|
1 =^r 8 — " |
||
|
6 |
] |
|
|
ill |
■iii, |
1 |
ALBANY ACADEMY FOR GIRLS
Founded 1814
AS
ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
JUNE 1, 1914
ALBANY, N. Y. PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNAE 1914
Fort Orange Press
The Brandow Printing Company
1914
U15
^
Albany Academy for Girls 1814—1914
Grace Perry The Reverend Eben S. Stearns, principal of the Academy at the celebration of her semi-centennial, began his historical sketch for the occasion by noting that at the opening of the Academy in 1814 the country was at war: that, in much more terrible form, 1864 found her again absorbed in the endless horror of strife. The present sketch was to have been pre- faced by a heartfelt Thank God that a second fifty years had put us beyond even the fear of blood. But — 1814, 1864 and 1914, and are we still to dream only of a land whose inhabitants shall have ceased to learn war any more?
There must have been many little girls in America in
1814 who needed better school advantages than their towns
afforded, but to none of them did it fall to be the occasion
for a new undertaking save to Lucretia, the daughter of
g Ebenezer Foot. It is always easy to credit special blindness
\^ or special vision to acts one hundred years old, but it can
o scarcely be claimed that Mr and j\Irs Foot looked furtiicr
^ into an educational future than the very natural desire for
the immediate wellbeing of an only child. Far-sighted for
^ eight year old Lucretia they certainly were, but no thought
IT
- for the complicated higher education of another century can
=^ have disturbed their simple plans. .And because the scIkioI
rose, not from caprice nor ostentation, but from the actual
h needs of the time, it grew constantly to meet those needs as
3
42C829
Albany Academy for Girls
they grew, and has been ever since adapting itself to the requirements of each advancing day.
After due canvassing of the situation, twenty-three other interested fathers promised for one year, to pay to Mr Foot, as treasurer, the sum of twenty-four dollars for each " female scholar " they should send to the " Little Seminary ", and with tliat, the Union School in Montgomery street was fairly launched. That Mr Foot was considered even then the real founder of the institution seems clear from the fact that at his death, July 21, 1814, on the closing day of the first quarter, all examinations and exercises which would have constituted the first commencement were omitted in his honor. A biographical notice of Ebenezer Foot, deceased, contains this paragraph : " The principal motive of Air Foot, no doubt, was to establish a good female school in his neighbor- hood, to which he might send his daughter. If this was his sole motive, it was a good one. But whatever the motive, whether to qualify his own daughter, or those of his neigh- bors and friends, for the duties of American ladies, or more expansive still, to elevate and adorn the female character, and store the female mind with useful knowledge, his name should be kindly remembered by every pupil, who has or may enjoy the benefits of the institution, and by every friend of female education."
The ine'xpensive one story building erected in 1814 was, during the next three years, enlarged by the addition of a second story, and a second department was created, which necessitated one or more assistants to aid in the work of instruction. On the sixteenth day of February, 1821, by act of legislative incorporation the school took the name of Albany Female Academy, under the control of a distinguished
4
Cextexnial Celebration
board of trustees, of whom Chancellor Kent was the first president. These gentlemen immediately proved their fitness for the position by taking measures to procure subscriptions for a new building. On June twenty-fifth, 1821, a procession of trustees, teachers and pupils marched to a spot a little below the site of the first building, and the corner stone, now in the study hall of the Academy, was laid. The parch- ment discovered in its sealed bottle when the present railroad station was built in 1899, records this statement: "This stone is laid in the fear of Jehovah, the God of Knowledge, and commended to his protection and favor."
Three thousand dollars and ninety-six cents were sufficient to pay for this building and equip it for one hundred and twenty pupils, but it was outgrown at the end of seven more years and in 1828 an addition was erected in the roar of the main edifice and connected with it by corridors. Xo picture of either of these buildings being found, ]\Irs Mary Kent Stone drew from memory the earlier one, with the color as she recalled it, for the chart sent by the school to the Columbian Exposition. Another alumna whose school days were spent in the second building, supi)lied the information which enabled Professor Morgan to paint that also for the chart. Her description of the interior arrangements and fur- nishing is all that we have from which to reconstruct the rooms.
" On the first floor of the building was the Fourth Dejiart- ment, the youngest pupils. The entrance to it was directly opposite that of the building. The furniture consisted of a number of small, yellow wooden chairs, a table and two or three larger chairs, a small blackboard, and a frame with wires, on which were strung small colored Ixilis. These
5
Albany Academy for Girls
were used to teach the children the first lessons in numera- tion, as by moving them on the wires they saw that one and one make two, etc. This room occupied the whole main floor excepting a narrow hall on the north side. The stairs leading to the second floor were at the north side of the front doors. The first few steps at right angles with the front wall, led to a broad landing, with a large window in front. From this a smaller flight of steps led up to the second floor, which was divided like the one below, into one large room and a hall. This hall had a window at the east or back end, and was furnished with hooks for hanging cloaks, etc.
" The furniture of the room was unlike that in the lower room, and probably few, if any, of the present generation have seen its like. The desks, or what was called by that name, consisted of a wooden structure, in form like the top of a desk, but built firmly against the wall. Under this a shelf about two-thirds as wide, not enclosed, but entirely open to dust, or to the inspection of the inquisitive, w^as the sole receptacle for books or other belongings.
" In front of this structure, at such distance apart as to leave about twenty-four to twenty-six inches of table for each student, were seats, also built fast, and immovable. Two upright boards were screwed to the floor, and upon these was a solid piece of wood about twelve by fifteen inches. On these seats we sat all day, the tall and the short, each one's seat at the same distance from the desk, just as high as her neighbor's and just as hard. When a class was called to recitation we simply turned around in our seats to face the teacher. A table three feet wide and five long, a large wood stove and a blackboard, completed the furniture of the room.
6
Centennial Celebration
" The third floor, occupied by the Second Department, was in every way precisely like the second.
" Adjoining the broad steps in the main entrance was a door, and a stairway leading to the basement. At the foot of this stairway was a water pipe with faucet, and if anyone thirsted, this was the only source of relief. The basement was fitted up for a dwelling for the janitor, and had very comfortable rooms.
" A new two-story building was added, and the whole of the upper floor was in one room, excepting a narrow hall, which was used like those in the other building, for hanging cloaks, hats, etc. This room was used by the First Depart- ment and was furnished with movable desks and chairs. It had windows at both east and west, and was, of course, well lighted and well aired. The desks occupied only about lialf the room, which was used as a chapel and for examinations and commencement exercises. As it was not large enough to accommodate a great number of people, only the friends of the graduating class were invited to the commencement exercises. These, with the different examining committees, and the First Department, filled the room, and no pupils from the lower departments could be admitted.
" The lower floor of the rear building was divided into two rooms. One of these was called the library and con- tained the few books belonging to the institution, and the few pieces of apparatus for philosophical and chemical experi- ments, and a large library table. The smaller room was the Trustees' room, and used for general business."
Here for thirteen years, in an aristocratic part of the city, with trustees of unusual importance, with principals gradu- ated from Union and Harvard, the daughters of Albany's
7
Albany Academy for Girls
most substantial citizens gathered daily to receive instruction in solid branches of learning. As early as 1827 the state testified its appreciation of the character of work done, by placing the school under " the visitation and control " of the Board of Regents, as the first school for girls admitted to this consideration.
Certainly where " the philosophies ", logic, Biblical antiqui- ties, elements of criticism, and evidences of Christianity occupied a prominent place in the curriculum it can never be said that " solid " subjects were lacking. The announce- ment of the beginning of the school year in 183 1 contains the statement, " The trustees do not consider the merely ornamental branches as forming any part in the course of education established by them." French and Spanish were taught, however, and the closing examinations of 1835 were lightened by fancy articles of needlework and an exhibition of drawings " highly finished, many of them from nature ", so the gentlemen may not have interpreted too strictly the word '* ornamental ".
In 1826, to the list of principals — Horace Goodrich, early worn out by the double labor of law and teaching; Edwin James, " a worthy young man, but evidently lacking in some of the essentials of his office " ; Lebbeus Booth, " well edu- cated, highminded and honorable " ; Frederick Matthews, " refined, urbane, and of elevated Christian character ", was added the name of Alonzo Crittenden, and he at once began a strong and wise administration. The extraordinary success of the institution during his term of service, 1826- 1845, was undoubtedly due in large measure to his perfect control of each detail of the management. Public oral examinations which lasted well through the "8o's. were introduced by him,
8
Centexxial Celebratiox
and through the columns of an early Argus we learn, among other facts, that by 1833 the usual dependence on textbooks as the principal means of instruction, was an outworn custom in the Academy.
" The year 1835 is marked by the origin of the custom of teachers and pupils meeting in the Academy and going in procession to a church to hear the reports of committees, and to witness the awarding of premiums to those who had distinguished themselves in any department of study." Since we have spoken of these annual ceremonies we may fairly in this place trace their development to the present time. From 1828, when the new hall was added to the second building, commencement was for several years held there. The first church service was in the Baptist church, on Pearl street, south of Maiden Lane. In 1836 the Old South Dutch church was used. For many years, beginning with i860, commence- ments were held in the Congregational church. One reads of a June day in 1862 when led by Principal Stearns, two hundred and fifty girls, in white, marched from the Academy across State street and down South Pearl to Beaver street. In 1868 commencement was held in Tweddle Hall. The report of 1878 describes exercises in the cha])el of the Academy, but in the early '8o's the Second Presbyterian church began to echo annually the wisdom of " graduating essays ". They were nine in number in 1894. but were reduced the next year to a valedictory, salutatory, and one other. The last exercise in the church wa> in 189*;, when, conforming to the more modern idea, Dr James II. Ecob, unassisted by members of the class, made the first commence- ment address. Usage has now established the custom, begun
9
Albany Academy for Girls
in IQCXD, of meeting for all such occasions in the study hall and in the morning.
Mr Crittenden had been conducting the school in his brilliant if somewhat irascible way, for eight years when again it became necessary to make provision for the constant increase of pupils, as well as to follow the natural change of the city's residence to higher ground. With subscriptions to the stock to the amount of four hundred shares, a lot was procured on North Pearl street and the erection of a " spa- cious, tasteful and commodious " building was at once begun. Twenty-five years ago no description of this building would have been necessary, but it is safe to say that no person con- nected with the present school ever saw the original fagade of the classic edifice which from 1834 to 1892 was the school home. It is therefore permissible to quote somewhat in detail from an elaborate description written by a traveler who passed through the city very soon after the building was completed.
" The plan of the building is about sixty-five feet by seventy-seven, including the portico, and the height about fifty-five feet, containing in all four stories and a cellar. The four stories are divided into sixteen spacious rooms; with halls sufficient for the accommodation of the staircases, and communications to the several apartments. The front faces to the east, and is ornamented with a beautiful Hexastyle portico of the Ionic order, which for sublimity of effect, and taste in arrangement, is not surpassed by any in the United States. The proportions of the columns, capitals, bases, and entablature, are taken from the temple on the Ilissus, the most beautiful example of the Ionic among the remains of antiquity. A flight of six steps of marble supports the colon- ic
Cextexnial Celebration
nade; and this elevation, the great length of the columns (which are forty feet), the bold and lofty entablature, so well adapted to this order, give a majesty and effect to the front which can only be duly appreciated by a critical examination. The angles are finished with antae ; and the ceiling of the pronaos or vestibule formed into a single panel, surrounded with an appropriate entablature.
" The arrangement of the front windows, dividing the front into two stories instead of four, is judicious. If the front had been i)erforated for four tiers of windows, its archi- tectural beauty would have been much impaired ; but by lengthening the windows, so that one serves to light two stories, as has been done, and throwing a transom across them at the intermediate floors, ornamented with Grecian fret, the beauty of the whole has been increased.
" The principal entrance into the interior, is from the vesti- bule above mentioned. The door is quite plain, no ornament being admitted which does not strictly accord with the gen- eral character of the front. The entrance is, nevertheless, spacious and convenient, and corresponds well with the Venetian windows above. A bold, well constructed stair- case, ascending to the fourth story, is presented immediately on entering the lower hall, and though divested of all fantastic ornament, it will be much admired on account of its strength and convenience, and the durable cjuality of the materials with which it is constructed.
"The finish of the rooms (the Exhibition room excepted) is plain, and of Grecian detail ; and while all superfluous ornament has been studiously avoided, strength, boldness, and propriety have been kept steadily in view.
" The Chapel exhibits a slight departure from that plain-
II
Albany Academy for Girls
ncss of style which is a marked feature in the general finish of this edifice. But this slight variation creates no confusion. It seems in harmony with the rest; and while the shade of difference is so small as scarcely to be noticed, you are pre- sented with the most classically finished room in this city, and one probably not surpassed by any in the state. This room is thirty-seven by sixty-one feet, the ceiling about seventeen feet high, and the entrance by two spacious doors on the east side. It is lighted by a range of windows along the west side ; and the walls of the opposite side and end have recesses cor- responding in number and location w^ith the windows, which preserve a rigid symmetry as regards the various openings. The doors, windows, and recesses, are finished with plain casings, having pedimental lintels crowned with carved mould- ings. The plainness of the face of the casings is relieved by patteres, or rosettes, a fashionable and judicious ornament much used by the architects of antiquity. The antae and entablature with which this room is ornamented, are in imi- tation of those of the Erectheum, and cannot fail to attract particular attention. They exhibit a highly finished specimen of the Grecian Ionic, and display a judicious use of ornament without profusion ; and if this specimen of the Ionic order be contrasted with that used in the front portico, it will be readily conceded, that though the latter, on account of its boldness, should have preference in external decoration, it must yield the palm to the former for internal finish."
