Part 6 (1/2)
But she also brought unusual executive ability and training in administrative affairs, both academic and co interests, was a member of the corporation of Brown University Hers is the type of intelligence and power seen often in England, where woe issues and an instinct for affairs, which American woree
Miss Hazard's inauguration took place on October 3, 1899, in the new Houghton Memorial Chapel, which had been dedicated on June 1 of that year This was Wellesley's first foruration, and the brilliant acade the autue Hall and the Chapel, nity and beauty for the college
In the next ten years, under the winning encouragement of her new president, Wellesley blossoraces and pleasant amenities of life which in earlier years she had not always cultivated with sufficient zest All of Miss Hazard's influence went out to the dignifying and beautifying of the life in which she had come to bear a part
It is to her that Wellesley owes the tranquil beauty of thechapel service The vested choir of students, the order of service, are her ideas, as are the musical vesper services and festival vespers of Christall developed so ably at her instigation
By her efforts, the Chair of Music was endowed fros estate, and in Dece executor of the estate, presented the college with an additional fifteen thousand dollars, of which two thousand dollars were set aside as a pers prize, to be awarded by the president for excellence inits theory and practice,--and the res Hall, a seconda much-needed concert hall and classrooms, completed in 1904
Miss Hazard's love of simple, poetical ceremonial did much to increase the charm of the Wellesley life Of the several hearth fires which she kindled during the years when she kept Wellesley's fires alight, the Observatory hearth-war The beautiful little building, given and equipped by Mrs Whitin, a trustee of the college, was formally opened October 8, 1900, with addresses by Miss Hazard, Professor Pickering of Harvard, and Professor Todd of Aone out into the college woods and plucked bright autuht the fire on the new hearth Digitalis, sarsaparilla, eupatorium, she had chosen, for the health of the body; a fern leaf for grace and beauty; the oak and the elreen, pine, and he life of the ht; rose the torch, she said, ”With these holy associations we light this fire, that fro in which the sun and stars are to be observed, true life ht”
Mrs Whitin then took the lighted torch and kindled the hearth fire, and as the pleasant, aro the hearth song which Miss Hazard had written for the occasion, and which was later burned in the wooden panel above the hearth:
”Stars above that shi+ne and glow, Have their ie here below; Fla seek the skies
Upith the flaht and love descend till we Heaven reflected here shall see”
At the beginning of her term of office, Miss Hazard had requested the trustees to make ”a division of administrative duties so,” as the technical knowledge of courses of study and the wisdom to advise students as to such courses required a special training and preparation which she did not possess It was therefore arranged that the dean should take in charge theMiss Hazard free for ”the general supervision of affairs, the external relations of the college, and the home administration,” and Professor Coman of the Department of History and Economics consented to assume the duties of dean for a year At the end of the year, however, Miss Hazard having now becohly fae, felt that retrenchments were necessary, and asked the trustees to omit the appointment of a dean for the year 1900-1901 The academic duties of the dean were temporarily assue, Miss Ellen F Pendleton, and Professor Co as head of the new Department of Economics, an office which she held with distinction until her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1913
Mrs Guild re problem which confronted Miss Hazard was e would be a volules of unendowed institutions of like order can well realize
The appoint Mrs Irvine's adradual accuht direction The aluun a series of concerted efforts to aid their Al her ever present financial probleenerous cooperation with them and with the trustees, did especially valiant work in clearing the college fro her administration the treasurer's report shows an increase in the college funds of 830,000” In round nu the period amounted to one s were erected between 1900 and 1909: Wilder Hall and the Observatory were coift, in 1902; Pos Hall in 1904; Cazenove in 1905; the Observatory House, another gift from Mrs Whitin, 1906; Beebe, 1908; Shafer, the Gy these years also, five professorial chairs were partially endowed The Chair of Economics in 1903; the Chair of Biblical History, by Helen Miller Gould, in December, 1900, to be called after her mother, the Helen Day Gould Professorshi+p; the Chair of Art, under the name of the Clara Bertram Kimball Professorshi+p of Art; the Chair of Music, fros estate; the Chair of Botany, by Mr HH Hunnewell, January, 1901 And in 1908 and 1909, the arrangements with the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics were completed, by which that school,--with an endowyh the efforts of Miss Amy Morris Homans, the director, and Wellesley friends,--becaiene and Physical Education
