CHAPTER XXVI 



ADMINISTRATIVE WORK 

 1891-1903 



IN 1891 Mr. Shaler was made Dean of the Lawrence Scientific 

 School. He accepted the office reluctantly, although he had 

 for some years been actively engaged in furthering the develop- 

 ment of the School ; indeed, according to one of his associates, 

 its revival after 1886, when there were only fourteen students, 

 was mainly his work. While foreseeing its possibilities he also 

 had a keen sense of the labor their realization would cost. It 

 was a task, however, which he scarcely felt justified in refus- 

 ing, especially since Mr. Gordon McKay had determined to 

 leave the bulk of his fortune to this department of Harvard 

 University. As they had for so long a time mutually instilled 

 into each other's minds ideas as to the kind of institution it 

 would be well to foster, Mr. McKay naturally turned to Mr. 

 Shaler as the person best fitted to guide it along the lines he 

 had laid out. Therefore, weighing carefully all these consid- 

 erations, Mr. Shaler found strong reasons for taking up the 

 duties of the deanship, and, having once assumed them, with 

 his accustomed zeal he set about making the most of the 

 opportunity. 



Under Dean Shaler's leadership the Lawrence Scientific 

 School a large and shapeless problem, one might almost say 

 a "mortifying failure," when he took hold of it rose from 

 a more or less despised part of the University to an efficient, 

 prosperous, and commanding position. During the fifteen years 

 he was at the head of it the number of students doubled twice 

 within the last decade and increased to a total of five hundred 

 and thirty, notwithstanding the gain at times was temporarily 