And all this for $33,295, which, compared with the $3,000 of the previous building, doubtless seemed a large expendi- ture. The ceremonies of dedication took place on the tw-elfth of May, 1834. The principal feature of the occasion was an address by the president of the board of trustees. Rev. John
12
Centexnial Celebration
Ludlow, for which the trustees, that day in session, voted their thanks, and of which they begged a copy for pubHcation. The traveler of whom mention has been made was inter- ested not only in the pillars and entablatures, but recorded also what was told him of the courses and methods. That each of the six departments should have had a permanent teacher, that a text book in science was the basis only of instruction, and that some specimens of prose composition read him " would have been creditable to a practiced and even classic writer " seemed worthy of remark. A survey of materials available for a history of the school shows in an interesting way that of all the subjects taught from the begin- ning, English composition, both in prose and poetr}-. received the most attention. The prizes and blue ribbons given by the alumnae association were nearly all for excellence in literary work. The long-treasured copies of the Semper Portfolio, hand-painted and beribboned, testify to the interest felt in the art of expression. A special graduate course in English, with diploma, was offered from 1849 to 1869. Commencement exercises for a series of years made a special feature of the " Report on Composition of the Graduating Class ", and the catalogue (at least in the '70's) contains reports of judges of English writing in all the departments and print- in full the best three essays of the Graduating Class. In a sketch of the later work of the graduates of the school before the '8o's, thirty-six are mentioned as having shown special ai)ti- tude for writing, or as having jiublished magazine articles or books. The teachers of tiie earlier years most often quoted and most admired were English teachers. A school publica- tion called Planetarium was j^rinted in 1843. The Monthly
13
Albany Academy for Girls
Rose, which also lived in the '40s, was followed in the '60s by the Academy Monthly, and in 1903 by the Academe.
In 1864 the first half century was completed, and on the morning of the seventeenth of May the school chapel was filled with pupils, graduates and guests. Distinguished among the others were three daughters of Mr Thomas Russell and the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Foot, who had all entered the school at its first session, fifty years before. An address of welcome was made by the president of the trustees, Hon. Amasa Parker, devotional exercises were conducted by Mr Crittenden and Mr Stearns, the principal, and an anthem was sung by the school. More public exercises, in the after- noon, were held in Tweddle Hall, where an historical sketch w^as read by Mr Steams and an oration given by President Stearns of Amherst College. The evening session, rendered brilliant by the presence of Governor Seymour and his staff, " was mainly devoted to music and social intercourse."
The historical sketch concluded with these words : " Thus our Academy commenced, continued and perfected its first half century. How much husbands and children in our city and elsewhere, owe to its benign influence, how much society is indebted for the virtue and cultivation of many of its chiefest ornaments, no historian save the ' Recording Angel ' can write. It has rested on no splendid endowments. It has made no pathetic appeals to the sympathies of the public. It has kept on the even tenor of its way, furnishing its own pecuniary support, sometimes even paying dividends to its stockholders, and relying on its own conscious excellencies for its favor with the community."
Mr Steams seems to have been a natural educator, and the Academy's favor with the community in those days
14
Centennial Celebration
depended largely on his thoroughness and firm discipline, as well as on the excellent teachers whom he selected. The women who taught in these years were merely assistants, and seem not to have been considered a part of the faculty. Even Mr Stearns printed " Faculty " in large type over tiie list of the men, and " Assistants ", very small, over Miss Greely, Mrs Bruce, and their associates. Revising at once the course of study, he had reduced the number of departments from six to four and enriched the curriculum by offering advan- tages in many directions which were not to be found else- where in the city. His interest in the boarding department had led him to purchase for that use the old mansion Ash Grove Place, which, with its beautiful lawns and groves, had been the home of three governors of the state.
His predecessor, Mr Parsons, had also secured distin- guished residence for the pupils from out of town. The Patroon Place, 88i Broadway, was advertised as " healthful and airy ", with halls and rooms " commodious and splen- did ", and with an extensive garden to furnish a secluded playground. Members of the French normal class, estab- lished at this time, and others wishing to speak the language, were provided for in the residence of Professor Molinard. in Park Place. The boarding department has never again reached the importance it assumed under Mr Crittenden, ^Ir Parsons and Mr Stearns.
Four years after the semi-centennial the satisfactory admin- istration of Mr Stearns came to an end. For the first fifty years the principals liad all been men, educated at I'nion, Vale, and Harvard. For the second fifty years they have all been women, beginning with Miss Greely in 1868. Iler term of service as princi|ial was only one year, but for the eleven
i^
Albany Academy for Girls
years preceding she bad made the position of " Assistant " one of great honor.
Toward the last of the decade from 1869 to 1879 Miss Ostrom was obliged to meet certain difficulties which had not disturbed her predecessors. Miss Plympton once wrote of certain causes which were at work to diminish the number of pupils, as not hostile in themselves but arising " from conditions incident to the growth of the city, the change in population and the demand for free instruction in higher branches than were then taught in the public schools. The establishment of a Church day and boarding school under the direction of the bishop of the diocese gradually withdrew from the Academy most of the Episcopal patronage, together with that of other denominations better accommodated as to location by St. Agnes School. Between the high school and the new Church school it is not surprising if this was a period of gradually diminishing numbers and consequent loss of prestige."
The number of pupils graduated from a school never of course tells the full story of the worth of the institution or its position in the community, but a certain tale of tendencies, at least, may be supplied by averages. The largest class ever graduated from the Academy was in 1839, under Mr Crit- tenden, a class of thirty-five, from a school membership of five hundred and thirty-six. The average number graduated in the decade beginning that year was twenty-three. For the five following decades the averages are eleven, fourteen, sixteen, eleven, and nine, showing less variation than has perhaps been thought.
A school membership of five hundred and thirty-six was not extraordinary for the years preceding 1864. In 1848
16
UK Ukioinal Bl'ii.hi.ni;. i^\4
Centennial Celebration
there were five hundred and fifty-eight, and in 1852 there were five hundred and twenty-seven. It must be remembered that in the '30a, '40s and '50s there were no colleges for women, and there came to the Academy pupils from eighteen different states, seeking, not the education of a secondary school, but the nearest possible approach to the advantages offered their brothers in the college and university. The distinction of the Academy lay in the fact that it not only claimed to take the education of girls more seriously than most contemporary schools, but that it actually did so do. The quaint insistence in the old catalogues and announce- ments that here text books were used as a basis only for the preparation of lessons has often caused a smile. What more should a text book be? But in its time that fact presented a real and radical advance, and is only one illustration of many. The second half century has seen a period of read- justment. With the founding of colleges for women the character of schools changed. Certain courses of study much emphasized in the earlier days were gradually eliminated. College entrance examinations forced entirely new require- ments. Schools came to be classified as " Finishing ". " Pre- paratory " or " just school ". and an institution with so dignified a past has found its place in the new order with some travail of soul. Tlie old unique position is obviously out of the question, the five hundred i)ui)ils ])robably out of the question too. but to be now the best possible secondary school, in the face of keen competition, because it is a secon- dary school that the time recjuircs, is surely as honorable a position as any the past could show.
Complications arising on the resignation of Miss Louise Ostrom, in 1879, the trustees, under the wise guidance of
17
Albany Academy for Girls
Mr Thomas Olcott, invited Miss Lucy A. Plympton to unite with the Academy her school for young ladies on North Pearl street, and meeting for the first time February sixteenth, 1880, for four months, under the one principal, this curious alliance of two separate organizations was welding itself into a whole. The perfecting of this arrangement was one of the last acts of Mr Olcott, and Miss Plympton has always said that the solemn and impressive charge he gave her dur- ing their last interview filled her with a deep and peculiar sense of responsibility in her work. " If my courage held out during years of effort to secure a more suitable location for the Academy, it was largely due to the inspiration I had received from this honored man."
But not even the bringing in this way of sixty new pupils and the further addition to the primary of Mrs Millard's private school nor the most earnest efforts on the part of the administration could balance the fact that North Pearl street was far down town, that electric cars made the busi- ness streets unsafe for young pupils, and that nothing but a change of location could save the school. The trustees were embarrassed by the old building for which there seemed to be no sale, and could see no way of financing so radical a move as the purchase of property further west, even if such a site had been definitely offered. The strain of decision fell most heavily on the principal, who after wxeks of thought and toilsome planning was allowed to rent at her own risk a residence on Washington avenue for use as a school and a home.
The first days of January, 1892, saw the portraits from the library and old chapel rehung in the new entrance hall, drawing rooms transformed into school rooms, and the little
18
Centennial Celebration
space which could be wrung from the actual necessities of school work prepared for the uses of a family. The sorting and packing for moving of the equipment and accumu- lations of nearly sixty years was no holiday enterprise, though it was accomplished during the holiday recess. In spite of cramped quarters which admitted of no growth in numbers, and the many inconveniences incident to a transition period, teachers and pupils alike entered into the game with courage and good faith, and many strong ties of good fellowship were the result of that year's association.
Then, in the autumn of 1892, began the new era of alumnae activity. The Alumnae Association has been organized in 1 84 1 and its aims were set forth in the preamble of the Con- stitution : " To perpetuate the recollections of their Alma Mater, to foster the relations of friendship that have been formed during their course of academic study, and desirous of continuing their mental discipline by such systematic arrangements as they shall be enabled to establish and sustain, and wishing chiefly to advance the cause of female education by searching for, and pointing out its objects, and by seeking the modes of instruction best adapted to accomplish the great end of all mental training and acquisitions." These ends were sought by the offer of prizes and medals in various depart- ments, and later, by study clubs and classes. One of these, Semper Fidelis, organized in 18/ 1. has met regularly and enthusiastically since then for reading and discussion of matters literary, artistic and scientific.
The Dana Natural History Society was a somewhat more remote outgrowth of Alumnae organization, and remains the last of a number of societies started by Professor A. J. Ebell. to awaken and foster an interest in scientific research.
19
Albany Academy for Gikls
But the attainment of these ends was quite ajjart from any relation to the school, and the association was so thoroughly alumnae that its influence in the ongoing of the institution had been very little felt. At this crisis, however, at the time of their mother's greatest need, her loyal daughters entered into a compact of strong and intimate assurance of support, which has never been broken. Through a small but influen- tial committee they met the trustees and offered, in case it should seem wise to secure property for a new building, to exert themselves in substantial manner for the raising of the necessary funds. Within a month the house then occupied had been purchased and a very unusual enthusiasm had been roused in the community. It was proposed to erect in the rear of the Washington avenue house and attached to it, an addition of very considerable size for recitation and study halls, and rooms for administrative use. The newspapers gave long columns of comment and long lists of donors, with now and then a supplement to show plans for rebuilding or addition. If the teachers and pupils sometimes winced at phrases used as incentives to larger giving, they, none the less, rejoiced at the lengthening lists and took courage. One read " An ivy-like lethargy has crept over this venerable insti- tution of late years," or " Little did our townsmen think ten days ago that the Girls' Academy was anything more than an old curio — a sort of mausoleum of past prestige." An open meeting was held by the trustees in the chapel of the old building on the thirty-first of January, 1893. Hon. Wil- liam L. Learned presided. The room was crowded, and most stirring addresses were made by members of the board of trustees and board of visitors. Large separate committees of men and women w-ere appointed for the raising of money,
20
Centennial Celebration
and announceinent was made of the first gift of one thousand dollars from Mr Dudley Olcott. Then these two hundred people scattered, the women, led by Mrs. George Douglas Miller, to meet every Saturday morning to report their work, busy men, prominent among them Mr George Douglas Miller, to give unsparingly of their time and energ\% and all of them by argument and example, to work out a constant problem in subtraction with $35,000, the required sum, as the base. So telling was the work and so generous the response, and so faithful the press in keeping the matter before the public mind that one-third the cost of the proposed addition was raised in eight days. The citizens of Albany were bidden to consider the financial advantage of a large boarding school, they were reminded that in 1838 one hundred and forty boarding pupils spent their money freely in the city shojxs ; and finally, the school, with its history, was laid upon the conscience of each man and woman. Will you let die an institution which is yours? It was the first plea for money the Academy had made since 1833. and the money came.
On the twentieth of April the work of tearing down struc- tures then on the site of the new edifice was begun, and by the end of November the last hammer was silent, the last workman had dei)arted and the well-lighted, commodious and well-cc|ui]:iped school rooms were in daily use. 'I "he prin- cipal had s])ent nio>t of the summer in tlic city, and Judge Learned, on behalf of the trustees and because of his own untiring devotion, had given his time without stint and gen- erously filled more than one gap in the appropriations.
