History of the American School 1882-1942 - Chapter III
A History of the American School of Classical Studies, 1882-1942
Chapter III: The Chairmanship of James Rignall Wheeler of Columbia University, 1901–1918
James Rignall Wheeler, son of the Reverend John Wheeler, President of the University of Vermont, was graduated from that institution in 1880. He was one of that remarkable group of students who worked with Goodwin during the first year of the School, 1882–1883. Returning to America, he received his doctor’s degree from Harvard in 1885, where he later was Instructor in Latin and Greek. He was called to his alma mater as Professor of Greek in 1889. He was Professor of the Greek Language and Literature at the School in 1892–1893, the first to hold that title. In 1895 he was called to the chair of Greek at Columbia. In 1906 his title was changed to Professor of Greek Archaeology and Art, and in 1911 he was also made Dean of Fine Arts. He was elected to the Managing Committee in 1891 and made secretary in 1896, serving in this capacity till his election to the chairmanship. His acquaintance with the affairs of the School was, therefore, very complete.
When Wheeler assumed the chairmanship in 1901 the affairs of the School were in smooth running order. Richardson’s directorate (1893–1903) was drawing to a close but had been so long continued that the adjustments of authority between the director and the Managing Committee had been made. The difficult problem of how a debating society is to operate a school had been pretty well solved. The conscientious care of Seymour for the details of administration had contributed not a little to this happy result.
The activities of the School had also been largely standardized. Excavation had been recognized as a regular, if not the major, concern of the School. The excavation at the Heraeum had enhanced the School’s reputation, and the great task of excavating Corinth was just beginning. The routine of the School curriculum, lectures in the museums, the open meetings, the School trips, the contribution of the annual professor—these were details that no longer required debate nor need to be individually recalled.
The problem of securing students had apparently been solved. For the year 1900–1901 there were sixteen students, and the next year there were fourteen. But unfortunately this happy condition was not to continue. In 1907–1908 there were but five regular students, the same number the following year, and only four in 1909–1910. The endowment had been slowly built up till it had reached $97,790.88. There were twenty-three cooperating colleges. For the first year of Wheeler’s chairmanship a budget of $6,200 had been adopted, and for the next year (1902–1903) this was increased to $7,200, the addition being one thousand dollars for the salary of a secretary (Theodore Woolsey Heermance).
Wheeler’s task was to secure funds for the excavation of Corinth, to publish adequately the results of the School’s activities and to increase the endowment.
The excavation of Corinth was to be the chief concern of the School for the next twenty years. A beginning had been made during Seymour’s chairmanship, but only a beginning. During the chairmanship of Capps many other projects were to share with Corinth the attention of the Managing Committee, but during Wheeler’s time Corinth was to the American School what Delphi was to the French School and Olympia to the German Institute.
When work was begun at Corinth in 1896 the Managing Committee was scarcely conscious of the magnitude of the task. This is clear from Seymour’s remark in 1898, already quoted, that there should be at least one more year’s digging. But the financial responsibility for the undertaking was at once a gaunt reality. As has been seen, the Institute initiated the project with the gift of fifteen hundred dollars. John Hay, a staunch friend of the School, had contributed five hundred dollars on two occasions; Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst had given two thousand; Mr. Eliot C. Lee, one thousand; and Mr. and Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears, another thousand. There had been many other gifts which had helped to keep the excavations going during Seymour’s chairmanship. The prosecution of the undertaking during the first four years of Wheeler’s regime was due to Mr. Lee and to Mr. and Mrs. Sears. The former gave one thousand dollars a year for the first three years (1901–1904), and the latter five hundred dollars a year for four years. In 1904–1905, when Mr. Lee discontinued his gifts, and only five hundred dollars was available, from Mr. and Mrs. Sears, the Carnegie Institution in Washington made a grant of fifteen hundred dollars a year for five years (1904–1909). When the request for a continuation of this grant was not approved, Mrs. Sears made provision for a contribution of fifteen hundred dollars a year in memory of her son, J. Montgomery Sears, Jr., who had died in 1908. He had been a student at the School in 1899–1901. This generous subvention was faithfully continued through the year 1916, when the activities of the School were being brought to a close by the first World War. These appropriations and gifts were supplemented by contributions from Mr. James Loeb, Mrs. J. H. Metcalf and many other friends of the School.
