Washington University Saint Louis - Hatchet Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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of the University. And so it went. Each year found the high hopes of the seventeen corporators a little more con¬ servative, until at last those intentions were expressed in the order of the day at Washington University. In 1885 Dr. Eliot gave a description of the various departments which shows very well what he had accomp¬ lished. The Art School was among the best in the United States. The Astronomy Department, though provided with an unpretentious observatory, was regulating the time of several railroad systems and supplying central time for cities all over the West. The undergraduate department had been thoroughly re-organized, and Dr. Eliot said he was willing to compare his graduates with those of any Eastern university. The beginning of the present great William Chauvenet library had been made. More than seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been spent during Dr. Eliot’s Chancellorship. Because of his advancing years Chancellor Eliot asked to be permitted to resign in 1885. But he did not contemplate a passive resignation; he ended his rule as he had started it — with a drive for endowment. He said that at the time he took over the Chancellorship no one else of acknowl¬ edged prestige in education was willing, in spite of the hundred thousand dollar Chancellorship endowment of Hudson E. Bridge, to take the office because it was no better than “western grandilo- quism to call Washington University a university.” It had earned the respect of the citizens who knew the quality of its product, but it was not widely known. The University virtually marked time until the advent of another driving spirit ten years later. With the death of Chancellor Eliot in 1887 disappeared the dynamo which had driven Wash¬ ington University since its inception. The duties of the Chancellor were performed by the Dean of the College,Professor Marshall S. Snow, until October of 1891, when they were assumed by Professor Winfield Scott Chaplin, educator, engineer, and army officer. But the University’s funds dwindled; its old friends had disappeared. Then Robert S. Brookings stepped into the foreground. ith the same energy, enthusiasm, and capacity for organization that had distinguished him in the business world, he turned to the task of the reorganization of the University. Out of his own means, supplemented by contributions from new givers whom he inspired by his zeal, Mr. Brookings established magnificently the fabric which for a time had seemed tottering. The former fine arts and law buildings Page Twenty-one

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The Library in 1903 served as Dean for many years. This was a radical step and required initiative and foresight, for law was then learned in the law offices. In 1868 the buildings, library, and contents of the O’Fallon Polytechnic Institute were turned over to the Saint Louis Public schools under certain reciprocal condi¬ tions, for this was no longer a legitimate branch of University work. This pruning operation was promptly followed by the grafting on of a scientific department, recommended by President Eliot in 1870. The buildings were ready for occupancy in 1871. The department included courses in chemistry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and mining and metallurgy. This department has since grown into Washington University’s widely known School of Engineering. In 1869 Chancellor Chauvenet resigned, after a period of illness. Dr. Eliot was made Acting Chancellor, and in 1871 was installed as Chancellor. He was formally saluted as the founder of the University by the Hon. Wayman Crow, who had secured the charter, and it may be udged that Dr. Eliot richly deserved the credit. He had done the financing, and he had assumed the burden of initiative in supervising the general plan. Dr. Eliot, himself the product of high cultivation, believed that the true province of a uni¬ versity is in the highest development of intellectual culture.’ He intended to devote his interests largely to a good education for the many,” but would concentrate fervidly on “the best education for the few. He wanted to make Washington University to Saint Louis what Harvard College is to Loston, or ' tale to New Haven. “We would found a university so widely acknowledged in its influence that Saint Louis and Missouri should be honored throughout the world for its being established here,” he said. In i ! 79 a School of Art and Design was established as a department of the University; and soon after W ayman Crow expended 55145,000 on a building and endowment for a Museum of fine Arts. I his last was built near the other University buildings of that time, on the northeast corner of Nineteenth and Locust Streets. 1 hen there was $15,000 from Marv Hemenway of Boston for a Department of American History, and about $100,000 which James Smith entrusted to Dr. Lliot at his death, and which founded Smith Academy, a preparatory school for boys as a department llIE FORMER DENTAL AND MEDICAL BUILDINGS Page Twenty

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The first fruit of the new strength in the University was the purchase of a new site opposite the northwest corner of Forest Park. This was the gift of seventy-five friends of the University. Mr. Brookings was also instrumental in securing for Washington University the Russell Institute Fund, amounting to 130,000, which was to be used for endowment purposes only. Then the task of raising money ' for buildings on the new location was taken in hand. By 1898 the Corporation had 450,000 in hand, or pledged, and needed only 100,000 to enable it to move to the new site. In February 1899, it announced six buildings—a recitation and adminis¬ tration building. University Hall, donated by Mr. Brookings; two buildings for engineering and architecture, and an engineering laboratory ' , donated by ' Samuel Cupples; a chemistry building, donated by ' Adolphus Busch; and a library building donated by ' the late Stephen Ridgley ' . It also announced a gift of 100,000 for endowment by Mr. Brookings, on condition that the Corporation raise 400,000 or more. Washington University in its struggling infancy was set upon its sturdy feet by Robert S. Brookings. On May 29, 1900, Mr. Brookings and Mr. Cupples announced that they ' had deeded over to Washington University ' in fee simple the Cupples Station property at Seventh and Spruce streets, valued then at 3,000,000 par, but actually worth much more, which created the Robert S. Brookings endowment of 1,500.000 and the Samuel Cupples endowment of 1,500.000 and gave Washington University the largest unen umbered endowment of any ' University ' in the country at that time. Washington University was beginning to outgrow I HE MAIN QUADRANGLE IN I9CO; UNIVERSITY HaLL UNDER CoNSTURCTiON Page Twenty-two