On the evening of the eleventh of December, i8<)3. the building was formally opened. Judge Learned gave a brief account of the main events in the history of the institution
21
Albany Academy for Girls
and presented the other speakers of the evening, the Rev Wallace H. Buttrick, Dr James H. Ecob, Dr A. V. V. Ray- mond, later president of Union College, and President Taylor of Vassar. The singing of Alma Academia closed the exer- cises in the study hall and opened a sort of peripatetic recep- tion which surged pleasantly from the fourth floor of the old house to the fourth floor of the new, until the last corner had been inspected.
For eight years more under these improved conditions the school went on with Miss Plympton still at the head. The ample study hall gave opportunity for evening lectures and for concerts, for Semper plays and for Dana Society exhibits. Large Alumnae classes in literature and French met regu- larly. There were teas where French only was spoken and informal gatherings of pupils with their friends. For the first time the Alumnae Association found a suitable place for meeting and for storing in safety its memorials. By wise expenditure and through gifts the handsome room allotted to them becomes every year more significant of the old and new life it strives to represent. Here, most ancient of all, may be seen the original agreement of the first patrons of the Academy, premiums given to Lucretia Foot and Mary Kent, with autographs and photographs and medals. Here also are the old books — once the " Albany City Library, owned and controlled by a stock company composed of many prominent citizens. When the building on Pearl street was completed, the large room on the north side of the first floor was loaned to this library and occupied by it until the winter of 1834- 1835. At this time it was suggested that the stockholders might be induced to transfer the ownership to the Academy. A committee was chosen from the pupils to draw up a peti-
22
Cextexnial Celebration
tion, which, when circulated, received the signatures of all the stockholders, and the library became the property of the A. F. A."
Enlarged facilities in every direction gave a new interest to the school work. The number of pupils in the home did not materially increase and the school continues to be pri- marily for day scholars. With the present equipment it can never offer sufficient inducement to attract very large num- bers. A boarding school in a city, in these days when the call to the country is so strong, must naturally be at a dis- advantage not to be overcome except in case of peculiar specialization derived from unusual equipment.
On February sixteenth, 1901, Miss Plympton completed her twenty-first year as Principal, the longest record of service in the history of tlie school. Her resignation took effect in the June following. The administration had been one of great devotion and singular courage. Such demands on vision, faith and endurance will, in the years to come, scarcely be exacted of those who stand in her place.
The conduct of the school passed into the peculiarly capable hands of IMiss Esther Lx)uise Camp, and the last thirteen years of the century close the epoch w'ith dignity and with hope. The number of pupils has increased from a little less than one hundred to something more than one liundrLcl and fifty. The numljer fitted for college during these years shows a marked increase. Of the one hundred and sixty-nine gradu- ates in twelve years, fifty-six, or exactly one-third, have been sent to Vassar, Radcliffe, Mt. Holyoke, liamard. W'ellesley and IJryn Mawr. ( )f tiie class of 1914 one-third will go to college and practically the whole of the other two-thirds will carry on some work in advanced courses of art, music, or
23
Albany Academy for Girls
languages. The curriculum provides for those pupils who do not go to college special courses in history, art and science. The school is divided very simply into two departments only, Pre-Academic and Academic. The youngest children, from two and a half to seven years, are in charge of a teacher trained in Italy in the Montessori system and skilled by expe- rience in the adapting of this system to American children. The number of teachers has with the increase in pupils advanced to seventeen, most of whom reside in the home.
The practical advantage of the Endowment Fund, for which the Alumnae have been for fourteen years exerting their efforts may be seen in the fact that already more than two thousand dollars are each year drawn from the earnings of this fund for school expense, and found to be absolutely essential. The history of the Endowment Fund falls entirely in these last fourteen years. In May, 1900, at a meeting of a conference committee of the Alumnae with the board of trustees, an offer of twenty-five hundred dollars was made by one of those present toward liquidating a debt of ten thou- sand dollars, providing the Alumnae raise the remainder of the amount by the first of January, 1901. A few days later, at the annual breakfast, it was voted " that the Alumnae pledge themselves to raise the seven thousand five hundred dollars necessary to secure the gift of twenty-five hundred." A year from that time the mortgage had been paid, and a balance of thirteen hundred dollars formed the nucleus of this new fund. A bazaar in 1904 added something over three thousand dollars, but for the most part the yearly additions have been the result of tireless activity on the part of those in charge and the unceasing loyalty of old friends. Somewhat less than three- fourths of the desired one hundred thousand is, as we have
24
Cextexnial Celebration
seen, already accomplishing its purpose. An endowed lec- tureship in memory of Mrs Bruce, who conducted the Third Department from 1856 to 1864, was established in 1910. This memorial seeks to perpetuate by a yearly lecture of superior character, the wholesome and beautiful influence of a woman of clear thought, rare culture and consecrated life. The founding in New York City of the Betsey Foot Chapter of Alumnae was reported at the luncheon in 1909. Alumnae representation on the board of trustees also originated in this period. ]\Irs George Douglas Miller and Mrs George Porter Hilton were elected to this body in jVIay, 1900, and are still serving.
In 1905 Miss Camp's sane and eloquent plea for a change in the name of the school, presented in so wise a way the prac- tical reasons for translating the old name into modern English, that the last expressed objections were overcome, and on February twenty-sixth, 1906, Governor Higgins signed the bill which makes us today own allegiance to the Albany Academy for Girls. A varying allegiance it must necessarily be — to the unfading memory of some inspiring personality, to friend- ships which have stood the test of years, to work which was for the love of it, and love that came through work, to ideals the more glorious because too high, and hopes as yet too new to understand. iUit true allegiance whether to a memory, a love or an ideal is a working princijile. and a school, in the last analysis, is a very concrete, practical thing, and though " ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thouc/ht " of your Alma Mater's need of you. the years will still insist on saying, " Give answer, what," for her. " ha' ve done? "
25
Albany Academy for Girls
Historical Address
Justice Alden Chester President of the Board of Trustees
Friends, Alumnae, Teachers and Pupils of the Academy:
Responding to the request of my associates in the Board of Trustees, that I should on this occasion give a brief his- torical review of the institution from its beginning, I proceed to the pleasant task, mindful of the difficulty of condensing the matter in hand to the limits of a single address and bearing in mind that Miss Grace Perry, at the Alumnae breakfast today, has already presented a very valuable and interesting paper on the subject covering to some extent a few of the facts that I shall mention but from a somewhat different point of view than is expected from me.
When we reflect upon the educational advantages which the girls and young women of 1914 enjoy and upon the splendid opportunities which are today afforded them on every hand for obtaining a liberal education, it is with great difficulty that we can fairly appreciate the woeful lack of such advantages and opportunities a hundred years ago.
We are astonished not because they now have equal advan- tages with boys and young men in the schools, but because it has not always been so.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth very few women could read or write and the only way available to them for procuring even a rudimentary education was from private teachers, yet
26
Centennial Celebration
the doors of Oxford and Cambridge were then open to young men and had been for centuries.
In the early days of the pubHc school system, there was much debate over the propriety of the education of boys at public expense, but there was general concurrence in the belief that it was not proper for the public to educate girls at all. A solemn vote to that effect was passed at a town meeting in the Massachusetts town which is now the seat of one of the great women's colleges of the country.
Abigail, the accomplished daughter of Parson Smith, who afterwards became the wife of President John Adams, wrote of her youth that " female education in the best families goes no further than writing and arithmetic, and in some few rare instances, music and dancing," and even so much was under private teachers.
P>arry, in his History of Massachusetts, says that public education was first provided for boys only " but light soon broke in, and girls were allowed to attend the public schools two hours a day."
The town of Medford voted in 1766 that the school com- mittee " have power to agree with the school master to instruct girls two hours a day after the boys are dismissed."
In Quincy's Municipal History of P)Oston it is stated that from 1790 girls were there admitted to the jiublic schools tluring the summer months only, when there were not boys enough to fill them. In fact, girls were not admitted to the public schools at all in that city until 1789 and for only half time until 1828.
Dorchester voted in 1784 " that such girls as can read the psalter be allowed to attend the grammar school from the first day of June to the first day of October."
27
Albany Academy for Girls
Gloucester, in 1790, directed that the school masters devote two hours a day (I quote from the record) "to the instruc- tion of females — as they are a tender and interesting branch of the community, but have been much neglected in the public schools of this town."
Nathan Hale, who was the school master in New London in 1774, writes : " I have kept during the summer, a morning school between the hours of five and seven of about twenty young ladies, for which I have received twenty shillings a scholar by the quarter." That girls should be willing to go to school at as early an hour as five o'clock in the morning, shows a commendable zeal on their part for an education, but it shows more clearly the condition of public sentiment at the time, which compelled them to attend at that unreasonable hour, if they attended at all, in order that the rest of the day could be reserved for the teaching of boys — my own grand- father who was a pupil of Hale among the number.
The conditions prevailing in New York at the time, while not quite so bad, were not essentially different from those existing in New England.
In the Republic of the Netherlands, from which many of our early settlers came, schools in many places were open to girls and boys alike and were supported at public expense, yet education was far from universal.
A considerable portion of the people — men and women alike — who came to the New Netherlands, were unable to read and write. The exceptions were the clerg)-men, the very few lawyers, the office holders and the wealthy. These classes in their youths were the only ones deemed fit subjects for instruction by " Schoolmasters."
One of the early Colonial governors of New York declared
28
Centennial Celebration
that all the common people needed to know, was how to earn enough money to pay their taxes. Governors, as well as others, have improved since that day. This reflected the then prevalent English idea.
Early in the last century there was a forward movement in educational lines which was evidenced in Albany by the found- ing of the Lancaster School and of the Albany Academy for Boys, the former having been incorporated in 1812 and the latter in 1813.
These increased facilities for the training of boys led some people who had girls to educate to wonder if they had not some rights which mankind was bound to respect.
Ebenezer Foot, an eminent lawyer of the city, prompted no doubt by the dominating influence of his good wife, Betsey Foot, and by the desire of both to provide some better facili- ties for the education of their daughter than those aflforded by the elementary schools open to her, became the active leader in a movement for the organization of a school exclusively for girls. The then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, James Kent, afterwards Chancellor of the State, and other men prominent in the social, professional and business life of the city, heartily joined in the movement. They united in sub- scribing to a pa])cr agreeing to send for a year the number of " female scholars " affixed to their names to the proposed school. This paper is still in existence and may be seen at the interesting exhibit at the Alumnae Room of the Academy.
A small one-story building was erected on leased land on the east side of Montgomery street, a location which is now a portion of the N. Y. C. & TT. R. R. yard, but which was then one of the most fashionable and quiet parts of the city, and there, on May 21, 1814, ten days more than a hundred
29
Albany Academy for Girls
years ago, the Albany Female Academy — then for a short time called the Union School, was opened, with Horace Good- rich, a graduate of Union College, as principal.
Albany was then, as now, the capital of the state and had been for twenty-five years, but it had a population of only 10,000.
It was thirteen years before negro slavery was abolished in this state.
It was seventeen years before the Albany and Schenectady Railway, the first railroad to enter Albany, was opened, and twenty-one years before the first telegraph line entered the city.
It was seven and a half months before General Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans and over a year before the British and the allied troops defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
James INIadison, the fourth President of the United States, was in office.
Daniel T. Tompkins was governor of the state and only three governors, George Clinton, John Jay and Morgan Lewis, had preceded him,
Philip S. Van Rensselaer, the youngest brother of the patroon. General Stephen Van Rensselaer, was JNIayor.
There was no daily newspaper published in the city at the time. No daily Argus or Knickerbocker Press was laid at the doors of our inhabitants in the morning, nor Times-Union or Journal in the evening, therefore what we lack concerning the early history of the Academy is easily accounted for.
The school thus started was not only an innovation but an experiment. It was, however, a success from the start. iMr Goodrich was soon succeeded by Rev. Edwin James as prin-
30
Centex N I AL Celebration
cipal. He in turn gave place in 1815 to Lebbeus Booth, who was also a graduate of Union. Young women in increasing numbers knocked at its doors for admi>sion as students. The small building where it started was soon found to be inadequate.
To provide an effective governing body and to enable the institution to hold property, an act of incorporation was needed. Gideon Hawley, then Secretary of the State Board of Regents, drew the act, which was entitled " An Act to incorporate the Female Academy of the City of Albany." It was passed by the legislature and approved by Dewitt Clinton as Governor, February 16, 182 1. In the preamble of the act it is recited that " An Academy has been for some years founded in the City of Albany for the education of females, which has proved to be of great public benefit."
At the first meeting of the trustees after the incorporation, held at the house of Rev. Dr John Chester, a committee was appointed to look for a lot, to procure plans for a new Acad- emy building and to ascertain the probable expense thereof.
Matters moved with commendable speed, for within about two months a lot was purchased, Xo. 1 1 on the east side of Montgomery street, running through to Water street, not far from the site of the old building and contracts were let to erect a new one.
On the forenoon of the 26th of June. 1821, the corner stone of the new building was laid in the presence of the teacher>, the ])upils and the public with appropriate cere- monies— the Rev. Dr Chester making a prayer and the prin- cipal, Mr Booth, delivering a formal address suitable to the occasion. Under the corner stone a sealed bottle was buried
31
Albany Academy for Girls
with a roll of parchment contained in it bearing the following inscription :
" To all to whom these presents shall come " Salutem in Domino."