Though there was often anxiety about funds for the continuance of the work, this substantial backlog supplied by Mr. Lee, the Carnegie Institution and Mr. and Mrs. Sears made it possible for the director to plan on at least a modest yearly campaign. Circumstances might, and often did, give him really substantial backing for his work. It could fairly be said that Wheeler had succeeded in the first of his tasks, to finance the excavation of this important site.
A substantial gift which was made early in Wheeler’s administration (1905) did not assist him in this particular problem. Mr. E. H. Jordan presented the School with one thousand dollars which was to be allowed to accumulate for at least five years. At the end of this period or later it was to be used, subject to the judgment of the Managing Committee,
in excavation. It was designated as the Robert Jordan Fund. It was allowed to accumulate till it amounted to $2,833.07 in 1934.
The Adelbert Hay Fund for the purchase of books was not so carefully administered. John Hay had shown his interest in the School, as has been said, by two gifts of five hundred dollars each to the Corinth excavations. In 1900–1901 he established the Adelbert Hay Fund in memory of his son. This was increased by another gift of five hundred dollars in 1903. This, as Wheeler wrote Norton from Athens on August 8, 1903, was to be deposited with the treasurer for a library fund. In spite of that fact the principal was used by the director for the purchase of expensive books, and in 1916–1917 there was left of the entire fund only $849.54. This situation was corrected by Capps as soon as he assumed the chairmanship. He restored the fund to one thousand dollars by the addition of interest. It now (1944) amounts to $1,627.19.
As the excavations at Corinth proceeded it became evident that the presence of a trained architect was necessary for their complete interpretation. A committee to select an architect with a salary not to exceed a thousand dollars was appointed at the 1903 meeting. The choice of the committee for this first appointment in architecture was a happy one, Gorham Phillips Stevens, B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1898, M.S., 1899. He had spent three years in Europe as a traveling fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (He was later Director of the American Academy in Rome, from 1918 to 1932; Director of the American School at Athens, from 1939 to 1941; and he has been Honorary Architect of the School since 1941.) He was Resident Architect at the School for two years, 1903–1905, and the value of his work in the study of the Erechtheum and in the interpretation of the finds at Corinth was at once felt. The “permanent support for a resident architect” was recognized as “an important need of the School.”
This need was urged by Wheeler in an appeal to the Carnegie Institution. He was able to announce at a special meeting of the Managing Committee held December 29, 1904, that the request had been approved and that in addition to the grant for the excavation of Corinth already mentioned the Carnegie Institution had appropriated a thousand dollars a year for five years for a fellowship in architecture.
This grant enabled the Managing Committee to make the first of a long series of appointments of Fellows in Architecture. Stevens, who was already in residence, was the first such appointment (for 1904–1905). Under this grant William Bell Dinsmoor began his distinguished service to the School (1908–1909). His fellowship was renewed for a second year (1909–1910) and was then “in view of the desires of the Carnegie Institution” continued for two years more (1910–1912). He was made Architect of the School in 1912 and held this position till 1919, though his work was interrupted during part of 1918–1919 while he was serving as lieutenant in the United States Army. A fellowship in architecture was maintained throughout Wheeler’s chairmanship till the outbreak of the first World War. The last of these fellows was W. Stuart Thompson (1913–1915), later architect of the Gennadeion Library, the Corinth Museum and the William Caleb Loring residence hall.
When Wheeler became chairman in 1901 six campaigns of excavation in charge of Richardson had already been completed at Corinth. The agora, the theater, Peirene, Glauce and the Lechaeum road had been located, and a considerable area had been cleared between the Temple of Apollo and Peirene.
