Case Western Reserve University

Forever YoungMyths, Mysteries, and Mayhem in the University’s History

Richard BaznikInstitute for the Study of the University in Society

August 20, 2004

Approaching Two Centuries

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

* * * *

1826:Western ReserveCollege founded

in Hudson

1880:Case School of Applied

Science founded inDowntown Cleveland

1967:Western Reserveand Case federate

to formCase Western Reserve

University Today

Trends/Events in the Nation and World

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Abolitionist Movement Immigration + Migration

Western Migration NewDeal

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

D

Space, Microelectronics,Molecular Biology….

@Iron Ore

DD D D D D

W W W W W W W W W

Cold War

Baby Boom

RightsMovements

Reconstruction

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Pre-History

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements @Iron Ore

Reconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal

Earlyimmigrantsto the area

fromConnecticutand othereasternregions

The Western Reserve of ConnecticutInitially awarded to the Connecticut Colony by King Charles II in 1662; boundary refined in 1786

CT

OH

WesternReserve of

Connecticut

The Western Reserve of ConnecticutMap by William Sumner of Nelson in Portage County, September 1826

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*WRC ●

Finally, A College for the Western Reserve

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

Medicine

Ending Slavery: Abolition vs. Colonization

Town vs. Gown, Gown vs. Gown, and Town vs. Town in Hudson

Group Abolitionists Colonizationists

Goal Immediate end to slavery

Voluntary emigration of freed slaves to Africa

Nat’l. Leaders

William Lloyd Garrison

John Brown

Frederick Douglass

James Madison

John Marshall

Henry Clay

Local Leaders

John Brown Family

Prof. Elizur Wright

Rev. Beriah Green

Pres. Charles Storrs

David Hudson

Pres. Charles Storrs

Diversity on the Campus

John Sykes Fayette, Class of 1836, was the first African American student to enroll at Western Reserve College. He was an ardent abolitionist who later became a minister.

John Sykes Fayette, Class of 1836,shown years later with his wife.

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Social and Economic Strife

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*WRC ●

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

Medicine

Medical Education for WomenSix of the first seven women to earn medical degrees in the United States

were graduates of Western Reserve College’s Medical College of Cleveland.

Dr. Nancy ETalbot ClarkM.D., 1852

Dr. EmilyBlackwell

M.D., 1854

Dr. Marie E.Zakrzewska,M.D., 1856

Dr. Cordelia A.Greene

M.D., 1856

Dr. ElizabethGrisell

M.D., 1856

Not Pictured: Dr. Sarah A. Chadwick, M.D., 1856

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Growth and Innovation

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*CSAS

*WRC ●

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

●Move toUniv. Circle

●●

“WRU”Adelbert

C. for WomenLaw

Dentistry

●

●Graduate Sch.

●●

Medicine

Strong Leadership for Growth

LeonardCase, Jr.

Flora StoneMather

Charles F.Thwing

AmasaStone

Case School of Applied Science

• Leonard Case, Jr., a classically educated lawyer, endowed the region’s first technological school

• He was a leader of the Arkites, area residents interested in natural history

• School was started at the Case family homestead on Cleveland’s Public Square

• Moved to University Circle next to WRU in 1886

Case Main Building, first structure onthe campus of the Case School of

Applied Science

Amasa Stone: Ashtabula Train DisasterIn December 1876, more than 80 people died when a Lake Shore and Michigan train bridge collapsed.

• Investigation blamed bridge design, construction• Recent study faults fabrication of one component• Stone may have launched civic and philanthropic acts –

including moving WRC to Cleveland – to atone

The Education of Women

• No formal provision for women students in undergraduate programs until 1872

• After intense debate, coeducation ended in 1887

• College for Young Women opened in 1888 -- Flora Stone Mather was a principal benefactor

• “Flora Stone Mather College” (1931) absorbed into Western Reserve College in 1972

Viola Smith Buell,Class of 1876,

first woman to earnundergraduate degreefrom Western Reserve

College

Thwing: A Primal Force

• President for 31 years (1890-1921)

• Developed WRU as a national graduate university committed to its city

• Started several new schools and departments

• Knew every student by his or her first name

• Wrote more than 50 books

• Co-founder of the NAACP

Michelson and Morley

Albert A. MichelsonCase Physicist

Edward W. MorleyWestern Reserve Chemist

Michelson-Morley Experiment (1887)Disproved the prevailing theory that light waves traveled through a “lumeniferous aether”

Schematic drawing of Michelson-Morley Interferometer

“Good Fences Make…”

Adelbert College (left) and Case Main Building, c. 1888

University Circle (when there was a circle)

Postcard view of trolley turn-around in the Circle in the early 1900s

View looking southwest toward Western Reserve and Case

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Urban and International Issues

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*CSAS

*WRC ● ● ● ●Libr.Sci.