Aifts were the Alexandra Garden in the West Quadrangle, given by an aluhter; the beautiful antique marbles, presented by Miss Hannah Parker Kimball to the Department of Art, in memory of her brother, M Day Kimball; and the Plimpton collection of Italian e A Plimpton in memory of his wife, Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, of the class of '84 Of romances of chivalry, ”those poems of adventure, the sources from which Boiardo and Ariosobrrowed character and episodes for their real poearet Jackson, their curator, perhaps the largest collection in this country, and one of the largest in the world Many of these books are in rare or unique editions Of the editions of 1543, of Boiardo's ”Innamorato”
only one other copy is known, that in the Royal Library at Stuttgart
The 1527 edition of the ”Orlando Furioso” was unknown until 1821, when Count Nilzi described the copy in his collection Of the ”Gigante Moronte”, Wellesley has an absolutely unique copy
A thirteenth-century coinal notes by Tasso, and a contemporary copy of Savonarola's ”Triue a woodcut of the frate writing in his cell Beraph corrections In 1912, Wellesley had the unusual opportunity, which she unselfishly embraced, to return to the National Library at Florence, Italy, a very precious Florentinethe only known copy of the Sirventes and other important historical verses of Antonio Pucci
The e life at this time was undoubtedly the establishment of the System of Student Government, in 1901 As a student th in a later chapter, but Miss Hazard's cordial sye ies, the institution of the Honor Scholarshi+ps is the most noteworthy In 1901, two classes of honors for juniors and seniors were established, the Durant Scholarshi+p and the Wellesley College Scholarshi+p,--the Durant being the higher
The naree of excellence, according to these standards, are annually published; the honors are non-competitive, and depend upon an absolute standard of scholarshi+p At about the same time, honorary mention for freshmen was also instituted
On June 30, 1906, Miss Hazard sailed for Genoa, to take a well-earned vacation This was the first time that a president of Wellesley had taken a Sabbatical year; the first time that any presidential ter Miss Hazard's absence, Miss Pendleton, who had been appointed dean in 1901, conducted the affairs of the college On her return, May 20, 1907, Miss Hazard was met at the Wellesley station by the dean and the senior class, about two hundred and fifty students, and was escorted to the campus by the presidents of the Student Governe had assee to Sis It was a touching little cere as it did to the place she held, and will always hold, in the heart of the college
In the spring of 1908 and the winter of 1909, Miss Hazard was obliged to be absent, because of ill health, and again for a part of 1910 In July, 1910, the trustees announced her resignation to the faculty No one has expressed e than her successor in office, the friend as her dean and co almost her entire administration In the dean's report for 1910 are these very hureat service to the college during her eleven years of office are evident to all in the way of increased endows, additional departanization and equip with her know that even these gains, to which her personal generosity so largely contributed, are less than the gifts of character which have brought into the races of ho kindness
”Miss Hazard ca hospitality, by her syerness to aid in the work of every departether with a scrupulous respect for what she was pleased to call the expert judgentleness acco all that she did, fro of our campus with daffodils, and by the essential consecration of her life, she has so endeared herself to her faculty that her resignation means to us not only the loss of an honored president, but the absence of a friend”
Miss Hazard's honorary degrees are the AM froan and the LittD from Brown University She is also an honorary member of the Eta chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, which was installed at Wellesley on January 17, 1905
VI
On Thursday, October 19, 1911, Ellen Fitz Pendleton was inaugurated president of Wellesley College in Houghton Mee News in regard to this wise choice of the trustees, says: ”There has been soe president I may frankly avow myself as one of those who have been little concerned for the appointeneral principles, I would welcome the appointment of a man as the next president of Bryn Mawr or Wellesley; and, similarly, I would as soon see a woman at the head of Vassar or of S last year for a successor to Miss Hazard in her eminently successful administration, had rejected the ideally endowed candidate, solely because she was a woman, they would have indicated their belief that a woh ades is a refutation of this conclusion