University of Tennessee Knoxville - Volunteer Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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M! i! i W W! I It I l H 1. it Hi1 I x HIH' :4 Ii; M 8- llhk tum W 't ' In 1870 the military feature was again instituted, but lasted only untii the fall of 1890, when all military control was abandoned, tactics only being retained. During the years 187 2-7 3 great improvements were made in the buildings of the University. In the summer of 1872 the capacity of the college for lodging and instruction was greatly increased by the erection of a new dormitory three stories high. It was located 011 the east side of the campus and called HSouth CollegeYi During the next year North College, Which formerly had been only a family residence, was enlarged, the basement being filled up for the chemical laboratory, while the students rooms were arranged in the upper stories. Graduate study departments were first instituted in 1872 and a course for teachers first appeared in 1873. Prior to this time the city of Knoxville gave quite a sum to assist in the maintenance of a library at the University, and at the time of incorporation as a state university the school was strengthened by the addition of medical and dental departments. Arrangements were made by which the Nashville Medical College, located at the City of Nashville, was incorporated with the University under the title of the Medical Department of the University of Tennessee. A museum of geological, botanical and other types of specimens has been gradually accumulated by gifts and by purchases. In 1877 a local organization of the Young Melfs Christian Association was organized. The first meetings were held in the 01d chapel, Afterwards a room was reserved in the stewards hall, and later apartments were opened on the sec- ond floor of East College. In 1887 rooms were fitted up on the first floor. The association has had its seasons of difficulty, but from a small beginning, has risen to be a power in the life of the school. It brought together at Knoxville the first conferences of associations in East Tennessee. The University Association has rarely failed to be represented in the International and State Conventions. The amount was secured and the ground was broken for a new building on J une 9t 1890. The ambition of the founders grew as time progressed, and the result is the fine three-story building which, with equipment, cost about $20,000. This was the first college Y. M. C. A. building erected south of Baltimore. The Summer Normal School was first opened in 1880, and through the course of years it has developed until at its maximum just before the war, it had in at- tendance nearly twenty-six hundred students from all over the world. For the time being this school has been suspended for the benefit of building operations. The library was placed by the Dewey Decimal System in 1888, and now consists of thirty thousand volumes and twenty thousand pamphlets, in addition to the large Experiment Station Library, with its additional thousands of vol- umes. The main library is now housed in the Carnegie Library building on the campus. The Hatch Bill of 1887 gave the University its first Agricultural Experi- ment Station. The new Morrill Act added further support to the institution. Besides the experiment station building, the mechanical building and the Y4 M. C. A. building. mentioned before, and the foundation for a new Science Hall was laid in 1890 and completed the following year, costing $60,000. In 1893 the eo-edueational feature was again adopted in time for the centennial celebration. At present there are three girls dormitories 0n the campus, and a fourth to be Page Tu'cnity-Tvm i;7'- l sir - 7 1,7 , .. - T r 1 gwa'l-I gax. , .5 -

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HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE lative body of the mTerritory South of the Ohio Riveiw 011 September 4, 1794, One day later than the first institution of learning west of $ the Alleghenies. It was at that time named for the governor of the territory, Blount College. Very seen it opened its doors for students in a small frame building in the heart of what is 110w Knoxville, but where then were the very outskirts of the Village. Women were ad- mitted 0n the same terms as men, and recent Harvard studies have revealed the fact that our college was the first institution of higher learning in the New World to admit women to its sacred halls. This little college, thus, antedated the formation of the State of Tennessee by the space of two years, and it has grown with, and as an integral part of the State throughout its history. The first change in the function of the college took place in 1808, when it became known as the East Tennessee College, and after that date the names of the women disappeared from the college rolls for many decades. In 1840 it was given a, broader scope, theoretically, by being reerhist- ened East Tennessee University, and under this name it experienced the first great period of development. About this time the University sold Some of her lands and erected two dormitories known more recently as East College and