Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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TEARING DOWN CONFEDERATE FLAG 1 86 1 impart physical education to its students. The old game of football , though, was abolished in 1857, and Yale ' s first Gymnasium (equipped with tub baths in twelve bathing rooms) was not completed until 1859. Also in 1859 the first trend away from daily com- pulsory religion appeared in the doing away with required attendance at evening prayers. By i860 Yale ' s Library had grown to include a total of 253,000 books. Although made part of the Department of Philosophy and the Arts in 1854, it was not until 1861 that the Yale Scientific School was recognized as a separate department of the College, and in the year i860 there were only twenty-five undergraduates in the Scientific School. In 1 861 the first Ph.D. degree ever given in America was bestowed by Yale. The Civil War was a bit disrupting to the undergraduates, but the most violent act committed in the Yale community during the war years was simply the placing by some Southern sympathizers of the white Palmetto flag of South Carolina on the west tower of Alumni Hall early one morning in 1861. The last Burial of Euclid was held in 1861, and the Freshman Pow-Wow was given up in 1862. In 1865 Biennial examinations were replaced by annual ones, and the Biennial Jubilee yielded to the annual Freshman Dinner . In this same year the Yale Pot-Pourri, a competitor of the Banner, was estab- lished, and the great sport of baseball was beginning to assume importance. Commons was re-established in the following year, only to be abandoned once more shortly afterwards. Also in 1866 the Yale Courant was established, as was the School of Fine Arts. Athletics entered the Yale scene with more frequency in the late 1860 ' s; football reappeared, gymnastics became popular, and the very first beginnings of track e™ T ™.„ „ ATT , „ in the form of foot-racing made an FIREMEN-STUDENT BATTLE ° of 1858 appearance. At the same time XIV

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' football as played about 1850 few survived the century. By 1845 student enroll- ment in Yale College in- cluded 424 undergraduates, of whom only 195 lived in College dormitories. The College was already facing a perplexing dormitory prob- lem. By the 1840 ' s Yale was in reality a University, but did not officially adopt the title, University, until 1887. The Thanksgiving Jubilee and Biennial Jubilee , two annual celebrations, are believed to have started in the 1840 ' s, but it is definitely known that the Wooden Spoon Exhi- bition first began in 1846, and the accompanying Concert shortly after- wards. Then in 1850 was held the first Freshman Pow-Wow , to celebrate having gotten through Freshman year. By 1852 informal boating had developed into a competitive form of athletics, and Yale ' s first intercollegiate crew race took place in that year. At the same time the College was expanding physi- cally with occasional new build- ings, and Alumni Hall was occupied in 1853. Town and Gown troubles flared up in 1854 and developed into a bloody riot, in which Pat CNeil, a towny, was stabbed to death. So unsettled was the relationship between Yalensians and New Haveners that the carrying of pistols by the stu- dents became commonplace. When in 1858 another battle ensued, this time between a group of students who ate together in an eating club known as the Crocodiles and a mob of firemen, one of the firemen was shot and died several days later. In the meantime a new course had been introduced into the curricu- lum. It was known as Home Gymnastics , and was taught by Pro- fessor Charles Langdon; this marks the beginning of Yale ' s effort to PRESENTING THE WOODEN SPOON ABOUT 1855 XIII

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the velocipede craze swept into Yale, as it did throughout the rest of the country. By 1869 the student enrollment in Yale College had increased by over one hundred, but the dormitory problem remained unsolved. Of the 539 undergraduates only 268 lived within one of the Colleges as dormi- tories were called even in those early days. Later they became known as Halls. Two old traditions disappeared from the Yale environment in 1870. Both Linonia and Brothers in Unity, along with their Statement of Facts , passed out of existence, and the Wooden Spoon Exhibition and Concert were in the same year abolished by vote of the Junior Class. The idea of a dance at this time of the year was not abandoned, however, nor was the old tradition in modified form of the Wooden Spoon presentation. Both lingered on. The 1870 ' s saw the decline of hazing and near-disappearance of the old banger and beaver rushes. One step further from the jurisdiction of the State of Connecticut was achieved in 1871 when the General As- sembly of Connecticut passed an Act consent- ing to the substitution of six graduates, elected by their fellow-graduates, of the College for the six senior senators of the State in the membership of the Yale Corporation. The College Library continued to increase in size its collection of books, and in 1871-72 it received both the Linonia and the Brothers libraries. In 1872 the Yale Record was founded, and four years later in 1878 the Yale Daily News appeared for the first time. An advance was made in 1876, when nearly one-half the subjects of a student ' s last two years became elective, and in the same year compulsory services began to be held in the new Battell Chapel every morning. In the 1870 ' s the trend away from required chapel continued, when the Sunday afternoon services were made voluntary and finally disappeared entirely. A stimulus to athletics was the construction in 1882 of the Yale Field. Football and baseball games began to be played there, and undergraduate interest heightened considerably. Victories were all-important, and a defeat brought tears. Two years later in 1884 a tremendous leap was made in the realm of elective subjects, and one-half of the courses in Junior year and four-fifths of the Senior year subjects were selected by the stu- VELOCIPEDES IN 187O XV