LOOKING ONE HUNDRED YEARS AHEAD 



2 37 



year round, and the larger number of 

 students at the summer school. 



Eight years ago ArcAdiA began in a 

 plain, eight by twelve board building in 

 a small back yard on Grove Street. 

 Stamford. In these eight yeans the 

 growth has been phenomenal, because 

 the Institution has supplied a popular 

 need, not only locally but generally. 

 Founded on right principles it is not 

 solely a local natural history Institu- 

 tion. In these eight years there has 

 not been a week that has not seen 

 steady growth. Every Saturday night 

 something has been added that was not 

 there on the previous Saturday, until 

 now we have four hundred and twenty 

 feet of road front, eight buildings, 

 nearly three acres of ground, with a 

 grove of more than one hundred and 

 fifty trees. We have at present facili- 

 ties either indoors or out for accom- 

 modating one hundred and twenty-five 

 guests. The premises are lighted by 

 electricity. The office is perfect in sys- 

 tem and equipment, and the laboratory 

 is abundantly supplied with working 

 apparatus. Toward this eight years 

 of growth rich and poor, old and 

 young, in all parts of the world, have 

 contributed. Devoted workers have 

 helped by contributions of ten cents 

 each when such contributions came 

 hard. Multi-millionaires have helped. 

 Little children have asked, "What is 

 this?" and have received the explana- 

 tion ; the best scientists of the land 

 have been aided in their work. Any 



one who has followed this progress and 

 noted the widespread spirit of public 

 approval, and noted how even those 

 who at first laughed and ridiculed have 

 come to respect what ArcAdiA stands 

 for, cannot fail to see that we are ad- 

 vancing toward a great Institution that 

 must grow even more rapidly than 

 Stamford or Greenwich, because we are 

 not locally limited. Our growth thus 

 far has been perfectly natural. It has 

 met an actual need so far as it has been 

 able, and in supplying this need has 

 opened even greater vistas beyond. 

 Our struggles have been many and 

 painful, even pathetic. Very often 

 parts of our experience, as viewed from 

 the inside, have bordered on comedy. 

 It would have been comedy if it had 

 not been pathos. In spite of astound- 

 ing drawbacks and curious somersaults 

 of plans, there has not been one week 

 of retrogression, but a sure and steady 

 advance. 



One hundred years hence, when on 

 the centennial anniversary the whole 

 story of these earlier struggles shall be 

 told in talks and pictures, the people 

 then will wonder how so faithful and 

 commendable an Institution was 

 obliged to struggle through such aston- 

 ishing experiences. When we note 

 other great institutions of the present 

 that are still growing greater, it is 

 pathetic to note their simple begin- 

 nings; it will be equally so with the 

 great ArcAdiA, a Nature LJniversity, 

 known the world over. 



THE PRESENT (SOUND BEACH) ArcAdiA, HOME OF THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 

 There are eight buildings with a road frontage of four hundred and twenty feet. 