" Know ye, that the Albany Female Academy, the corner stone whereof is this day laid, was founded in the year of our Lord 1814; and that the same was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of the State of New York passed Feb- ruary 16, A. D. 182 1 ; whereby the following persons were con- stituted Trustees, who have accepted the trust viz : The Hon. James Kent, Chancellor of said State, President ; John V. Henry, Esq., Counsellor at Law and late Comptroller of the State ; the Rev. John Chester, Pastor of the 2nd Presbyterian Church, Albany ; Gideon Hawley, Counsellor at Law and late Superintendent of common schools of said state ; Messrs. Joseph Russell, Asa H. Center (treasurer of the institu- tion), Peter Boyd and Wm. Fowler, merchants; and Tunis
Van Vechten, Esq., Counsellor at Law.
******
" The sole design of the institution is the education of females.
" Mr Lebbeus Booth, A. M., is Principal. Mr Frederick Matthews, A. M., Assistant.
" This stone is laid in the fear of Jehovah, the God of Knowledge and commended to his protection and favor.
" Done at the City of Albany this 26th day of June, a. d., 1821.
" Chauncey Mills and Stephen J. Rider. Builders."
This corner stone and its contents are now preserved and may be seen in the study hall of the present Academy.
32
The Siicoxii Bliliung, i8ji
Centennial Celebration
The building was completed and occupied in November, 1821. The Rules and Regulations for the institution first promulgated after the incorporation provided that " the teach- ers for the present shall consist of a principal and one male and one female assistant." The i)upils were classified into three departments " according to the progress they shall have made in their education and not according to their age." It is interesting to note that in the highest department there was a course in General History as well as an epitome of Sacred and Ecclesiastical History; Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belle-lettres and Lord Kane's Elements of Criticism were taught, and also in the language of the regulations, " such parts of Paley's Moral Philosophy as are suited to the char- acter and condition of females." This was before the days when the Academy had a woman for principal and before women were chosen to serve on the board of trustees and the language employed in framing the rules was undoubtedly that of some " mere man."
Erench was added to the course in 1824 and Latin in 1825.
While serving as principal Mr Booth was married to the daughter of Ebenezer and Betsey Eoot. In deference to the " high cost of living " at the tiipe, the trustees voted that he should be paid at the rate of $100 per annum since his mar- riage, in addition to his stated salary of $1,000. to be regarded however wholly as a gratuity at the pleasure of the board and not to oblige it to pay anything if the state of the funds in the treasury did not warrant.
This generous provision for the benefit of himself and his new wife did not attract them very long, for the next year he resigned his place to establish a seminary for young ladies. at r.nllston, and was succeeded as principal by his assistant,
33
Albany Academy for Girls
Frederick Matthews. The latter served with great credit a little more than two years when he resigned. Alonzo Critten- den was chosen principal in his stead and he proved to be an excellent selection. He was a graduate of Union College and served as principal for a period of nearly twenty years with great fidelity and ability.
Soon after he took the position, the school, through his influence and that of Gideon Hawley, who was still Secretary of the Board of Regents, in December, 1827, was placed under the " visitation and control of the Regents of the University " and it thus became the first " school for females " in the state to achieve that distinction. This relation has continued ever since with a short interim between 1866 and 1873, during which time there was a shortsighted disinclination on the part of the authorities of the school to comply with some of the requirements of the Regents.
During nearly all the time of Mr Crittenden's service as principal the Academy enjoyed a high degree of prosperity. Shortly after his selection it was apparent that additional room must be provided for the growing needs of the school. Another building was accordingly erected in the rear of the main edifice and connected with it by corridors. It was com- pleted and occupied in May, 1828. They were described in the Academy circulars as " two spacious buildings erected with a particular regard to the best accommodation of the several departments." The institution, so it is stated in the circular, " is situated on Montgomery street, a street east of one of the principal business avenues of the city. * * * Perhaps no situation could have been selected better adapted to the pur- pose of such an institution, as it is unusually pleasant and retired from the ordinary confusion and noise of the city."
34
Cexte.vxial Celebration
This had reference to a location which is now adjacent to the present railroad station. It was before the days when the screechings of locomotive whistles and the noises of engine bells disturbed the quiet of the neighborhood and before the smoke arising from the burning of soft coal was present to disturb our linen and our esthetic tastes.
The " spacious buildings " in ]vIontgomery street did not serve their purpose very long. They were soon outgrown. The Academy was not driven out of them by the advent of the steam whistle but by the growth of the school.
A new site was accordingly purchased on the west side of North Pearl street, where the Drislane store is now located, and here at a cost of about ^^34,000 for lot and building, an imposing new Academy building was erected, which has always been looked back to with pride by all associated with the Academy during its occupancy. It was classic in appearance with a beautiful Hexa style portico of the Grecian Ionic order. It is stated that the proportions of the columns, capitals, bases and entablature were copied from the temple on the Ilissus, one of the most beautiful examples of the Ionic among the remains of antiquity. It was formally dedicated on May 12th, 1834, the Rev. Dr John Ludlow, then President of the Board of Trustees, delivering the dedicatory address.
W'lun this building was first occupied there were ten teachers besides the principal, and the school had increased so it was classified in six departments. There were times in that building when there were twenty teachers in the various departments and upwards of 500 pui)ils.
During the nearly sixty years of the occupancy of that building there were several changes in the principalship of the Academy. L. Sprague Parsons, A. M., succeeded Mr
35
Albany Academy for Girls
Crittenden in 1845, the latter having resigned to accept the principalship of the Brooklyn Female Academy. Mr Par- sons was a young man of 36 at the time and a graduate of Yale College. After giving satisfactory service for ten years he resigned to engage in business at Cohoes. He was suc- ceeded in 1855 by Rev. Eben S. Stearns, a graduate of Harvard, principal of the State Normal School at Framingham, Mass., and a brother of President Stearns of Amherst College. He was the efficient head of the school for thirteen years, and resigned in 1868. During a year's absence in Europe, the school was served by his assistant, Miss Caroline G. Greely, afterwards Mrs J. S. White, as principal pro tern. After he resigned she was chosen principal in his stead. She resigned after serving in that capacity for a single year, but she has the distinction of being the first woman who became principal of the Academy. Her place was taken in 1869 by Miss Louise Ostrom, who gave ten years of devoted service as head of the school. When she resigned in 1879 the mistake was made of again selecting a man for principal in the person of Wm. G. Nowell. He proved so unsatisfactory that he was asked to resign in the midst of his first school year. Miss Lucy A. Plympton, who was then successfully conducting a school for girls in the city, was then selected as principal. Her school was combined with the Academy with great benefit to both. She had the distinction of being the last principal in the old building in North Pearl street and the first in the new home for the school at 155 Washington avenue, which was occupied for the first time in 1892. V/hile she resigned her place in the school some years since, she is still with us, an honored guest of this occasion and looked up to with veneration and afifection not only by all of her former pupils,
36
Centennial Celebration
who are numbered by hundreds, but by all who have ever been favored with her acquaintance. She was succeeded in 1901 by Miss Esther Louise Camp, the present head of the Academy, under whose efficient management during the past thirteen years the school has enjoyed a remarkable degree of prosperity and has been fulfilling its high mission in the training of our young women as well as at any time in its long history.
It would be interesting, if time afforded, to make mention of many other teachers in the school, besides those who have stood at the head of it, for a large number of them have left records that deserve notice. This, however, cannot be done, but reference will be made to two whose fame is secure but whose relation to the school may have been forgotten by some.
Stephen J. Field, of Haddam, Conn., came to the Academy as an assistant teacher in 1839 and taught for several years, receiving the munificent salary of $500 per annum. He had graduated from Williams College when IMark Hopkins was president and was the valedictorian of his class. He was a son of the Rev. David Dudley Field, D. D., a brother of Cyrus W. Field, who laid the first Atlantic cable ; of David Dudley Field, the eminent lawyer ; and of Rev. Henry M. Field, the distinguished clergyman, author and editor. His sister. Mary E. Field was a pupil in the Academy before he came and was one of the prize scholars in 1838, 1839 and 1840. Another sister was the mother of the late David J. Brewer. Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In the report of the Academy to the Regents in 1840. in making mention of the teachers then employed, it is said: " Stephen J. Field is about twenty-one years of age. a graduate of Williams Col-
37
Albany Academy for Girls
lege, Mass., has been a teacher most of the time for the last three years and has the practice of law ultimately in view." He had in fact studied law for a time in the office of Har- manus Bleecker, and while here also he was in the office of John Van Buren, afterwards Attorney-General, who then had his law office on State street. That he succeeded as a lawyer after he left the service of the Academy is evident from his subsequent career. He went to California in the early days, soon after his admission to the bar and became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that state. While serving in that office he was appointed by President Lincoln in 1863 as Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and served in that great court for thirty-four years, a service longer than that of any other man since the organization of the court, not even excepting the great Chief Justice, John Marshall, who served for thirty-three years. A splendid oil portrait of Judge Field adorns the study hall of the Academy, a gift from the well known artist who painted it, the late Asa W. Twitchell.
A teacher in the Academy who gave his life to the cause of science should not be forgotten. Dr August Sonntag. while serving as Associate Director of Dudley Observatory under Gen. Ormsby McKnight Mitchell, who was Director of that institution, was the teacher of Astronomy in the Academy. He and Dr Isaac I. Hayes had been members of Dr Kane's expedition which returned from the Arctic regions in 1855. Dr Hayes organized an expedition in i860 to complete the survey of the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell land and to make such explorations as he could find practicable in the direction of the North Pole. He deemed himself for- tunate in securing the consent of his former companion and
38
Centennial Celebration
friend, Dr Sonntag, to accompany him as astronomer and second in command. At the commencement exercises of the Academy held on June 22, i860, Prof. Stearns, the principal, in a formal address, presented Dr Sonntag with a splendid national flag on behalf of the young ladies of the graduating class, as a testimonial of their personal regard and in appre- ciation of the excellence of his instructions. Dr Sonntag made a feeling response and promised to plant the flag at the nearest point to the pole which the expedition could reach. Two weeks afterwards, bearing the flag with him. he sailed from Boston in the Schooner United States with Dr Hayes, on the voyage of discovery. In December following, just after passing the long Arctic midnight, Dr Sonntag started out from winter quarters at " Port Foulke " on the west coast of Greenland, with a team of dogs and a single Esqui- mau companion on a journey across the ice from a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles distant southerly to Northum- berland Island in search for dogs, for all those, belonging to the expedition, except one team, had been carried off by an epidemic among them during the winter.
Dr Hayes, in his " Open Polar Sea," under date of Decem- ber 2^, 1860, the next day after his companion had loft on this journey, writes : " I had a strange dream last night, which I cannot help mentioning; and were 1 disposed to super- stition, it might incline me to read in it an omen of evil. I stood with Sonntag far out on the frozen sea. when sud- denly a crash was heard through the darkness, and in an instant a crack opened in the ice between us. It came so sud- denly and widened so rapidly that he could not spring over it to where 1 stood, and he sailed away ui)on the dark waters of a troubled sea. I last saw him standing firmly upon the
39
Albany Academy for Girls
crystal raft, his erect form cutting sharply against a streak of light which lay upon the distant horizon."
New Year's day came and Dr Hayes began to look anxiously for the return of his friend, but as he knew of his desire to study the language and habits of the natives he was not greatly surprised at his delay. A full month passed and still no tid- ings came. It came to be evident that Sonntag had met with an accident or had been detained in some unaccountable man- ner among the natives. Unavailing efforts were made with the meager means at hand to learn what had happened. Just as an expedition was starting out upon a search, two Esqui- maux came to the ship with the information that Sonntag was dead. Two days later his sole companion came back and reported that, having become chilled by riding on the sledge, he sprang off and ran ahead of the dogs to warm himself with the exercise. He came upon thin ice covering a recently opened tide crack, which he stepped on unawares and broke through. His companion was able to rescue him from the water but he died the same day from the exposure. Dr Hayes' dream had become a prophecy realized. A few weeks afterwards his body was recovered and brought back to the ship with some difficulty. A neat coffin was made, the Academy flag was used as a pall, a burial service was read by Dr Hayes and his remains were lowered to their last rest- ing place in a grave dug in the frozen terrace. Afterwards a neatly shaped mound of stones was built over the grave and a chiseled slab was erected bearing a cross and the words :
August Sonntag
Died December i860 Aged 28 years
40
Centennial Celebration
" And Iiere," says Dr Hayes, " in the drear solitude of the Arctic desert our comrade sleeps the sleep that knows no waking in this troubled world — where no loving hands can ever come to strew his grave with flowers, nor eyes grow dim with sorrowing; but the gentle stars, which in life he loved so well, will keep over him eternal vigil, and the winds will wail over him, and Nature, his mistress, will drop upon his tomb her frozen tears forevermore."
