University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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THE HALL OF LIBERAL ARTS LITTLE over half a century ago the legislature of Iowa passed the act estab- lishing a state university. Ever since its founding the hopes and efforts of all connected with it have been directed to providing a suitable home for the collegiate department, the department which in reality is the cen- tral one of a university. At last the efforts of those pioneers of learning have been rewarded, and that too in a substantial way. Some of them died before their labors had borne fruit, but some are still laborers, faithful as ever. We younger ones can not know the feeling of pardonable pride within them, when on the llth day of June, 1898, they saw laid the corner stone of the hall for the College of Liberal Arts. They saw in it, as we did, but with a truer vision, the beginning of newer and better things for the university. On September Sth of the same year the first sod was turned. According to contract the building was to be finished in two years. But the work of construction dragged along until, in the minds of upper classmen, anxious to see the completion of their new home, it seemed as though it would never be finished. However, public building contracts are sometimes finished, and the building was finally used during the summer session of 1901. By the time the fall term opened in September it was practically completed, and the inrushing body of students dedicated it to the uses of learning. The formal official dedi- cation, however, did not take place until the 23d of January, 1902. Senator Dolliver, who had been present as chief speaker at the laying of the corner stone, was also one of the speakers on this occasion. The governor, legislature, and the state officers were the university ' s guests of honor. In the presence of the student body and faculty, of the

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SIGMA XI Founded. 1886. IOWA CHAPTER Established. 1900. OFFICERS THOMAS HUSTON MACBRIDK PRESIDENT ARTHUR G. SMITH SECRETARY L. W. Andrews S. Calvin G. Li. Houser T. H. Macbride C. C. Nutting A. G. Smith CHARTER MEMBERS A. V. Sims B. Shimek A. A. Veblen L. G. Weld H. F. Wickham J. V. Westfall C. L. von Ende L. P. Sieg P. A. Bond MEMBERS ELECTED 1901 C. F. Lorenz F. T. Jensen C. H. Smith ELECTED 1902 C. I. Lambert R. D. George H. M. Goettsch W. B. Bell W. M. Boehm R. D. Marsh W. E. Beck SENIORS W. M. Barr GRADUATES INSTRUCTOR J. J. Lambert 5 GRADUATE OF FIVE YEARS STANDING Dr. Frank Russell F. G. Emry F. A. Stromsten

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guests, and of the people. Governor Cummins said, as he unlocked the door; In the name of all the humanities to which this building is now forever devoted. I declare it open and ready for the purposes for which it was intended. We now enter and take possession. Then all that afternoon the university kept open house until evening came and the guests were compelled to leave for their homes. The building is now a part of the university. Within its walls there will be a per- petual home for searchers of wisdom. It belongs not alone to our state but to America and to the world. With all due respect to Old Central, we must honor the new building built to harmonize with the old in color, in form, and in architecture, the magnificence of the new can not detract from the loved and storied memories of the old. The one marked the beginning, the other marks the progress of the university. In place of the cheap fire traps of the past, there will be modern structures of enduring steel and stone. Structures capable and fitting to be the home and the treasure house of the intel- lectual activities of the state of Iowa. Progress too often ruthlessly breaks the heart strings of nature; and to make room for this product of man ' s art, it was necessary to sacrifice a product of nature. The students of the past will remember that old oak styled The Pride of the Campus. ' ' Its sturdy trunk and its spreading branches will ever linger in their memories. It needed no botanist to admire it; the natural within man readily responded to its beauty. Those who loved it in the past will be content with the sacrifice, if the things that made it to be remembered are magnified in its successor. H. M. PRATT.