribution of Joseph Jeanes ; the entire Li- brary, the furniture, and necessary apparatus of the Laboratory and class-rooms ; so that it is safe to say that the building destroyed, with all of its contents, had cost nearly a half a million of dollars, of which only $100,000 was secured by insurance. As the exterior walls were mostly saved, the reconstruction would have cost less than the original building, but the various improvements and additions to make it better adapted to its purpose, and truly fire-proof, made a much larger expenditure necessary. But the friends of the College responded nobly and promptly to the appeal of the Managers, and the reconstruction was commenced as soon as the walls were cooled and the insurance adjusted, the subscription papers in the meantime being industriously circulated. At length the funds were largely subscribed, but $65,000 were yet necessary. An earnest appeal brought $15,000 of this sum, when Samuel Willets. who had already subscribed liberally, agreed to pay one-half of the remaining $50,000 on condition that the other half should be promptly paid. This rapidly produced the desired result, and one of the very last acts of the useful and noble life of Samuel Willets was the signing of the check for this $25,000. It should be mentioned here that in arranging for the amount necessary for reconstruction the Man- agers most wisely added in the amount of a considerable mortgage which the College had carried from the be- ginning. Thus, when all was completed and paid for, the mortgage was extinguished, and the College out of debt. Thus one of the objects which may be said to have been destroyed by the fire was the mortgage, which, unlike the building, has never been renewed. The Commencement of ' 82 was held .in the- unfinished College building, the students covering the lath of the unplastered Assembly room with a tasteful arrangement of evergreens collected from the College grounds. In just one year from the destruction of the College its re-building was sufficiently completed for the students to assemble, two weeks later than usual, on the anniversary of the fire, September 25th, to begin the work of a new J 5

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Faculty and Instructors. WILLIAM WILFREDjBIRDSALL, President and Professor of Pedagogy. B. S., Earlham College (187,3). ELIZABETH POWELL BOND, Dean. A. M.. Swarthmore College (189 ). Author of Words by the Way. EDWARD HICKS MAGILL, Professor of the French Language and Literature A. B.. Brown University (1852); A. M., Brown University (i te); LL. D.. Haverford College U 886 . Member of A K E and ' 1 I. K. Author ot Magdls French Grammar; Magill ' s French Prose and Poetry; MagiUs Modern French Series. ARTHUR BEARDSLEY, Emeritus Professor of Engineering and Librarian of Friends ' Historical Library C. E., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1867); Ph. D., Swarthmore College (1889). -Member of A K K WILLIAM HYDE APPLETON, Professor of Greek and Earlv English A. B.. Harvard (.864); A. M., Harvard (,86 7 ); LL. B.. Harvard ,,869); Ph. D.. Swarthmore College ( l8 88) Member of X and f B K. Author of Greek Pccts in English Verse. SUSAN JANE CUNNINGHAM, Edward H. Magill Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy. Sc. D., Swarthmore College (1888). WILLIAM CATHCART DAY, Professor of Chemistry. A. B., Johns Hopkins (1880); Ph. D., Johns Hopkins (1883). Member of Be II. 17