Dr Hayes reports that on May i8 and 19, 1861, when he had arrived at the most northern land which up to that time had ever been reached (latitude 81° 35', longitude 70° 30' W.) the flags which he bore, including the one which had been committed to Dr Sonntag by the ladies of the Albany Female Academy, were unfurled to the breeze and remained while his party were building a cairn to mark the spot.
Dr Hayes, whom it was my pleasure to know well, when many years afterwards he served as a member of Assembly in this state, carefully guarded the flag and brought it back to the Academy in October, 1862, as an almost sacred memento of the loved teacher and friend who had gone out from us, never to return, but never to be forgotten.
The Academy made a radical change in location in 1892. Instead of Pearl street being the (|uiet residence thorough- fare which it formerly was it had become one of the chief commercial centers of the city, the street was congested with business traffic and trolley cars were many and frequent. It had become unsuited to a girls' school, and it was determined to move to the hill. The residence of the late Amos P. Palmer at 155 Washington aveiuie was purchased and the present commodious school building was erected in the rear of the dwelling with an entrance from the street. The expense
41
Albany Academy for Girls
of the new property was met from the proceeds of the sale of the Pearl street property, which had largely increased in value, and by the generous contributions of our citizens. Here the school has had its home ever since.
In deference to a cjuite prevalent sentiment among its teachers, students and younger graduates, the Legislature, in 1906, changed the corporate name from the Albany Female Academy to the Albany Academy for Girls. (Ch. 15, Laws 1906.)
The success of the Academy during its century of existence is undoubtedly chiefly due to its several principals who have served it so faithfully and to the devoted teachers who have assisted them in one capacity or another, but on an occasion like this it seems fitting to make brief personal mention of some of its officers and trustees who have guided its business interests and looked after its material welfare.
Its first president w^as the great equity Judge, Chancellor James Kent, whose name is revered w^ith that of Sir William Blackstone, as the two really great commentators on the Eng- lish Common Law. He was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1798. The next year he removed from his home in New York to Albany to be more centrally located on his circuit and as he said. "' not to be too much from home." He had been married at twenty- one, to use his own words, " to a charming and lovely girl," Elizabeth Bailey, who was, as he says, the " idol and solace " of his life. This undoubtedly accounts for his not desiring to be too much from home, and also for the fact that he resided here in 1804 when appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and in 1814 when appointed Chancellor of the State. He was one of the founders of the school that his
42
Centennial Celebration
daughter might have its advantages and he served as presi- dent of the Academy until he retired from liis judicial office on December 31, 1823. He returned to his old home in New York after a residence here of nearly twenty-five years, but during all the remainder of his life retained a deep interest in the Academy.
Since his day there have been nine presidents of the board of trustees, four of whom, in succession, were eminent clerg}men of the city and after them five who were or had been Justices of the Supreme Court, one of whom had also been Governor of the state.
Chancellor Kent was succeeded in 1824 as president by Rev. Dr John Chester, who was a graduate of Yale College in the class with James Fenimore Cooper and \'ice-President and Senator John C. Calhoun. Dr Chester w-as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church here at the time of his election. He was a man of ample fortune, which he dispensed with a generosity that apparently was never exhausted. Of him it has been said that " the loveliness of his character, the purity of his life and the faithfulness of his ministry " left an im- press upon this city that has borne fruit for its betterment ever since.
He was followed, upon his death in 1829. by the selection as president of Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D.. pastor of the Second Reformed Church — then located on Beaver street but now situated at the corner of Madison avenue and Swan street.
Rev. John Ludlow, D. D., i)astor of the I'irst Reformed Church at the corner of Xorth Pearl and Orange streets, suc- ceeded Dr l*"erris as president when the latter was compelled to resign on account of ill health in 1831. When he resigned
43
Albany Academy for Girls
the office in 1834 Dr Ferris, with restored heahh, was again chosen to fill his old position.
He laid it down again in 1836 and Rev. Dr John N. Camp- bell, then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church — and after- wards Regent of the University — was chosen as his successor. He held the office nearly seven years and then resigned at a time when the institution was passing through perhaps the most troublesome times in its history.
The Academy had been organized as a strictly non-sectarian school where young women, whether Protestant or Catholic, Gentile or Jew, would be received on equal terms and enjoy equal privileges. This idea happily has always been promi- nent in the school and while the upbuilding of high moral character in the pupils has always been its highest aim, no student, it is believed, has ever had just cause to complain because of any attempt to influence her religious convictions. The non-denominational and non-sectarian character of the school has been, next to the devotion of its teachers, its greatest source of strength.
To make this idea more pronounced no clerg}'man has ever since the resignation of Dr Campbell been chosen a president although many have since served as trustees.
The business and financial troubles through which the Academy were passing induced the selection of Greene C. Bronson as president in 1843. He accepted the office at a considerable sacrifice. He had been Attorney-General of the State, was then serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court and was soon afterwards appointed Chief Justice.
When he retired from the bench he removed to New York and was succeeded as president in 1850 by ex-Governor Wm. L. Marcy, one of the most eminent jurists and statesmen of
44
Centexxial Celebration
the country. He had served as a Heutenant in the war of 1812. He had been the Adjutant General and Comptroller of the State and Regent of the University. He had served with credit for several years as Justice of the Supreme Court and as United States Senator. While holding the latter office he was elected as Governor of the state and served as such for three terms. He ran for a fourth term but was defeated by Wm. H. Seward. He was Secretary of War in President Polk's cabinet and Secretary of State in President Pierce's.
When he retired as president of the board of trustees in 1855 he was succeeded by Judge Amasa J. Parker, who held the office for twenty-four years, and he in turn was succeeded in 1879 by Judge William L. Learned, who held it for twenty- five years.
Judge Parker had a remarkable career as a lawyer, states- man and jurist. He held the offices of Surrogate and District Attorney of Delaware County and also Member of the Assem- bly. He was also Member of Congress, Regent of the Uni- versity, Circuit Judge, Justice of the Supreme Court and as such served for two years in the Court of Appeals. He was twice the candidate of his party for Governor of the state and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867.
Judge Learned was an able scholar and a distinguished jurist. He was a graduate of Yale College and for twenty- three years was a Justice of the Supreme Court, during seven- teen of which he was the presiding Justice of the General Term of that court, in the Third Department.
Upon his death in 1904 he was succeeded as president by the present incumbent of the office.
The Academy was organized under the act of incorpora- tion, as a stock corporation with shares of $50 each. The
45
Albany Academy for Girls
buildings which it erected in Montgomery street and Pearl street were largely paid for by the proceeds of the sale of stock. Annual dividends of six per cent, were paid on the stock for a number of years and a considerable surplus was applied to the purchase of a library and apparatus for the school. The cost of the Pearl street building and lot was considerably more than the highest estimates and the trustees in consequence incurred debts amounting to over $18,000. After carrying this burden for a number of years they deter- mined that no more dividends should be declared until all debts were paid. This resulted in some criticism among a few of the subscribers to the stock and in a call for a general meeting of stockholders. At this meeting a committee of stockholders who were not trustees was appointed to examine into the condition of the Academy. The report of this com- mittee was presented at a later meeting, which was largely attended, which was held at the Academy March 15, 1843, and after a full discussion it was, with only a few dissenting votes, voted " that the stockholders are satisfied with the man- agement and mode of conducting the institution by the trustees and with the integrity, ability and faithfulness of the prin- cipal and teachers and that the Academy deserves the public support and confidence which has heretofore so eminently distinguished it."
During this controversy, the Rev. Dr Campbell resigned as trustee and president of the board, because of dift'erences he had with Alonzo Crittenden, who had then for nineteen years been principal of the school. Dr Campbell was succeeded as president, in 1843. ^y Ji^'<^lge Greene C. Bronson and ]Mr Crit- tenden gave way to L. Sprague Parsons as principal in 1845. They came to the Academy in the darkest hour of its existence
46
Cextexxial Celebration
when it was borne down with this heavy debt and when it was embroiled with many contentions of a more or less bitter char- acter, which seemed at times to threaten its very existence. Prior to 1850, when Judge Bronson resigned to go to Xew York to live, the entire debt was paid, harmony of action was restored and the institution entered upon a new career of prosperity. The spirit which prompted those most directly concerned in the financial affairs of the school was shown within a few years by the great liberality of the stockholders in cheerfully relinquishing all expectations of dividends from the institution other than those to be derived by the entire com- munity, from the elevated standard of education maintained by it. From that day to the present its certificates of stock have been held as interesting souvenirs of its early history ; there has been nothing of the " proprietory " order about the Academy and all its income has been devoted to the promotion of its welfare and of the pupils intrusted to its care.
In the long list of names of those who have served as trustees there are many worthy of mention on an occasion like this, but the limits of time forbid. An exception must be made, however, with respect to two.
One of these, Thomas W. Olcott. served as such for forty- six years, from 1834 until his death in 1880. He appeared first as a subscriber for capital stock and a patron of the school in 1828. When he thus early became interested in the Academy, it found a valued friend. When he accepted mem- bership in its board of trustees it liad a safe adviser and one who was able and ever ready, in storm as well as in sunshine, to guide its course aright. His zeal in its interest and his generosity led him to purchase the shares of many fault-find- ing stockholders, in order to eliminate their infiuence. He
47
Albany Academy for Girls
came to be regarded by general consent as the great banker of Albany. He was, as well, a financier with a reputation second to none in the entire country. In 1863 he declined the office of First Comptroller of the Currency, tendered to him by President Lincoln. He would hold no office either in the gift of the state or in that of the board of trustees, but he was a man that all officers looked up to for guidance and direction. When the Academy was passing through the finan- cial vicissitudes following the debts it had incurred in build- ing the North Pearl street edifice, while it was struggling with dissatisfied stockholders whose dividends had ceased, and when the president and several trustees resigned their posi- tions, he it was who influenced his friends, Judge Bronson to take the presidency, and Governor William L. Marcy to come into the board as trustee. It did not take long for names and men like these to bring back confidence where it was lack- ing. Restored confidence soon brought new students in great numbers and increased revenues and in turn an elimination of the entire debt. It was Mr Olcott's influence and guidance, supported by these true friends, that brought sunshine out of shadow and laid the foundations of financial stability upon which the institution has ever since stood. His great service to the Academy has not only been reflected but added to by his sons, the late Comptroller Frederick P. Olcott as evi- denced by his generous gift of $25,000 to its endowment, and Dudley Olcott, who has served for thirty-five years and is still serving as a valued trustee and the treasurer of the Endowment Fund.
The other trustee I must mention was the late Ira Harris, Justice of the Supreme Court and United States Senator from this state. He served in the board a period of forty-three
48
Centennial Celebration
years from 1833 to his death in 1876. During this long period he gave the benefit of his legal advice freely to the institution and was the successful attorney for the board in the annoy- ing suit brought in 1833 against the Academy by Dr Wm. Bay the owner of the adjoining property on the north of its Pearl street building, to compel it to remove the beautiful Ionic portico then being erected, as an obstruction to the street and a nuisance to his property. That this portico and its columns were erected in accordance with the original design of the architect, and graced the building during all the subsequent years of its occupancy by the Academy is due largely to the legal acumen of its long time friend and trustee. Ira Harris.
Besides Mr Dudley Ulcott. one other of the present board of trustees, Dr Samuel B. Ward, has also served for thirty- five years. Dr Frederic P. Curtis has a record of over twenty-two years as a trustee; Mr Benjamin \\'. Arnold and the speaker of seventeen years ; Airs George Douglas Miller and Mrs George P. Hilton of fourteen years ; Mr J. Townsend Lansing and Mr Charles J- Buchanan of twelve years; Mr Joseph A. Lawson of ten years ; Rev. Dr Charles A. Rich- mond of seven years, and Dr Edgar A. \'ander Veer of three years. Air Wm. L. Learned Peltz has within this month been elected to succeed David A. Thompson who recently resigned after twenty-two years' service as trustee, during twenty of which he was the faithful secretary of the board.
In calling the roll of those who have aided in making the history of the Academy what it is I nuist not fail to mention a few who never held any official relation to it but yet have given substantial aid as members of examining committees and upon commencement occasions.
Millard Filmore, President of the United States. General
49
Albany Academy for Girls
John A. Dix. Secretary of State and Superintendent of Com- mon Schools, afterwards Governor of the State, as well as Governors William H. Seward, Silas Wright and Samuel J. Tilden, each served upon committees to award prizes. Judge Alfred Conkling, father of Roscoe Conkling, John Van Buren, " Prince John," as he was called, son of President Van Buren, John C. Spencer, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury, Alfred B. Street and John G. Saxe. the poets, Joel T. Headley, the historian, Erastus D. Palmer, the sculp- tor, Thurlow Weed, the editor and politician, Thomas Hun, the physician, Amos Dean, the author and scholar, Lyman Tremain and Hamilton Harris, the lawyers and statesmen, Robert H. Pruyn, Senior, Lieutenant-Governor and Minister to Japan, Sanford E. Church, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, General Stewart L. Woodford, Lieutenant-Governor and orator, Daniel S. Dickinson, United States Senator, and Right Rev. William Croswell Doane, late Bishop of Albany, each served in the same capacity and some of them many times. Elaborate reports showing the results of their labors, the reasons for their conclusions and giving the names of the young ladies who were the fortunate winners, were read at the commencements by them and are spread upon the minutes of the trustees.
