STUDIES ON MnSETTMS AND KINDRKD iNSTtTtTTIONS. 507 



tional building's, if, indeed, this has not alread}' occurred, for in 

 Chicago matters develop so quickly and unexpectedly that descriptions 

 frequent!}" fall short of the realit3\'^' 



HISTORY Ol'^ THE UNIVERSITY. 



If we take into account tiie l»uildings and installations pstal>lished, 

 created from nothing, since ISDO, when the university was planned, 

 up to 1899, we can only regard with astonishment the "phenomenally 

 rapid growth"' of Chicago University, as it is generall}" spoken of; yet 

 those far-seeing men at its head have still greater aims in view which 

 the\' will also attain. 



The University of Chicago is all-embracing in the sense that it seeks 

 to compass for both sexes the entire, broad domain of knowledge from 

 the elementary school up to induction into independent research. But 

 before I attempt to sketch its complicated organization, which differs 

 in many points from that of other American universities, it may be 

 proper to review its brief and eventful history, especially with i-egard 

 to certain outside matters/' 



A '• l^niversity of Chicago" was fountlod as long ago as 1857, l)ut it 

 was obliged in 1886 to close its doors on account of financial difficul- 

 ties. It sprang from the bosom of the Baptist Church, which also 

 again took steps for the founding of a new university. In 1888 J. D. 

 Rockefeller, of New York, conferred with Dr. W. R. Harper, profes- 

 sor of Semitic languages at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 

 in regard to the reestablishment of the imiversit}" in Chicago, as this 

 appeared to him the dut}^ of the Baptist denomination of the countr}', 

 and also entered into communication with the American Baptist Educa- 



«How true this remark is may be illustrated by the fact that while I was revising 

 my manuscript (in July, 1901), 1 received news from President Harper that corner 

 stones for the following l)uildings had recently been laid: The press building, a 

 dormitory for undergraduates (Hitchcock Hall); the universit)' dining hall, with its 

 kitchen; the University tower; the clubhouse for university students, an assembly 

 hall (Mandel assembly hall) and the school of education. I also learn from news- 

 paper notices, that L. Mandel, of Chicago, gave $100,000 for the assembly hall; J. J. 

 Mitchell, of Chicago, $50,000 for the tower; the executors of J. Reynolds, in Chicago, 

 $80,000 for the clubhouse, and a great business man, who wishes to remain anonymous, 

 $100,000 for the dining hall. The school of ethication will cost $1,000,000. 



'^In 1897 H. Moissan wrote a brief sketch of the University of Chicago, which was 

 translated and i)u]jlished in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 

 1897-98 (Washington, 1899), II, pp. 1448-1447. He there relates, among other things, 

 that a professor at a university, without any ceremony, presented him from the col- 

 lection a piece of fossil wood that pleased him, and that was neither numbered nor 

 catalogued. He instinctively looked around to see if they were observed. He adds: 

 " It is only in America that one sees such things." With regard to this I might 

 properly say that one will hardly find anywhere such careful cataloguing as in the 

 American museums, and that if that professor gave him the specimen he was doubt- 

 less authorized to do so. 