Richardson was assisted in the excavation of 1902, which was rather long continued (March 1-June 13), by Bassett, Hill, Van Hook and Daniel Quinn. Quinn had won his doctorate from the University of Athens and was spending his fifth year at the School. Thirty-two hundred dollars was spent in this campaign.
Most of the digging was in the area below the Temple of Apollo, where a stoa (later called the Northwest Stoa) with Doric exterior and Ionic interior columns was found behind the Roman vaulted chambers. The latter were completely cleared. Much pottery, many lamps and some inscriptions were found. Some work was also done at the theater.
The following spring, 1903, work began on April 22 and continued till the middle of June. The late beginning was due to the uncertainty about funds. A similar delay occurred in 1904, due this time to the necessity of expropriating the area west and south of the Apollo Temple. In the earlier excavation an interesting deposit of votive offerings was found, and walls uncovered that might indicate the boundaries of the Greek agora. At the theater a Roman frieze in high relief representing the Gigantomachia was found.
The principal result of the digging in 1904 was the more complete examination of the walls discovered the preceding year and the finding of a new stoa (the South Stoa), of great length, facing north and roughly parallel to the already discovered Doric-Ionic stoa, which faced south. The presumption was that now the south, west and north limits of the Greek agora had been determined.
The two preliminary reports on these excavations were written by Heermance. The records of the School contain no report from the director for 1905 because of Heermance’s illness and death in September. The excavations, which lasted from July 4 to August 20, were reported by O. M. Washburn, Fellow of the School. The earth about Glauce was removed, and it was shown that here had been located a quarry from which building material for Corinth had been obtained. Trial trenches, south of the South Stoa discovered the previous year, seemed to refute the suspicion that the Greek agora might be in that district. This is the last report of Corinthian excavations in the American Journal of Archaeology till 1925, when the work of that year was reported by T. Leslie Shear.
The death of Heermance prevented any excavations at Corinth the next spring (1906), but the Greek archaeologist, Mr. Skias, dug trial trenches north and east of old Corinth which located the two ancient roads connecting Corinth with the port. A summer flood did considerable damage to the excavated area about Peirene, and the Greek Government generously undertook a considerable amount of clearance, repair and protective work about that spring and at the Apollo Temple. When Hill excavated that season he succeeded in locating the Odeum. At the time he wrote his annual report (April 27, 1907) work was still going on, and the account of the 1907 season’s work promised for the Journal never appeared.
In the director’s report the excavations of 1908 are dismissed with the brief statement that “an account of the season’s work will be published shortly in the Journal of Archaeology,” a prophecy that is still unfulfilled. Only faint echoes of the work at Corinth reached the Journal, through the Archaeologischer Anzeiger and the Classical Review.
The reports of the excavations in 1909 and 1910 were printed in the Year Book of the Carnegie Institution because of the subvention furnished 1904–1909. For the latter year there is only a brief paragraph mentioning Dinsmoor’s work. For the year 1909 there are given a sketch plan of Peirene and a brief description of the arrangements for delivering the water through four large reservoirs to three drain basins emptying into six chambers, where it was accessible to water-carriers. These excavations were confined mostly to the area about Peirene, where much damage had been done by the flood of 1906. The digging was further complicated by the fact that this spring still served the village of Old Corinth, and arrangements had to be made so as not to interfere with its water supply. Most of the time in 1910 was spent on this problem.
This report for 1909–1910 was the last report of Director Hill to be published by the School during Wheeler’s chairmanship. For the campaign at Corinth in 1911 Wheeler quotes “from the Director’s informal report on the work of the students.” From this it is clear that the question of water for Old Corinth was still acute. It was found that impurities in the source were threatening the health of the community, and as before much of the season was spent in efforts which eventually removed this danger. For the next two years nothing was done at Corinth. In 1912 illness prevented Hill from excavating, and in 1913 war in the Balkans made a continuance of the work impossible. In 1914 work was resumed for about two months in the spring near the Temple of Apollo but was interrupted by the departure of Hill for America to purchase material for the new addition to the School building.