The Academy has now concluded a hundred years of its his- tory. It has the unique distinction of being the pioneer school in the entire country for the better education of women which has maintained a continuous existence throughout the century, and also of being the first school for girls in the state to come under the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents. The past, considering the many difficulties that have been sur- mounted, has been one of remarkable success. No institution
50
Cextexxial Celebration
has trained better girls or trained them better than this. Its graduates are scattered all over the world, and no better type of womanhood can be found anywhere than that represented by them. No one can begin to measure the achievements that have been wrought as a result of the teachings they have received.
The school has now entered upon its second century. What of its future? May it not receive inspiration from its past history and strive for still better results in the years to come. Sheridan once said : " On the cultivation of the mind of women depends the wisdom of men." This may be conceded and may it be an added inspiration. May the Academy go on with still higher aims and continue in the future as in the past to be a most potent agency in this community in developing a type of as near perfect a womanhood among its pupils, as is possible to be attained, to the end that all coming under its influence — men and women alike — shall reap the beneficent results of its good work.
51
Albany Academy for Girls
The Responsibilities of Educated Women
Flavel S. Luther, LL.D.
Mr Chairman, Members of the Board of Trustees and Fellow Citisenesses:
Not only because of the emergency character of the speaker, but also by virtue of the text of his topic, he is scarcely fitted for an educational address of this sort. I have been teaching now for a matter of forty-four years, and it so happens that only during one of these years, the very first one, I made any attempt whatever to teach girls, and that attempt was somewhat unhappy in some of its results. It took place only about five or six miles from where we are gathered now. It was at the Parish School of the Episcopal Church of what was then West Troy, N. Y. I had some twenty boys and some twenty girls. It seemed to me there were two thousand of them. I was then about twenty years of age and the girls were not less than seventeen or eighteen. I had a rather unhappy time. Since then I have put myself in charge of one single girl and she has been educating me ever since.
However, I suppose, after all. the story of the education of girls in this country is to follow along pretty nearly the lines of the story of the education of boys and young men in this country. There is no doubt about that, as you have just heard the accounts from that historical address to which we have all listened with such pleasure. And how much we might have learned out of it.
52
Centennial Celebration
Now I did not know before that my fellow citizen of Con- necticut, Nathan Hale, whose old schoolhouse is only a few miles from Trinity College, had to teach school at five o'clock in the morning. Don't you suppose that goes some little way toward an explanation of the singular cheerfulness with which he went to the gallows? But, when you come to think of it, education in the modern sense of the word is for boys and girls alike and it is yet modern in spite of your one hundred year old school. What a hundred years it has been ! Why, the difference between 1814 and 1914 is indefinitely more than the difference between 1814 and no hundred and 14. Bar- ring gun powder and the printing press the activities and conditions of life changed more in this century that has just been completed than they changed from the days of Julius Caesar to the time when this school was founded. Medical treatment in 1814 was not a bit better. George Washington's surgeon did no better for him than Julius Caesar's surgeon might have done for him. Now I do not really suppose that the whole development of these modern times, of this nine- teenth century civilization of ours with its wonderful scientific and economic achievements is due to the intluencc of this school, with whose prosperity and welfare we are so much concerned. You did not do it all, but it has pretty much all taken place within this century of school life of yours, and so I cannot help thinking that perha|)s from the inspiration that founded this school and founded at the same time, or a little before and a little after, other schools for men and women, has arisen the astonishing progress that has been made in this and other countries where education on a higher scale has been made the feature of the history of the la-t century, and particularly the last half century.
53
Albany Academy for Girls
We have in this country a great many things we can be proud of, and a number of things of which w'e need not be so proud. It is not true that we have the best school system, for our schools are not as good as the schools of Germany and France, and they are not as good as some of the schools in Italy. But I believe we are responsible for this theory that it is the business of the state somehow to educate everybody. There have been schools a long while, but it was America that first said everyone shall go to school. Some other nations have said that, but they said it after we did. Now that was a great and wonderful step in human development.
Think what the State does. It says to the father and mother, this is not your boy ; this is not your girl ; it belongs to us. That child is going to school whether you like it or not, father or mother. That child is going to study certain things, whether you approve of them or not, parents. That child is going to some school until a certain age and we are going to teach him. We are responsible, and you " go way back and sit down." Now that is a wonderful thing for the State to have said. Most of the states in this nation of ours have said so, and the wonder is that the people take it as calmly as they do. I wonder that in the beginning of things they submitted to it without a great deal of protest and trouble, for it was a new thing not known to mankind. It was a new thought in the evolution of civilization. It was the beginning of a new day for humanity. The State says, these children are ours and they shall be trained; some, any- how ; and I wish they would train them a good deal more.
Now, as I say, there have been schools for a long, long while; only lately schools for everybody, but schools of some kind, and they have had two diverse objects, as to the relative
54
Centennial Celebration
importance of which teachers have been quarreling ever since there were pedagogues.
There were the schools of ancient Athens, splendid schools producing an intellectual type which perhaps has scarcely been equalled in any race or in any nation since, the result of which was something very fine ; trained with a cultured intel- lect, with a capacity to appreciate the beautiful, with an under- standing of art, with a taste and capacity for literature that, as I said before, has scarcely been equalled since. That was the Greek idea of the training of men. They did not train the women. It was the training of the man so that he shall be a pleasant comi)anion, so that he shall be separated from the common herd, so that he shall be a joy to himself, so that he shall be a fine specimen of the human race. That was the Greek idea. Well, the years passed on and the Roman power dominated the world and they had their theory of education, which was the training of men to be the servants of the state ; they were trained as to their efficiency in the upbuilding of the republic and later of the empire. That was the Roman idea, to make a servant. The Greek ideal was self-improve- ment. The Roman ideal was self-sacrifice. Those were the two tendencies in education which struggled against each other then and which have been struggling against each other ever since. Then, in the time which we call the dark ages, the monastic schools kept alive the torch of learning and. the schools of knighthood preserved the spirit of conservation to service.
Those are the two o])posing opinions of what education is for. one which says the intent of education is to i)ro(luce an individual finer than the rest, able to appreciate art. literature and science ; able to be a friend of those who are like him-
55
Albany Academy for Girls
self, able to understand and enjoy much more than his less fortunate neighbors. That is the kind of education which produces culture. The other kind is that which has in view the service of the people when the school education has ceased, which says we teach you all these things not in order that you shall get more out of the world than you otherwise would, but so that you shall be able and willing to put more into the world than you otherwise could, and that is the idea of the Roman education, the schooling of boys and girls for some kind of service. Let me illustrate that to you, as I want to leave this point with you, that there are two different kinds of education. Perhaps some of you do not appreciate the dis- tinction between an education which makes an individual something fair to look upon and an education which makes the individual better able to serve human kind. Let me illustrate that to you by two little pieces of carbon. Here is the story of the first one : in a geological period prior to our own it was fused at a tremendous heat and while it was in that liquid state there fell upon it a pressure more tremendous than the utmost resources of modern mechanical science can produce. Then this piece of carbon began to cool. It grew dark and with this great weight upon it each particle, one after another, sought its place in the crystal. It is brought to light at last — a diamond — fit ransom for a king or token from the emperor to his bride. It glitters beautifully. It reflects from its many facets the light that falls upon it, but it gives no light itself. Now this other bit of carbon had also its •experience. It was ground to powder. It was mingled with chemicals. It was manipulated by deft fingers. It was driven through minute apertures till it became a slender thread. It was imprisoned within a vacuum typifying the isolation
56
Centennial Celebration
within which dwells each human soul. Then it was placed where most it is needed, and. thrilling to the subtle currents developed by a mighty power, it shines in the dark places. It gives out light for the sons and daughters of men. So the two kinds of education make the diamond or the electric light. Both have their functions, but for myself I would rather be able to give light than to refract it.
Now it seems to me that is the one great thing which edu- cation is for — to produce those who will give light, who will brighten the darkness of life, who will make brilliant those places where mankind has been stumbling for years. It is that, it seems to me, which the educated women and all other educated persons must do. Women have a very special ser- vice to render to society and to this nation. It would be unbecoming in me, a stranger, to undertake at sucii a time as this to say what I may think as to questions in dispute, but I am going this far and say that I do not believe that really for the last two thousand years, since Jesus Christ came, man's attitude toward woman has been wrong. I believe in chivalry, in protection, in tenderness, in the Christian home. Now it seems to me that in these late years our women are being sacrificed. I do not like to see the great stream of girls and young women at morning and night pour into and out of our great dej^artment stores. I do not like to see that long pro- cession of young women, not so well dressed as the others, who morning and night pour into and out of our factories. I believe that there is something better for them to live for, something more beautiful. 1 believe that tiiey can expand their lives more nobly, more beautifully, and more to advan- tage of mankind by doing something else than that. Now do you ask me what? Upon my word I do not know.
57
Albany Academy for Girls
Don't you educated women care? Won't you try to find out what is the function of the modern woman in the modern world? That it is to be something different all signs seem to show, for we have observed great changes in the organization of society, and changes which affect the position and the privi- leges of womankind affect the other half of mankind. Isn't that obvious? But what I mean to say to you is that you chil- dren, you educated women, must find out what the solution is of the problem which is leading to so much of unrest in these days of ours, because, as always has been the case, what you women w^ant you are going to get. Xow what do you w^ant and why do you want it? Are you satisfied with the perform- ances of your sisters in England? Is that what you want? I dare say no. I am not satisfied with any proposition that has been made looking to the change of woman's relation to society. Are you quite sure that you know just what you want? Are you quite sure that you are ready to submit to sacrifice, that you are willing to devote your lives to noble things ; are you willing to grow up in luxur}', or are you will- ing to put out of your life much of this which is pleasant, because the responsibility of the educated woman is one of service? Oh, that is for you to decide, and you must do something worth while, my dear friends.
Now I think the history of the education of girls and W'Omen is going to be something like the history of the edu- cation of boys and men. For many years, perhaps many centuries, it was supposed that the reason for the education of a boy or a young man w-as to better him as compared with his fellows, to get him out of the common herd so that he would not have to work so hard, so that he would not have to work so long, so that he would not have to work so cheaply.
58
Centex xiAL Celebration
That was supposed to be the reason for educating him. Xow we are beginning to find out that you cannot expect a man to do anything worth while unless you educate him ; that every branch of employment that it is worth while for a man to devote his energies to is a learned profession. When I was in college they used to say there were only three learned pro- fessions. Why, there are twenty-five or thirty now. There isn't anything that a man does that he cannot do better if he is trained for it, if he has a school training for it, and that feeling is to increase the appreciation of the uniform dignity of all kinds of labor. There is not any profession that is any more dignified than any other profession. There is absolutely no more advantage in getting your fingers stained with ink than there is in getting them stained with oil. The question is which man will wash them first.
Now I think that as we have come to see that education, and a considerable amount of education, is necessary for the higher development of the man's side of this civilization of ours ; so too I think that you ladies and you girls have got to find out that you also are not educated in order that you may be set aside, that you still are in close contact with those women who have not had any such training, and that you will not have a satisfactory solution of these diflftculties until you have educated them too. In training a girl for a saleswoman she has got to know the details of a profession. I hope she won't have to. The factory girl has got to understand mechan- ical engineering if she goes to work in a factory. I hope she won't have to ; it is not going to be necessary. Womankind is to be the salvation of women in society. You women with mind and education cannot pull yourselves away from your sisters down in the shops and factories. If you do you are shirking
59
Albany Academy for Girls
the highest responsibility of the educated woman of the twen- tieth century. Oh, what a beautiful task that is of yours, you women who are educated, to lift up your own half of the human race, and then lift us up also, if you can. It will be a big job — a very big job — there is no end to it.
Why, ladies, when I think of what this world might be, when I think it might be so much finer, I wonder that you care so much for four o'clock teas. What are you going to do with all these sisters of yours, you educated women? These are your responsibilities. What do you suppose God and man gave you education for? Just so that you could enjoy yourselves? Just so that you could have a good time? Just so that you could appreciate art and science and litera- ture ? Don't think so for a minute. It was given to you with the prayer and with the command that you share it with all the others and see that somehow it shall be made to count for the lifting up of others, even to those serene heights of life in which you so contentedly dwell.
There is no kind of work that w^omen can do which they shall not be let to do if they want to. But the beautiful things in life, the sweet things in life, the noble, honorable, dignified things in life which you educated women can com- municate to civilization in so many ways by helping your own sisters as well as your own daughters ! Those are the things that are going to count.
I am glad to know that this old, old school has so prospered during this century that is gone. It is a long while and yet there are here and there single lives that cover the whole of it. You are very modern after all.
I have talked about the past hundred years and I will say this for the next hundred years — I don't want you to think
60
Centennial Celebration
I am only half through my speech. I am very nearly through, but I am very much concerned about the next hundred years. I would like to live until 2014. for I know full well that you will get an education here and I hope for the prosperity of this school for all these coming years. I know that those of you in the little crowd here to my left hand (the pupils) are going to do a good deal better than we have done. How I should like to see the outcome of it all.
