Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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matters, in connection with her husband, John Jackson, a name so famihar and so dear to all Sharon students, her counsels were especially valuable, and had deservedly great influence with those associated with her in the work. The whole number of students this year reached 289, a greater number than was ever before in the College at any one time. But of this large number, 221 were in the Preparatory School, and but 88 in the College classes. Thus, the day seemed still distant when the College was to be well filled without the presence of a Preparatory School. Eight schools were reported this year as permitted to enter students without examination, on presenting certificates of qualification from their principals. The Library of the College had now reached, since its total destruction by fire two years before, about 5,700 volumes, the funds for which had been largely contributed by the Alumni Association ; and an earnest appeal was made to the Alumni at this time to contribute towards the maintenance of the Library, that the instructors and students might have access to the latest and best works at all times, and that the excellent working collection that was lost might soon be replaced. Nor did this appeal fall upon deaf or inattentive ears. An active working committee of the Alumni was soon in the field, and their labors being much en- couraged by a liberal conditional subscription of several thousand dollars by Clement M. Biddle, a permanent fund of $10,000 has since been secured, the interest of which is now devoted yearly to the increase of the books of which the Library most stands in need. The College society libraries were also reported at this time as numbering collectively nearly 2,000 volumes. Earnest efforts were made this year to restore our excellent working museum of Natural History, col- lected through all the history of the College thus far with so much care by Dr. Joseph Leidy, Some of us well remember that the day after the fire, when he started from our station up the asphaltum walk, having been called from his home in Philadelphia by the startling news of the morning, as he looked up at the blackened walls of the College, and the great empty water tank hanging upon the ruin, he said, mourn- fully, Ten years of my life gone ! Many specimens were sought out and purchased to supply this great loss, by funds furnished by Joseph and Anna T. Jeans, and contributions of material for the museum were liberally made by William S. Vaux, Professor F. A. Genth, C. S. Bennett, John Hartmann, Joseph Wilcox, and Edward Farnum. The report of the Managers was unusually full this year, taking up, in unusual detail, the various depart- ments of study, all of which are represented to have been in a very satisfactory condition. 14

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more would become a College only, without the addition of a Preparatory School, but time proved that this was to be a matter of slow development. It was about this time that the principle of admitting students without examination, on presenting certificates of qualification from the principals of certain schools, to be named bv vote of the Faculty, with the approval of the Committee on Instruction, was introduced. Five schools were admitted to the list to which this principle was extended. The new College building being now completed and equipped for its work, and the expenses of recon- struction and equipment, amounting to about $270,000, having been fully paid, the friends of the College were invited to the inauguration of the restored College building on Fifth-day evening. First month 18th, 1883. Free tickets on the railroad were sent to the friends of the College, a lunch was provided, and all of the rooms were opened for the inspection of visitors, and it was an occasion of great rejoicing that the disaster of the fire had been so promptly met by the energy of the Building Committee, supported Ijy lib- eral subscriptions, and all of the indebtedness incurred fully paid. It was during this year, for the first time, that a special room in the College was set apart to be called The Alumni Room, also for the use, if desired, of the Somerville Literary Society. The new Science Building was completed this year, and opened to students in the departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Civil and Mechanical Engineering, making our College compare favorably with other colleges in this country ni these departments, being equalled by few, and surpassed by none except some universities and special schools of science. A new schedule of prices of tuition was now adopted, making the charge $300 a year in Class C ; $350 in the other classes of the Preparatory School, and $450 in the College classes ; with a re- duction of $100 a year in all of these classes to children of members of our Religious Society. Fifteenth Year; 1883-84. — The year 1883-84 was opened with eleven members of the Faculty; Joseph W. Teets, Professor of Elocution, and Elizabeth C. M iller, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, having been added to the Faculty of the previous year. During the year just passed the Board of Managers met with the loss of two of its most active and valuable members since the opening of the College, Samuel Willets and Rachel T. Jackson. It is well known that but for the liberal financial aid of Samuel Willets, seconded by the unwearying efforts of Edward Parrish, the first President, Swarthmore College would hardly have become a reality, at least for many years ; and from the first inception of the work no manager had been more earnest or more deeply interested in the establishment of a Friends ' college than Rachel T. Jackson. Through her long experience in educational 13

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We have now reached, in this brief outhne. which may, we trust, form some sHght basis for a fuller and more complete history of the College in later years, the close of the first fifteen years after the open- ing of the College in ' 69, and beginning as we did with a large Preparatory School, and only one small College class, the Freshmen, we feel that a great work was accomplished in those fifteen years by the earnest efforts of the early founders; but in the fifteen years that have followed, from ' 84 to ' 99 inclusive, the progress has been far greater, and the present condition and bright prospects of the College, with its strong Facultv of fifteen, its 208 College students, and no longer burdened with a Preparatory School, are great causes for gratitude to Him from whom all blessings flow ; and we can now confidently say that the wish publicly expressed at the opening of the College, by one of its early founders, that it might yet be found that they had ' builded better than they knew, has been abundantly realized. IS