In September, after his return, there was a renewal of work at Corinth which lasted till Christmas and was continued in the spring of 1915. A fine terrace wall that might be the eastern boundary of the agora was located. Three Roman statues were found, two of them of heroic size. One, completely preserved, still attached to its base, probably represents Gaius Caesar. A fine head of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus was also found. This was the last work done at Corinth during the chairmanship of Wheeler. There was no digging at the main site in 1916 or 1917, though Hill and Dinsmoor dug a cemetery during the late summer and fall. Lack of funds is the reason assigned, so it appears that the fifteen hundred dollars which the treasurer received from Mrs. Sears in 1915–1916 was expended in the campaigns of the fall of 1914 and the spring of 1915.
Small funds available enabled Carl W. Blegen, Secretary of the School, to conduct a subsidiary excavation at Korakou, a prehistoric site southwest of the ancient city. He began work here in 1915, uncovered traces of a “megaron” type of building and secured a series of pottery fragments in a regularly stratified deposit. Work was continued during the next two years. Brilliant results were achieved by that quiet, careful accuracy which has placed Blegen in the very top rank of authorities on prehistoric Greece. From this comparatively insignificant excavation he established two thousand years of prehistoric chronology.
Prompted by these striking results, Hill and Dinsmoor that summer and fall worked over the possible sites northeast of Corinth, finding a considerable number of vases and bronze objects. There being no funds to excavate in 1917, that year was spent by Blegen in the examination and classification of the material already found.
A careful study of these finds and their significance for prehistoric Corinth was published by Blegen in the Journal for 1920. A year later the School issued a finely illustrated volume with eight plates in color adequately covering this excavation. It was entitled Korakou: A Prehistoric Settlement Near Corinth. This was the third book to be issued by the School. (Plate VIII)
A series of interesting articles dealing with the finds at Corinth during Wheeler’s regime appeared in the Journal. David M. Robinson discussed “Terra Cottas and Ointment Vases from Corinth” in Volume X; Miss Elizabeth M. Gardiner in Volume XIII described the sculptural fragments in considerable detail, especially the Gigantomachy, which she considered to be Hellenistic work. In Volume XIV (1910) George W. Elderkin, Secretary of the School, published a scholarly account of the Fountain of Glauce. E. H. Swift in Volume XX continued Miss Gardiner’s work on sculpture by describing a marble head found at Corinth and in Volumes XXV and XXVI gave a complete account of the Roman portrait statues found in the campaign of 1915. Greek inscriptions were published by Kendall K. Smith in Volume XXIII, and L. R. Dean published the Latin inscriptions in three articles appearing in Volumes XXII, XXIII and XXVI (1922). This was the last volume in which the publication of material dug at Corinth during Wheeler’s chairmanship appeared.
But a general comprehensive account of the excavation at Corinth was not forthcoming.
At the annual meeting in 1903 the Managing Committee expressed itself as favoring the publication of a “special Bulletin on Corinth.” A committee was appointed, of which J. H. Wright was chairman. The next year Stevens had prepared a plan of the excavations for this Bulletin. Its publication had been “unavoidably delayed,” but the director (Richardson) reported that it “is now nearly ready and the work of printing should not take a great deal of time.” In 1904–1905 the “special Bulletin on the Excavations at Corinth has suffered further delay, but the plans and the Director’s manuscript are already in this country, and the completion of the work of publication is therefore in sight.” The next year “various causes” had delayed the publication of the Bulletin, but “every effort will be made” in the Bulletin’s behalf, and a credit account in the form of the balance of three hundred dollars was set up in the treasurer’s books (1905–1906).