SASSNursing

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

●Move toUniv. Circle

●●

“WRU”Adelbert

C. for WomenLaw

Dentistry

●

●Graduate Sch.

●●

Medicine

“Rich as Rockefeller” – Or NotJohn D. Rockefeller, a Cleveland for several decades, was a generous donor to

local charities, including Western Reserve and Case.

• New York native; moved to Cleveland in his teens to work.

• Founded Standard Oil Co. of Ohio in 1870 with other investors.

• Devoted Baptist who directed his giving to address church’s priorities.

• Moved back to New York in 1883. In 1887 gave funds to a small Baptist institution in Chicago that in 1890 became the University of Chicago.

John D. Rockefeller,from a 1917painting byJohn Singer

Sargent

When is a Gargoyle Just a Gargoyle?

Legend has it that a gargoyle glares at Case from the tower of Amasa Stone Chapel.

• Did WRU trustees want to show spite toward Leonard Case, Jr., who was an atheist?

• Chapel was gift of two daughters of Amasa Stone, who would not have allowed spiteful action.

• Designed by a Boston architect with no ties to local lore, politics.

• Design based on a European church -- common to place a gargoyle on the west wall.

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Depression and Renewal

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*CSAS

*WRC ●Medicine

●Move toUniv. Circle

●

●

●

“WRU”Adelbert

C. for WomenLaw

Dentistry

●● ●

Libr.Sci.

SASSNursing●

●ClevelandCollege

●

●

Graduate Sch.

“CIT”

●

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

●“Mather”

Partisan Spartan? Disliking Viking?

• Tomlinson Hall (built by Case Institute in 1947) features this fellow over its main entrance.

• Rumor: It’s a “Spartan” or “Viking” glaring eastward toward Adelbert College in return for the gargoyle on the chapel.

• Architect: It’s “the Searcher, ever seeking new things in the world and in science…” (even, it seems, at Western Reserve University).

Seeking knowledge, not revenge.

Meet Gaston Fafufnik, CIT ‘51

• Local example of the perennial humor by upperclassmen: the incoming freshman

• “Last of a long line of Fafufniks to matriculateat Case…”

• “Gaston has diligently immersed himself in student activities…”

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Population and Knowledge “Explosion”

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*CSAS

*WRC ● ●● ●Libr.Sci.

SASSNursing

●ClevelandCollege

●“CIT”

●

●●● Systems Design

Jennings C. C.Study of Materials

Bus.Admin.

*Federation

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

●Move toUniv. Circle

●●

“WRU”Adelbert

C. for WomenLaw

Dentistry

●

●Graduate Sch.

●●

●“Mather”Medicine

What is a “Federation?”

1967 merger of CIT, WRU:• Unprecedented in higher

education• “Equal partnership” (thus the

choice of language), but still highly emotional for many

• Football teams merged in 1970 (competed until then)

• Intense political, economic, demographic changeEditorial cartoon from The Plain Dealer,

January 1966

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

A Modern Research University

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

*CSAS

*WRC ● ●● ●Libr.Sci.

SASSNursing

●ClevelandCollege

●“CIT”

●

●●● Systems Design

Jennings C. C.Study of Materials

Bus.Admin.

*Federation

CaseWesternReserve

University

Industrial Revolution ►►►► Urbanization

Abolitionist Movement

W W W W W W W W W

Immigration + Migration Cold War

DB. Boom Space, Microelectronics,

Molecular Biology….

RightsMovements

Iron OreReconstr’n

Western Migration

DD D D

D D

NewDeal @

●Move toUniv. Circle

●●

“WRU”Adelbert

C. for WomenLaw

Dentistry

●

●Graduate Sch.

●●

●“Mather”Medicine

Institute for the Study of the University in Society