Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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Parrish Hall in 1881 the Greek and German Languages and Litera- ture and Acting Professor of Mathematics. This College faculty of three was supported on the Preparatory level by several more teachers, all female. To keep the students in line the College hired Matron Helen G. Longstreth, her official duties being to counsel and advise with those of the pupils who may need it, and direct their inter- course with each other. The Parrish administration had not gone six months when the Board found reason to ask for the resignation of their first President, whom they found too weak on discipline. In 1870 they appointed Edward Hicks Magill as new Presi- dent, his motto being Order, Silence, and Sys- tem. ' Parrish, downhearted but always willing to serve some cause, accepted an appointment by President Grant to arbitrate d ifficulties among the Indians of Oklahoma Territory. He died there of malarial fever in 1872. Swarthmore College was off and running, hum- ble in scope but noble in purpose ! From the first, it allowed electives and stressed the sciences, two factors that identified it with the forces of change in American education. V CUBA W Inauguration of the College, 1866 «S VJBfc

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1864 President Edward ParrisK I RR e E irst International was founded m I UU i f London. Russia settled Vladisvostok on the Pacific. Lincoln had just delivered his Gettysburg Address and was now watching Sher- man march through Georgia. And Swarthmore College was founded far above Crum ' s waters. It is perhaps sacrilegious in this, the Centen- nial Year, to note that in 1864 Swarthmore Col- lege was nothing but a corporate charter and a tract of land. But in keeping with the Swarth- more tradition of the Search after Truth, we must present events as they actually occurred. There was talk among Philadelphia Quakers in the 1850 s concerning the need to give their children a proper and guided ' education beyond that offered in the public schools. In 1861 the Philadelphia and Baltimore Meetings jointly re- solved to establish such an institution, to be the equal of any college in the land. Various com- mittees were formed to plan and to execute, and leadership soon centered around Edward Par- rish and Benjamin Hallowell. In 1864, a 250-acre tract was purchased in the wilderness eleven miles west of Philadelphia, a charter was obtained by act of the Pennsylvania legislature, and the name Swarthmore College was decided upon. In 1865 a Board of Managers was elected, who immediately appointed Parrish the first President of the College, at a salary of $2,000. Unfortunately, our Quaker forefathers were more adept at meditation than at action. By this time, not a shovelful of dirt had been moved, and the Collection Committee had raised only $90,- 000 in pledges, instead of the necessary $200,000. Parrish took matters in his own hands, and travelled hither and yon over the Pennsylvania countryside on horseback to raise funds. Meanwhile, plans for the College building were revised so it might be built in sections over a period of years. In the Spring of 1866 a corner- stone was laid, and construction proceeded slow- ly for three years. It was a building designed to stand for centuries, plain but sound in plan, and with a careful eye for economy. ' (It burned to the ground in 1881.) At last in 1869 Swarthmore opened its doors to applicants, of either sex, at $350 per year in- cluding room, board, and tuition. Children of stockholders were given first preference, and then children of Friends. Hallowell had sagely predicted in 1861, Perhaps for some years scholars in preparatory classes will have to be admitted. Of the 199 scholars admitted in 1869, 173 flunked the Collegiate placement examina- tion, and were assigned to the Swarthmore Prep- aratory School (which lasted until 1893). Parrish, a graduate of the Philadelphia Col- lege of Pharmacy, added to his duties the title Professor of Ethics, Chemistry, and the Physical Sciences. He was ably assisted by Miss Anna Hallowell. Professor of Rhetoric, Literature, and History; and by Clement L. Smith. Professor of 12

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1889 President Edward Hicks Magill 1889, the Second International was founded in Geneva. Kaiser Wilnelm succeeded his lather in Germany. Benjamin Harrison re- placed Grover Cleveland in the White House. And Swarthmore College celebrated its 25th. Still under President Magill in 1889, Swarth- more was wandering off the course set by its founders. Magill, who intended to increase the stature of the College, found he could not do this without sacrificing its distinctive Quaker atmosphere, and moving toward the widespread public conception of College Life. Despite the persistent efforts of the Board of Managers, certain worldly habits were finding their way into Swarthmore. There was no longer a wholly Quaker faculty or student-body, no longer the simple dress and simple speech. The three literary societies had existed from the first year of classes, but in the eighties there appeared also a Glee Club, a Cycling Club, a Chess Club, two fraternities (Kappa Sigma and Phi Kappa Psi), the Phoenix and the Halcyon. Men s sports and women ' s exercises had al- ways had some small place, but in 1888 they were institutionalized with the creation of the Department of Physical Culture. Intercollegiate sports contests in football, track, and tennis were given official sanction, and students were even allowed to attend (in suits) and cheer. Such revolutionary decisions were not made without dissent. A group of elders of Swarthmore Meeting deplored football and the degree to which it was yielding to professionalisation at the College : It is unbecoming and improper on the part of any one, and especially of those claim- ing the name of Friend, to indulge in such prac- tices, and we earnestly urge that this cause for reproach . . . shall be speedily removed by either abolishing the game or so modifying it as to elim- inate these objectionable features. Although Swarthmore was conforming to the college image in many respects, its peculiar institution of coeducation of the sexes remained completely foreign to any public conception of higher education. President Magill staunchly de- fended it, but had constantly to assure public and parents that adequate social restrictions were being take n : Their intercourse is almost entirely under the eye of watchful teachers and caretakers. ' Regulations were established so prohibitive and arbitrary that even the most sen- sitive could not protest ; an explicit code of con- duct. Laws of Swarthmore College Relating to Students (100 of them), was formulated and strictly enforced. By the mid-eighties, such restrictions were having bad effects on student morale, on appli- cations to attend College, and thus on College receipts. In response to the last cause more than 14