Director Hill now assumed charge of the Bulletin. He had not been in Corinth for “several years” and wished to verify some facts in the part of the Bulletin written by him. Moreover, a new sketch map was needed. The manuscript would be sent to the printers about Christmas time (1906). Christmas, however, found H. D. Wood, Fellow in Architecture, still at work on the plan “begun last year for the Bulletin on Corinth.” A hushed silence on the Bulletin pervades the Reports for 1908–1909 and 1909–1910, unless the decision to revise the standing Committee on Publications was a result of queries on this continued delay.
In his report for 1910–1911 Director Hill states that Dinsmoor is at work on a complete scale map of all the excavations at Corinth. This was probably intended for the Bulletin. Here this excellent project perished of inanition. The treasurer faithfully reported the appropriation for the Bulletin in his annual reports till 1919–1920, when he gave up hope, and the item of three hundred dollars was returned to the general fund. There was no systematic summary of the excavation published till Carpenter’s Guide to the Excavations, in 1927, and Fowler’s excellent synopsis of the excavations through 1920, which appeared in the Introduction to Corinth, Volume I, 1932.
The first year of Wheeler’s chairmanship Paul Shorey was the Professor of the Greek Language and Literature.
It will be remembered that White had advised the students not to spend time in Athens in reading Greek literature which could just as well be read elsewhere but to devote themselves to such study as could be done only in Greece. The result had been that almost every annual professor in the last ten years had lectured on epigraphy. How potent still was the influence of White’s advice is shown by the fact that Shorey felt himself constrained to give a course in Pausanias.
When Shorey had been a student in the School’s first year his brethren had submitted papers on archaeological subjects. Shorey wrote on “The Life, Poems and Language of Theocritus, with Specimens of a Commentary.” His paper was not published. What it must have meant to him to lecture on Pausanias (Herodotus with the locomotor ataxia, as Gildersleeve called him) can now only be a matter of profane conjecture. In any case he soon abandoned the uncongenial subject and lectured on the history of Athens.
This was the second year of Bert H. Hill’s connection with the School. He was Institute Fellow and acted also as librarian and catalogued the School’s growing library. Heermance had devised the present classification of the books; whether or not this constitutes a debt is a matter of opinion.
The School library this year was the recipient of the final annual gift of one hundred dollars from Joseph C. Hoppin. These gifts had begun in 1893.
In the routine of the year it might be noted that Richardson took the members of the School to Aegina to examine the work done at the Temple of Aphaea and made the ascent of the Oros. Dr. Wilhelm as usual opened his course in epigraphy to the students and even admitted Bassett and Hill to a special advanced course.
La Rue Van Hook, of Columbia, was a student during this year. He was later to serve the Managing Committee as Assistant Secretary and Secretary for more than twenty years (1922–1945).
When the Managing Committee had first been constituted it had been provided that each cooperating institution should have one representative. Difficulties that had arisen under this rule had not been frankly faced till Professor Herbert Weir Smyth, who was a member from Bryn Mawr, was called to Harvard. It was thereupon voted “that the regular representation upon this Committee may be increased from a single person, provided the nomination of such additional persons receive the approval of the Executive Committee.” Whereupon it was further voted that Professor Smyth be continued upon the Committee.
The year 1902–1903 was the last year of Richardson’s directorate. In accepting his resignation the Managing Committee adopted a resolution expressing their indebtedness to him, recognizing the skill and tact with which he had performed his duties, the success with which he had excavated at Eretria, Corinth and other sites and the happy relations he had maintained with the Greek Government and the other archaeological schools.
Richardson had expressed his desire to retire at the close of his second five-year term, in 1903. In anticipation of this the Executive Committee recommended to the Managing Committee at their meeting in May, 1902, that Theodore Woolsey Heermance be elected Secretary of the School for 1902–1903 and Director for the next five years, 1903–1908. This recommendation was unanimously accepted.
Heermance was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1893. He held the Soldiers’ Memorial Fellowship from Yale for two years (1894–1896) and spent both years in study at the School in Athens. He returned to Yale as Tutor in Greek at the close of his residence in Athens and was given his doctorate in 1898. In 1899 he was made Instructor in Classical Archaeology and was serving in that position at the time of his appointment to the School as Secretary. Heermance acted as Secretary of the School in 1902–1903 and the next year began his directorate, with Harold North Fowler as Professor of the Greek Language and Literature.