I don't know and I don't care very much whether women vote or not. I don't know and I don't care very much whether women should take up this profession or that as a part of their work. I do know and do care very much that women who have been educated in our schools shall care for their sisters, they shall lift up the feeble ones.
Did you ever think that in all the history of the world the sun, moon and stars have never looked down on this earth upon one single nation, one single state, one single city that was educated ; not one community that was educated, in all the history of the w'orld ? What do you suppose it would be like? What would Albany or Hartford be like if every man, every woman, and every child of sixteen years and upwards had a thorough school training, the training of the head, train- ing of the hands, training of the character, a thorough school education? It would be something different from anything that has ever existed on this earth. T think it would be some- thing better than ever has existed on this earth. Now I want you educated women to think about that and consider if it is not worth while to try to bring about a time when all your sisters and all your sisters' little brothers shall be educated, trained, made better citizens and citizenesses. They should know and they should understand. You who are educated
61
Albany Academy for Girls
women, and upon whom rests so heavily the responsibility of deciding whether other women shall be educated, should decide what you want as your share in the life of the nation, and when you do decide then you will get it.
62
Cextex n I al Celebration
Address
Governor Martin H. Glynn
Fifty years ago, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of this Academy, Governor Seymour was privileged to address the graduating class. Fifty years later the Governor of the State finds himself honored by an invitation to take part in the celebration of your hundredth anniversary.
Looking about me at this galaxy of beauty, grace and charm, I cannot but feel that you are discriminating against the executive department of the State government. Instead of inviting the Governor here twice in a century, you ought to invite him twice in a year.
I consider it an honor to be present to-night. The fact that you are celebrating the centennial of the school's exist- ence makes this an important occasion, in this new land of ours there are not many institutions which can lay claim to a century of continuous existence. The humorists assure us that the feminine mind inclines to conceal age rather than to boast of it. I do not believe that this is a peculiarly feminine attribute myself, but at any rate the graduates of this .Academy are perennially fresh and charming, even if the institution which they adorn grows older with the years.
The teachers and students of this academy have reason to be proud of the centenary which they celebrate to-night. It is not only the centenary of the founding of this particular school, but it is the centenary of the beginning of higher edu- cation for girls. It is true that some of the academies organ-
63
Albany AciVDEMY for Girls
ized in the last decades of the eighteenth century were open to girls. Leicester Academy, which was founded in 1784, and Westford, which was started in 1793, received members of the gentle sex, but these were primarily academies for boys and gave instruction to girls only as a sort of complement to their other activities ; but the Albany Academy properly enjoys the distinction of being the first school designed only for girls, as it was founded nine years before the Derry Academy in Xew Hampshire, which is accustomed to claim the distinction which belongs to you.
Not only is your history long, but it is distinguished as well. There is nothing particularly admirable in age if it has noth- ing to commend it but its years. It is only when age can look back upon achievement and progress that it may incite admi- ration and command respect. The progress of this Academy, the friends it has won, the distinguished names that are linked with its story, are eloquent proof of a century of accomplish- ment.
The academy has been fortunate in its friends, in its teach- ers, and in its students, and the best proof of the worth of the institution is the affectionate esteem in which it has ever been held by those who have graduated from its halls.
In its particular field, the Albany Academy has done its part in the movement for the better education of women. A pioneer in this great movement, it has maintained the high- est standards and been worthy of the highest ideals of the new dispensation. It can look back with pride on the trans- formation it has helped to work during the last century. It can compare present opportunities for feminine development with a not distant past, in which woman was looked upon as unworthy of education.
64
11 H rUi;.>F.N 1 I'.l II.IMM
Centennial Celebration
The changes during the last hundred years in the legal rights of women, which the lawyers sum up as the change from status to contract, have seen a similar change in the educational opportunities of women. To-day there is no avenue of education open to a boy of which his sister may not avail herself. The world has awakened to the needless- ness of wasting the intellects of its girls. It has put away the notion that a wife or mother is less capable because her mind has been developed, her interests broadened and her energies trained, and it has been rewarded by the development of such authors as Myra Kelly, such scientists as Madam Curie and such citizens as Jane Addams. Samuel Johnson, the encyclopedic Englishman, said that a woman made the better wife and better mother for being educated ; Boswell, his biographer, contended she did not ; but, as in nearly every- thing else, the world has decided that Johnson was right and Boswell was wrong.
There is to me no more encouraging sign of modern pro- gress, no more convincing proof of modern development than the position which woman is now assuming in our social and economic life. Lincoln said that no nation could exist half slave and half free, and it seems to me equally true that no nation can live up to its opportunities which is half educated and half uneducated, half trained and half untrained, half developed and half undeveloped.
It is a truism that a nation's welfare is founded on the wel- fare of its homes and that these homes are made by the wives and mothers who shed their radiance there. And the wife who has received the benefit of a liberal education, who has a lively and intelligent interest in the broad world about her, can exercise an influence within the walls of her home which
65
Albany Academy for Girls
will make it a citadel from which soldiers of truth and right may go forth to battle and to victory.
The ideal woman is the aim of the Albany Academy for Girls, and for a hundred years this school has tried to attain what Holmes so gloriously writes of in the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, what Dickens portrays in the lovable char- acter of Agnes in David Copperfield, and what Cowper sings of in the glorious poem of My Mother's Picture.
For a hundred years this school has gathered the knowledge blossoms of the ages and handed them to her daughters with plentiful fruitage. For a hundred years this school has nur- tured the garden of girlhood until it has burst into the flower of womanhood. For a hundred years this school has gathered the myrrh of life with the spice and given to her daughters the honeycomb of science with the honey of art for food, and the wine of poetry with the milk of morality for drink. For a hundred years this school has kept her head among the stars until her tresses are moistened with heaven's dew and her eyes illuminated by heaven's light. To-night we crown the old age of this school with an everlasting youth adorned with noble accomplishments. To-night we mingle the youth and age of this school and watch them walk hand in hand down the corridors of time, more accomplished wdth the growing years, more cultivated through experience, more wise by the passage of time, and more and more possessed of the finest fruits of the learning of the world.
66
Centennial Celebration
In Memory of Eben S. Stearns
At the Alumnae Reunion announcement was made of a gift to the Academy's Endowment Fund of $2,525.00 in memory of the late Professor Eben S. Stearns, who was prin- cipal of the school from 1855 to 1868. In grateful acknowl* edgment of Mr. Stearns's high service and abiding influence, graduates and undergraduates who had been his pupils and other friends joined heartily in this tribute.
The sources of the contributions were as follows:
Class of 1857 $50
Class of 1859 10
Class of i860 30
Class of 1862 45
Class of 1863 5
Class of 1864 583
Class of 1865 20
Class of 1866 780
Class of 1867 80
Class of 1868 36
Class of 1869 50
Class of 1871 7
Class of 1872 10
Class of 1873 I
Class of 1874 5
Class of 1875 I
From undergraduates and other friends.. 812
Total S2.525
67
Centennial Celebration
Albany Academy for Girls
Founded 1814
Incorporated February 16, 1821, as Albany Female Academy (Chap. 53, Laws 1821)
Name changed to Albany Academy for Girls by Chap. 15, Laws 1906
PRESENT OFFICERS
Alden Chester President
Miss Esther Louise Camp Principal
Joseph A. Lawson Secretary
Miss Esther Louise Camp Treasurer
Dudley Olcott Treasurer of Endowment Fund
TRUSTEES
Dudley Olcott Mrs George P. Hilton
Dr Samuel B. Ward J. Townsend Lansing
Dr F. C. Curtis Charles J. Buchanan
Alden Chester Joseph A. Lawson
Benjamin W. Arnold Rev. Chas. A. Richmond, D. D.
Mrs George Douglas Miller Dr Edgar A. Vander Veer
William L. L. Peltz
PRESIDENTS
Elected
Chancellor James Kent Feb. 27. 1821
Rev. John Chester, D. D April 6, 1824
Rev. Isaac Ferris Jan. 29, 1829
Rev. John Ludlow, D. D Aug. — , 1831
Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D Oct. 3, 1834
Rev. John N. Campbell, D. D April 12, 1836
Judge Greene C. Bronson Jan. 30, 1843
I Ion. Wm. L. Marcy Jan. 28. 1850
Judge Amasa J. Parker Jan. 31. 1855
Judge William L. Learned March 4, 1879
Judge Alden Chester April 11, 1904
69
Albany Academy for Girls
PRINCIPALS £^^^,^^
Horace Goodrich, A. M May — , 1814
Rev. Edwin James, A. M
Lebbeus Booth, A. M June 26, 1821
Frederick Matthews, A. M May i, 1824
Alonzo Crittenden, A. M Aug. 18, 1826
L. Sprague Parsons, A. M July 2, 1845
Rev. Eben S. Stearns, A. M June 5, 1855
Miss Caroline G. Greely Sept. i, 1868
Miss Lx»uise Ostrom May 26, 1869
Wm. G. Nowell July 18, 1879
Miss Lucy A. Plympton Feb. 12, 1880
Miss Esther Louise Camp April 2, 1901
SECRETARIES ^^^^^^^
Lebbeus Booth Feb. 27, 1821
Frederick Matthews April 6, 1824
Alonzo Crittenden Aug. 8, 1826
John Q. Wilson July 10, 1841
Alonzo Crittenden Aug. 23, 1844
L. Sprague Parsons July 28, 1845
Eben S. Stearns Oct. 3,1855
WilHam L. Learned June 15, 1868
Miss Louise Ostrom Dec. 14, 1870
John Templeton July 18, 1879
George Douglas Miller Dec. 7, 1892
David A. Thompson Jan. 19, 1894
Joseph A. Lawson Jan. 1 1, 191 1
TREASURERS ^^^^^.^
Asa H. Center Feb. 27, 1821
Richard M. Meigs April 4, 1827
Israel Smith May 21. 1839
Alonzo Crittenden May 30, 1842
L. Sprague Parsons April 21, 1846
Eben S. Stearns April 25, 1856
William L. Learned June — . 1868
Miss Louise Ostrom Dec. 14, 1870
Wm. G. Nowell July 18, 1879
John Templeton Jan. 22. 1880
Miss Lucy A. Plympton April 7< 1880
Miss Esther Louise Camp April 11, 1904
70
Centennial Celebration
TREASURER OF ENDOWMENT FUND
Dudley Olcott April 1 1 . 1904
TRUSTEES Elected
*James Kent Feb. 16, 1821
*John Chester Feb. 16, 1821
*Joseph Russell Feb. 16, 1821
*John V. Henry Feb. 16. 1821
*Asa H. Center Feb. 16. 1821
*Gicleon Hawley Feb. 16, 1821
*William Fowler Feb. 16,1821
*Teunis Van Vechten Feb. 16, 1821
*Peter Boyd Feb. 16, 1821
* Named in Act of Incorporation, Chap. 53, Laws 1821.
In place of Elected
J. Winne, Jr James Kent April 6.
E. F. Backus John V. Henry April 6,
M. A. Duer Wm. Fowler April 5,
Israel Smith J. Winne, Jr April 5,
James Clark M. A. Duer April 4,
Peter Wendell, M. D Asa H. Center April 3,
Dr Richard M. Meigs Teunis Van Vechten April 3,
Rev. Isaac Ferris E. F. Backus April 8,
Edwin Croswell Peter Wendell, M. D April 8.
Judge Jacob Sutherland.. .. Rev. John Chester, D. D.... April 7,
John T. Norton Joseph Russell April 7,
Rev. John Ludlow, D. D...Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D....Aug. 3,
Benjamin F. Butler Peter Boyd Xpril 3.
*James Vanderpocl April 10,
*Gen. Richard V. DeWitt April 10.
*Philip S. Van Rensselaer April 10,
*Ira 1 larris April 10,
Thomas W. Olcott Benjamin F. Butler April 3.
Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D....Rev. John Ludlow, 1). l)...Oct. 3,
Rev. John N. Campbell, D.D.John T. Norton April 2,
Ezra P. Prentice James Clark Oct. 26.
824 824 825 825 826 827 S27 S2S 828 829 829 831 832 .^33 833 833 833 834 834 835 835
* Named in Chap. 133, Laws 1833, to increase the Trustees from 9 to 13.
71
Albany Academy for Girls
In place of Elected
Judge Greene C. Bronson. . Ezra P. Prentice Jan. 14,
Archibald Mclntyre Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D April 5.
Ezra P. Prentice Judge Jacob Sutherland April 5,
Judge John Q. Wilson Israel Smith May 21,
Rev. Isaac N. Wyckoflf, D.D. Judge James Vanderpoel. . .July 10,
Mason F. Cogswell Archibald Mclntyre July 10,
Rev. Barth. F.Welch, D.D.. Philip S. Van Rensselaer. .July 10,
Rev. Horatio Potter, D. D.. Gideon Hawley, LL.D Feb. 11,
Hon. Wm. L. Marcy R. M. Meigs Jan. 30,
Rev. Wm. B. Sprague, D. D. Rev. Jno. N. Campbell, D. D.Jan. 30,
Rev. Duncan Kennedy Rev. Horatio Potter, D. D..Jan. 30.