West College. The front part of North College was erected at the same time for pro- fessors, residences. During the years 1841-42 and 1843-44 a well edited perio- dical called The University Magazine was conducted by inei'nbers of the senior class. The military feature was introduced by Albert Muller Lea, a West Point graduate. A company was organized and a uniform adopted. At the end of three years the military system was dropped. During the Civil War the University was closed, since every student and professor capable of bearing arms joined the armed forces of the eembattants. The buildings were used as hospitals, and small forts were constructed upon the campus, which had been removed in 1820 to the present ttHillW Soon after the end of hostilities the Government advised and assisted the University to take advantage of the Merrill Act of the Congress of 1862. This act provided for the establishi'nent 0f the Tennessee Agricultural College in con- neetion with the University. Among other conditions, the University was re- quired to have aeemmnedations for two hundred and seventy-five students. and to own at least two hundred acres of land for an experimental farm, all of which should be worth not less than $125,000. Accordingly in 186-9, the Agricultural and Engineering Departments were added to the school. Three-feurths of a mile west of the University a farm containing two hundred and eighty-five acres had been purchased at the cost of $30,000. Ten years later the Universitv was officially recognized by the authorities as being the State institution, being re- named MThe University of Tennessee? and given a Statewide representative heard of trustees. T HE University of Tennessee was founded by an act of the first legis- Pagc Twenty-One

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ax.....,- - 32.; m 57, '1'; built through the bequest of the late Hon. Rush Strong, to be knowu as ttSo- phronia Strong Hall. ii The addition of the Law Department was effected in 1889 under Supreme Court Judge Thomas J . Freeman of Tennessee, wvho graduated his first seven students in 1891. Throughout many years the department eontined only a two- year course, but in 1913 it became a three-year course, and for the last three years there has been the additional requirement placed upon it of one year of pre-law in the Liberal Arts Department. The school is a member of the American Asso- ciation of Law Schools. The University has been steadily raising its standards for the past fifteen years until it now requires fifteen Carnegie units for entrance. The various departments accepting this as full entrance credit are the Arts, Commerce, Edu- cation, Agricultural, Engineering7 Dental7 Pharmaceutical. Requiring one year of work for college entrance is the law, while two years is required for medical students who take the premedieal courses offered. Every college included is rated as Class A, and belongs to its respective national association, having full standing therein. In 1918 the State Legislature voted their first substantial support to the University, which had, of course, been receiving some aid, but not enough to justify its State-wide scope andinfluence. This was a inillion-dollar bond issue. Which is now being used to improve the Medical College buildings in Memphis, to erect a new Agricultural building at the Farm, and to put up a new main building for classes on the brow of the LtHilI. One wing of this building is to be for class rooms, while the other is to be an auditorium. The Law College is to have a part of this also, although it is now housed temporarily in one of the older ones, South College. The esteem in which the University is held, locally, is evidenced by several occurrences of recent times, the first being the gift from the County of Knox of a large extension of the FarmeCherokee Farmeof approximately five hundred acres; the next being the response from the business men of the city in giving the money needed to construct a large, new athletic field, which is planned to be one of the best in the South, and the two recent gifts to the Agricultural De- partment of $35,000 from the Rush Strong estate and $25,000 from Miss Mary Boiee Temple. The work of the University was carried on under great difficulties during the war, but since the conclusion we have started noteworthy progress in both business and student activities, with the revival of all former glee clubs, dramatics, literary work, publications, and so on, many of these having been dispensed with during the war period. Education in Tennessee used to be of an inferior char- acter, but such great advances have been made in recent years that we can safely predict great things for the future, especially since the levying of a largely in- creased state tax for the benefit of the tUniversity. The University is also strengthened in its hold upon public opinion by its fortunate possession of one of the best educators and most prominent men in the State as its president, Dr. H. A. Morgan, eX-dean of Agriculture, and head of the food administration in Tennessee7 under whom there will undoubtedly continue to be greater advances than ever before on our part, Page T'Irenty-Thrce