Fowler was the fourth member of that group of eight students who were with Goodwin the first year to return to the School as Annual Professor. Fowler lectured on the sculpture in the museums but deliberately curtailed his course because “there seemed to me to be too many lectures”—a belief in which Heermance heartily concurred. “The lecture-going habit of the American student is notorious in Athens.” Heermance expressed himself as strongly in favor of “independent research.”
This year also saw the beginning of that study of the Erechtheum which was so long to engage the attention of the School. Repairs to the temple had necessitated the erection of scaffolding all about it, and a Unique opportunity was thus afforded to study the structure. At Heermance’s suggestion Stevens devoted himself to the task of studying, measuring and re-drawing the building. A complete publication of these drawings and a history of the temple was planned. Heermance thought that Stevens could complete the task if he remained in Athens for the summer of 1904. The volume, with its album of plates, was issued in 1927. The School was indebted to Mr. Kabbadias, the Ephor General of Antiquities, for permission to use the scaffolding.
Miss Harriet Boyd, a former Fellow of the School, began this year her brilliant excavation at Gournia in Crete. She was joined by Richard B. Seager, a student enrolled at the School, and by Miss Edith H. Hall (Mrs. Joseph M. Dohan), Agnes Hoppin Memorial Fellow. Miss Hall was the last to hold this fellowship. The purpose for which the fellowship had been established—to help remove the limitation of women students—had in the opinion of the donors been achieved.
Hoppin was Professor of the Greek Language and Literature for 1904–1905. He lectured on Greek vases. T. Leslie Shear was this year University Fellow from Johns Hopkins. He was destined to serve the School almost continuously till his death in 1945. The Carnegie Institution assisted the School with a gift already mentioned of fifteen hundred dollars a year for excavations and one thousand dollars a year for a fellowship in architecture. Both grants were to run for five years. The second volume of the Argive Heraeum, long delayed by De Cou’s failure to furnish his chapter on the bronzes, appeared.
Heermance had entered upon his directorate in the summer of 1903. The work at Corinth was already well started. Richardson had made an auspicious beginning. When
Heermance took up the task he was ably assisted during the first two years by Stevens, whose architectural training rendered his services in drawing plans and restorations especially valuable. The results of Heermance’s two years’ work at Corinth were notable, and the third year held even greater promise, for sufficient if not ample funds were now available. But these high hopes were frustrated by death. Heermance succumbed to typhoid fever at Athens, September 29, 1905. The Managing Committee held a special meeting at Ithaca the following December 29 to fill the office of director. Brief commemorative exercises were held, letters of sympathy and appreciation from the heads of the British and Austrian Schools were read, and Doerpfeld’s sympathetic remarks on Heermance’s work at the opening of the German Institute were reported. Resolutions noting the value and promise of his work and his eager helpfulness were adopted.
A fund was established in Heermance’s memory. Three years later $850 had been raised. The project, however, was not pushed energetically, and the present total (1944) of $3,506.12 is due largely to gifts from the Auxiliary Fund Association and accumulated interest. It is expected that this will soon be increased to a sum of ten thousand dollars, the income of which will be used for the purchase of architectural books for the Library.
Professor William N. Bates, of the University of Pennsylvania, who was Annual Professor for 1905–1906, was made Acting Director for the year.
The choice of a successor to Heermance was not easy. The seventeen members of the Managing Committee at Ithaca went into a prolonged executive session, at the close of which a committee of five with Wheeler as chairman was entrusted with the task of making a report to the Executive Committee, who were empowered to act.
