New-York tribune., 1902-06-18
BOWDOIN 1S02-1902.

American colleges are gradually outgrowing
the reproach of youth Sturdy young giants or
the West and Middle West there are or course
but one after another institution OF learning IN
the East in celebrating anniversaries ID lhfee
figures emphasizes the respectable antiquity 10
which higher education in this country mas
attained 4 few davs ago West Point passed
the century mark; on Wednesday next Bo"uoih
will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the
formal opening Of the college on the All
droscoggin.
The beginnings of Bowdoin date back 20
17SS. when the justices Of the peace assembled
at Portland in court of general sessions ana
tbe congregational clergymen petitioned the
General Court of Massachusetts. OF which the
District of Maine was then a part, for charter
for q college; but 1t was not until June n
1874. that the charter was granted, and the
inauguration of the first president was delayed
until 1902 on the completion Of Massachusetts
Hall the first college building. After the In
fant institution was started on its course by the
modest though substantial benefactions or lis
first patron James Bowdoin, the friend OF
Franklin, it developed through much the same
experiences as the other smaller Ne"-Englanu
colleges: never embarrassed by excessive en-
dowment but. on the other hand, Generauy
lovaly supported by the people OF Maine ana
training generation after generation OF scholars
and statesmen whose names figure largely IN
the history of the nation--names such as those
of Hawthorne and Longfellow, John 5. @ Ao-
bott Jacob Abbott and Elijah Kellogg IN liter
ature: John Appleton Thomas Drummond and
Melville w Fuller in law; Samuel Harris ana
Henry Boynton Smith in theology; Fordyce
Barker IN medicine; Cyrus Hamin among mis-
sionares; Joshua L. Chamberlain and Oliver
q Howard among soldiers, and in political life
Franklin Pierce William Pitt Fessenden, John
P. Hale Seargent S. Prentiss, John A. Andrew,
Thomas B. Reed and William P Frye.
Removed from great centres Of population
Bowdoin stands as type of the small college;
for great part of its existence 1t has had a
medical department, but President HYDE has no
idea Of expansion into university" He has
declared his belief in the mission Of the small
college in these words:
For combining sound scholarship with solid
character; for making men both intellectually
and spiritually free; for uniting the pursuit OF
truth with reverence for duty, the small college,
open to the worthy graduates OF every good
high school, presenting course sufficiently
rigid to give symmetrical development. and suf-
fcently elastic to encourage individuality along
congenial lines, taught by professors who are
men first and scholars afterWard, governed by
kindly personal influence, and secluded from TOO
frequent contact with social distractions has
mission which no change of educational con-
dftions can take away and a policy which no
sentiment of vanity or jealousy should be per
mitted to turn aside.
Yet Bowdoin with an academical department
giving instruction to 254 students, is small
college only relatively speaking, and would
seem indeed large one to its first president,
the Rev. Joseph MCkeen, who with one assist
ant opened the college year of 1S02-03 in charge
of a class Of eight. The great strength of the
institution lies in the hold it possesses, through
generations of the prominent families of Maine,
upon the affections and interests of that State.
1t would probably be hard to find another small
college so thoroughly identified with the best in
the life OF its parent commonwealth.