University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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A Year of Centennials The year 1909 has forced upon us a fresh appreciation of how extraordinary a year 1809 was in the number of great men born in the course of it. The cen- tenaries have followed hard on one anotherts heels. Of all the days of that remark- able year, February 19th is surely the most noteworthy, when Darwin, the greatest scientist, and Lincoln, the greatest statesman of the century, first saw the world upon whose ideas and ideals they were to have so strong an eHect. But'in England Gladstone and Tennyson, on the continent Mendelssohn and Chopin, in the United States Poe, were also born in 1809. The celebration of anniversaries at the University really began with none of these, but with the tercentennial of Milton in December, 1908. These exercises, extending over three days, ended with a' presentation of Comus by the Donald Robertson Company, which delighted a large audience. In 1909 came first a Mendelssohn-Chopin concert by the Thomas Orchestra in Mandel Hall, which recalled the dear delightful past when orchestra concerts in Blandel were customary and not occasional. On February 11 the colleges met in honor of Lincoln, and Dr. Small gave a sympathetic address. On account of the Very elaborate arrange- ments throughout the city in celebration of ttLincoln Weekh these exercises were purposely kept simple. Throughout February and March, however, an unusual commemoration of the Darwin anniversary continued, in the form of a series of related addresses, of members of many departments, on the inhuence of Darwin upon the various sciences, from language and psychology to geology and biology. These lectures, arranged by the Biological Club, showed, as they were meant to do, how revolutionary in general thought had been the Darwinian ideas. In May will be held the Tennyson celebration, and careful preparations are now being made for exercises in which it is hoped to include the presentation of one of the poetts dramas. As one reads over the list of those whose hundredth anniversary is now being commemorated. one is struck by the various distances at which they seem to stand from the present. Gladstone and Tennyson, for instance, are almost contemporary; Poe and Chopin, bright figures in a far, dim past. But it has been well to be reminded forcibly of them all, to be shown anew the unity of the generations. And of Lincoln in particular one cannot help feeling that the picture held up to the nation so con- stantly in this anniversary year must be a profound influence for good.

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permanently invested and the income used for the maintenance of the building, and in case there is a balance for that purpose, for the increase of the library. Of the total fund the Founder of the University, Mr. John D. Rockefeller has contributed $600,000. The remainder has come from about twenty-two hundred contributors. Fifteen hundred alumni and former stuglents have made subscriptions. It was the hope of the Trustees that the NIemorial to President Harper should be the offering, not of one man, nor of a few men, but of a very large number of his friends. This hope has been realized and the most gratify- ing thing mnnected with the movement is the fart that lwoethirds 0f the whole number of givers are alumni and former students. THOMAS W. GOODSPEED.

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