Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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WELLESLEY COLLEGE LEGENDA 17 away. The college outgrew the life planned for the original domestic nucleus. Under President Freeman ' s administration (1882-88) Simpson cottage, the gift of Mr. Michael Simpson, in memory of Mrs. Simpson, opened to receive the more delicate girls who were not fitted for the bustling activity of a larger hall, — the lame ducklings, as they were called. The laying of the corner-stone of the Decennial cottage, afterwards named Norumbega, soon followed. The Alumnae, generously aided by Prof. Eben Norton Horsford and others, contributed the funds. To Prof. Horsford we are also indebted for benefactions to the library and faculty parlor. Freeman cottage, the gift of Mr. Durant, and Eliot Cottage the joint munificence of Mrs. Durant and Mrs. Hollis H. Hunnewell, completed the outward growth of this truly golden age.

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16 WELLESLEY COLLEGE LEGENDA proudly, I know he did not give anybody else one. Flowers were favorites with Mr. Durant. He had crocus bulbs, snow-drops, and English violets planted over the ground, enough for each girl to pick three a day, in an effort to have the girls share his love for nature. The Silent Time, twenty minutes for self-communion morning and evening, was his adaptation of Emerson ' s Know thyself ! Domestic service was adopted from Mt. Holyoke because Mr. Durant wished each girl to have a part in the work of the household and to appreciate the dignity of labor. With his death ended the first epoch of our history, President Howard resigning soon afterward because of ill health. With her successor, Miss Alice E. Freeman, of Michigan University, came growth. The days of pleasing lack of constraint were passing

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18 WELLESLEY COLLEGE LEGENDA Not less significant was the more academic development through the forming of student organizations. Zeta Alpha was dissolved in the spring of 1883, but the following October saw the birth of the Christian Association and the nucleus of the Philosophy Club. Later the Chapel Fund association organized. The six years of Miss Freeman ' s guar- dianship were ones of forth-putting life. Even after her marriage, as Mrs. George Herbert Palmer she continued to be a close friend of Wellesley until the day of her death. President Helen A. Shafer (1888-94) was graduated from Oberlin College. The college had long since discarded its creeping-bag; it had become a toddler of sturdy growth, and, like all other babies, it found its tongue. The Courant, at first a mere ambitious column