Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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WELLESLEY COLLEGE LEGENDA 19 in the local paper ; The Prelude and the Wellesley Magazine, the Legenda preceding the latter by a year, began to speak. The number of buildings was increased by the Farnsworth Art Building in which the Amos W. Stetson collection of paintings found a home. Perhaps the beginning of that building was still farther back. Wood Cottage, the gift of Mrs. Caroline A. Wood, was opened during this period. It was a time more specifically of development than of growth in numbers. Zeta Alpha and Phi Sigma societies were welcomed back. The Art Society, afterwards named Tau Zeta Epsilon, was founded. In two years came the Agora, formed from the Cottage Street Political Club. Later the Classical Society was permitted. Glee and Banjo clubs formed; Student Volunteers and College Settle-

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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

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20 WELLESLEY COLLEGE LEGENDA f 1 I jufl r ■ . Si N i 9 ... 3 . R. . , ' ■ ? tSffl ' , H ments Association organized and Students ' Association was chartered. To President Shafer ' s efforts was due the invitation extended by the Board of Trustees for Alumnae representation. She it was who, ably assisted by the faculty, an ever-increasing body, worked up the new curriculum. With the death of President Shafer began the fourth epoch. Mrs. Julia J. Irvine, from Cornell University, was called from the chair of Greek. One effect of the elective system newly inaugurated was soon manifest in a discontinuance in 1896 of domestic work. It is rumored that such work was done away with because the girls dusted the stairs so conscientiously that people began to slip on them. Many a prank lighted up those halcyon days of service. Eggs and