James M^Naughton, M. D.. Dr Mason F. Cogswell Jan. 30,
Marcus T. Reynolds Richard V. DeWitt April i,
Harmon Pumpelly Ezra P. Prentice April i,
Gen. John Taylor Cooper.. Hon. Wm. L. Marcy April 7,
Judge Amasa J. Parker Gen. John Taylor Cooper.. .April 4,
Hon. Wm. L. Marcy Rev. B. W. Welch, D. D. . .April 11.
Gen. John Taylor Cooper. . Hon. Greene C. Bronson. . .Jan. 28,
James H. Armsby, M. D. . . Edwin Croswell April 3,
Rev. Eben S. Stearns, A. M. Rev. Duncan Kennedy Nov. 19,
Amos Dean Hon. Wm. L. Marcy April 6,
Erastus D. Palmer Marcus T. Reynolds Oct. 19,
Judge Wm. L. Learned. . . . John Q. Wilson April 8,
Arthur Bott Amos Dean June 22.
Gen.John Meredith Read,Jr. Rev. Eben S. Stearns Dec. 28,
Rev. Anson J. Upson, D. D.Rev. Wm. B. Sprague Dec. 14,
Rev. Henry Darling, D. D. Gen. J. Meredith Read Dec. 14,
Rev. Joachim Elmendorf .. Rev. Dr Wyckoff Dec. 14.
Rev. Rufus W. Clark, D. D.Rev. Anson J. Upson Oct. 9,
Rev. Wm. S. Smart. D. D. . Rev. Joachim Elmendorf. . .Oct. 9,
Rev. Irving Magee, D. D.. . Dr Jas. McNaughton Oct. 9.
John Templeton Ira Harris April 11,
Wm. M. Van Antwerp Dr Jas H. Armsby April 11,
Dr Samuel B. Ward Judge Amasa J. Parker March 4,
Dr Jacob S. Mosher Gen. John Taylor Cooper. .March 4,
Dudley Olcott Wm. M. Van Antwerp March 4,
Archibald McClure Erastus D. Palmer Feb. 12.
Rev. James H. Ecob, D. D. Thomas W. Olcott April 27,
Rev. Henry M. King, D. D.Harmon Pumpelly April 27.
George G. Davidson Rev. Rufus W. Clark. D. D.April 27,
Benjamin W. Arnold Jacob S. Mosher, M. D April 27,
John G. ]\Iyers Archibald IMcClure April 27,
Centennial Celebration
Ifi place of Elected
George W. Kirchwey Arthur Bott April 27, 1889
Rev. A. V.V. Raymond, D.D. Rev. Henry Darling. D. D..Feb. 12,1892
Dr F. C. Curtis Rev. Wm. S. Smart, D. D. .Feb. 12, 1892
David A. Thompson Rev. Irving Magee, D. D. . .Feb. 12, 1892
Acors Rathbone John Templeton Feb. 12, 1892
George Douglas Miller. ... Rev. Henry IM. King, D. D..Feb. 12. 1892
Francis C. Huyck B. W. Arnold Feb. 12,1892
Edward McKinney George W. Kirchwey Feb. 12,1892
Henry Patton George G. Davidson Dec. 7, 1892
Henry P. Warren Edward McKinney April 4,1893
George G. Davidson Henry P. Warren Jan. 19, 1894
Judge Alden Chester Rev. Jacob H. Ecob, D. D. .March 27, 1897
Benjamin W. Arnold Rev. A. V. V. Raymond, D.D.March 27, 1897
Mrs George Douglas Miller. George Douglas Miller May 15,1900
Mrs George P. Hilton. ... John G. Myers May 15.1900
J. Townsend Lansing George G. Davidson Oct. 29, 1902
Charles J. Buchanan Acors Rathbone Oct. 29. 1902
Joseph A. Lawson Judge William L. Learned.. Oct. 11. 1904
Rev. Chas. A. Richmond.D. D.Francis C. Huyck Oct. 9,1907
Dr Edgar A. Vander Veer. Henry Patton Jan. 11, 1911
William L. L. Peltz David A. Thompson May 16, 1914
73
Albany Academy for Girls THE TRUSTEES
OF THE
ALBANY ACADEMY FOR GIRLS
FORMERLY
THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY
REQUEST THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE AT THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE SCHOOL
May Thirty-first, June First and Second
nineteen hundred and fourteen
PROGRAMME
School Sunday, May 31st, Service 5 p. m., Study Hall
Sermon by the Rev. Charles A. Richmond, D. D. Alumnae Breakfast, June ist, i p. m.. Ten Eyck Hotel
Historical Address by Miss Grace Perry Centennial Celebration, June ist, 8 p. m.
Auditorium of State Education Building One hundredth Commencement, June 2nd, 11 a. m.
Auditorium of State Education Building Speaker, Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers, D. D. Reception for visiting Alumnae, June 2nd. from 4 until 6 p. m. Hostesses — Mrs William Law Learned Mrs George Douglas Miller Loan Exhibition, June ist and 2nd, Alumnae Room
SCHOOL SUNDAY
Processional Hymn
" Onward Christian Soldiers "
Bible Lesson
Anthem — Ave Varum
Prayer
Lord's Prayer
Hymn
" Softly Now the Light of Day "
Sermon
Rev. Charles A. Richmond, D. D.
Anthem — " I Waited for the Lord "
Benediction
Recessional Hymn
" Savior again to Thy Dear Name We Raise '
74
Centennial Celebration Alumnae Breakfast
Centenary Celebration of Albany Academy for Girls, June i, 1914
PROGRAM
President's Greeting Mrs George Porter Hilton
By Mrs George Douglas Miller
Presentation of the Class of 1914 Miss Esther Louise Camp
President's Address Read by Mrs George Douglas Miller
Presentation of the Portrait of Mrs Foot By Mrs W. H. Arnold
Great Granddaughter of Mrs Foot
Song, " The Old and the New " Mrs David Brainerd Hunt
(Ida A. McKinney, '71)
Historical Address Miss Grace Perry
Report of Betsey Foot Chapter of New York. .Mrs R. W. Montgomery (Millie Brown, '83)
Greeting Miss Lucy A. Plympton
The Endowment Fund Mrs George Porter H ilton
(Jessie K. Myers, '76)
Signing of Parchment Roll
Alumnae Song Mary C. Topp, '65
" Happy are we met, happy have we been, Happy may we part, and happy meet again."
OFFICERS OF THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION
1913-1914
Mrs George Porter Hilton President
(Jessie K. Myers, '76)
Miss Katharine Porter, '09 Secretary
Miss Winifred Boyce, '07 Treasurer
1914-1915
Mrs James W. Canaday, Jr President
(Mary Rider, '08)
Miss Katharine Porter, '09 Secretary
Miss Winifred Boyce, '07 Treasurer
75
Albany Academy for Girls
Albany Academy for Girls Centennial Celebration, Education Building, June i, 1914, 8 p. m.
PROGRAM Music
Invocation
Music
Greeting from New York State Department of Education
Historical Address — ^Justice Alden Chester
(President of the Board of Trustees)
Music
Address — " The Responsibilities of Educated Women "
Flavel S. Luther, LL.D., President of Trinity College
Music
Address — Governor Martin H. Glynn
Music
76
Centennial Celebration
Albany Academy for Girls Centennial Commencement, Education Building, June 2, 1914
Program
Processional — March from Tannhaiiser Wagner
Invocation Rev. William H. Hopkins, D. D.
Address Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers
The Spinning Chorus — Flying Dutchman Wagner
Sweet Rose — By The Glee Club German
Presentation of Diplomas Hon. Alden Chester
Benediction
Recessional Kipling- DeKoven
Class of 1914
Catherine M. Bacon Albany, N. Y.
Helen M. Brandow Albany, N. Y.
Dorothy Brate Albany, N. Y.
Margaret Brate Albany. N. Y.
Margaret C. Burton Cooperstown, N. Y.
Helen G. Chrysler Albany, N. Y.
Sue B. Craig Greencastle. Pa.
Alice S. Elmendorf Albany, N. Y.
Enid W. Elmendorf Albany, N. Y.
Helen M. Fitzsimmons Albany, N. Y.
Isabelle Gilmore Albany, N. Y.
Frances K. Gleason Albany, N. Y.
Anna L. Hobbs Albany, N. Y.
Frances L. Kellogg Menands, N. Y.
Eleanor B. Newton Albany, N. Y.
Betty Palm er Canaan. N. Y.
Catherine W. Peltz Albany. N. Y.
Helen R. Sutherland .Mbany, N. Y.
Miriam A. Sweet Elbridge, N. Y.
Eleanor Todd Katonah, N. Y.
Sarah E. Van I>e Carr East Greenbush, N. Y.
Julia O. Wells Albany, N. Y.
Ruth B. Wing Menands, N. Y.
n
Albany Academy for Girls
Honors
Margaret Brate First Honor
Catherine W. Peltz Second Honor
Catherine M. Bacon]
Margaret C. Burton \- Third Honor
Eleanor Todd J
College Certificates
Catherine M. BaconJ Wells College
Anna Hobbs f
Margaret Brate | Vassar College
Sue B. Craig (
Eleanor Todd Wellesley College
Gladys Smiley Teachers' College, New York
Katherine Shelly Simmons College
78
Centennial Celebration
THE OLD AND NEW
[An orchestra in the mezzanine balcony played the old Academy songs which the company sang. Among them were " The Old and New," written by Mrs David Brainerd Hunt (Ida McKinney), as a toast for the presentation of the Betsey Foot portrait by Mrs W. H. Arnold of New York.]
Years cannot bury hearts, my dears, nor quelling silence lay
Its hand upon the old time songs, the songs of yesterday.
So in our hearts we'll keep our songs and bind them in with Blue,
Where, fastened with our Golden Star their message they'll renew.
Chorus
O, the girls of long ago, and the maidens of to-day.
They are meeting, they are greeting, in the old familiar way!
For the glove of latest fashion holds no warmer grasp a bit,
Than the hand that clasped its neighljor in the old lace- fashioned mitt.
The Loveliness of Trees in Bloom has just the same dear ring. And Alma Acadcmia with dignity we sing: The loyalty of old and new, may never change we pray, May the century in passing mold the spirit of to-day.
Chorus
O, the girls of long ago, and the maidens of to-day.
They are meeting, they are greeting, in the old familiar way !
For the glove of latest fashion holds no warmer grasp a bit,
Than the hand that clasped its neighbor in the old lace-fashioned mitt.
With labor's chisel in our hand, we'll pay the debt we owe.
And grave full deep in Learning's Wall one name — that name we know.
So sing, my dears, make melody while wo this toast acclaim,
Let every throat be full of song when Betsey Foot we name.
79
Albany Academy for Girls
Faculty
1912-1913
Miss Esther Louise Camp History of Art and Bible History
Miss Ada S. Blake, A. B.
(Radcliffe)
English
Miss Ellen C. Keates, A. B.
(Mt. Holyoke)
Latin and Greek
Miss R. Pauline Wilson, B. S.
(Teachers' College, Columbia)
Mathematics and Science
Miss Julia W. McCormick, A. B.
(Cornell)
History
Mademoiselle Julia A. Viet
(Brevet Superieur) French
Miss Hilda B. Edwards, B. A.
(Smith College)
German
Miss Marion Van Slyck
(Los Angeles Normal School)
Pre-Academic Department
Miss Florence G. Jones
(New York State Normal College)
Assistant
Miss Jessie D. Fox
(Yonkers Training School) Assistant
80
Centennial Celedkation Faculty
(Continued)
Miss Leigh W. Palmer
(Miss Whcelock's Training School, Boston)
Assistant
Miss Sylvia B. L. Gersbach
(Albany Academy for Girls)
Assistant
Miss Charlotte Whittemore
(Department of Hygiene and Physical Education. Wcllesley)
Physical Training
Miss WlLHELMINA W. PhELPS
(Teachers' College, Columbia University) Drawing and Painting
Miss Laeta Hartley
(Pupil of Wager Swayne and Harold Bauer)
Piano
Miss Beatrice Pinkney Jones (Pupil of Ernest Hutcheson and Edwin Farmer)
Assistant
Frank Sill Rogers. Mus. Doc.
(Dresden Conservatory of Music)
(Royal College of Organists, London)
I'oicc CnllKre and Choral Singing
Miss Helen W. Palmer
Secretary
Mrs Jessalvn A. Taylor House Mother
8i
Albany Academy for Girls
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
Mrs William Law Learned Miss Blanche C. Austin Mrs George Douglas Miller Mrs Frederic C. Curtis Mrs Augustus S. Brandow
Miss Grace Perry, Historian
82
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIi
AT
LOS ANGELES
UBRARY
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
AA 001 181 718 6
■W '1^
1i H -4. J^.
t n
■F- ''4' m.
H- #,
^ '■ ■ ■
? * % )f) j;
i >? p ■ t.. Jf Jc, x\ ;< I /
'H« ^; Alt*- &■ 1 *c ^.^ P r.
■' i; |: II # n 'S. V .-
y r h I? ■» I? ■ . !.,
i i ^1 ■
f a
T
|
■i ■ ■■ ■ ■■, |
|
^H ^^ |
|
:sd |
|
■■■ |
l--t/4