Their choice was Bert Hodge Hill, A.B., University of Vermont, 1895. He had been a Fellow of Columbia University for two years (1898–1900) and had received his M.A. in 1900. He had then enrolled in the School at Athens for three years, first as Drisler Fellow of Columbia University and then for two successive years as Fellow of the Archaeological Institute. He had returned to America and at the time of his election as Director was Lecturer on Greek Sculpture at Wellesley and Assistant Curator of Classical Antiquities in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. When Hill’s first term expired, in 1911, a committee of seven members of the Managing Committee recommended his re-appointment for five years, a recommendation that was unanimously accepted. In 1916 he was again elected, with no term fixed for tenure. He was to serve the School as director for twenty years—1906–1926.
Lacey D. Caskey, who had been working during his years as student and fellow (1902–1904) especially on a dictionary of technical architectural terms, became Secretary of the School and very materially assisted Bates in carrying the load of responsibility that was placed on him by Heermance’s death. It was Caskey who in the absence of his chief bore the brunt of the unexpected visit to the School on April 18 of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, of Great Britain, accompanied by King George I and Queen Olga, of Greece, the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Crown Prince and Princess of Greece.
Caskey and Gordon Allen, Fellow in Architecture, investigated the East Stoa of the Asklepieion at Athens and published their work in the Journal. It was necessary to conduct a small excavation to determine the position of some of the walls. In the course of this work an inscribed stone was found which had been the basis for a statue of Menander. The inscriptions were published by Bates in the Journal.
In 1906–1907 Bert H. Hill began his directorate. One beneficial result of his influence was at once seen. The pace of the School trip was moderated. Hill would hardly have felt that the possibilities of Mycenae could be exhausted in a one-day visit. He also introduced modern, scientific methods of excavation. The School was honored by the award to Caskey of half the prize offered by the University of Strasbourg for work on Greek architectural inscriptions.
Edward B. Clapp, of the University of California, was Professor of the Greek Language and Literature for 1907–1908. For the first time since White’s memorable Report in 1894 an annual professor ventured to offer a course in the reading of Greek literature. Nor even then did Clapp lightly embark on this experiment, as he called it. He consulted friends at home and the director of the School before doing so. He was rewarded with the attendance of all the students save one.
The study of the Thessalian group at Delphi, by Kendall K. Smith and Miss Elizabeth M. Gardiner, led to satisfactory results. Among the needs of the School created by its growing importance Wheeler mentioned at the meeting of the Managing Committee in 1907 the enlargement of the School building, especially the library, and the probable necessity of a permanent secretary. The latter need was never fully met. The position was not of sufficient influence and did not pay a sufficient salary to attract under ordinary conditions a permanent appointee. After Heermance’s single year of tenure, preceding his directorate, what was termed “a more or less permanently appointed” secretaryship was held in succession by Lacey D. Caskey (1905–1908), George W. Elderkin (1908–1910), C. A. R. Sanborn (1911–1912). Carl W. Blegen accepted the appointment in 1912 and held it during the war and until 1920, thus at last giving something of continuity to the office.
An adequate salary for the secretary had been made possible by the generosity of James Loeb. In 1911–1912 he promised five hundred dollars a year for five years toward the stipend of this office. He paid this amount each year through 1918–1919.
The enlargement of the School building was effected, however, by Wheeler. At the 1907 meeting of the Managing Committee the chairman was authorized to have plans prepared. In 1909 a Committee on Building was appointed, and the Executive Committee was authorized to appropriate money for the needed changes. Two years later it was reported that $4,300 of the necessary six thousand dollars had been subscribed, and a year later (May, 1912) the chairman was able to report that work was about to begin.
It was actually begun in April, 1913, and the following year W. Stuart Thompson was appointed Fellow in Architecture in charge. As the remodeling of the building progressed it became evident that the original estimate of six thousand dollars was quite inadequate. Repairs to the walls, floors and flues of the original structure were necessary. The roof needed to be rebuilt. Cost of material and freight rates had advanced. Fortunately, the Treasurer of the Trustees had set up an emergency fund of about eight thousand dollars from unexpended income during the previous few years. This, together with the sale of securities, made possible the completion of this project. The estimate had been six thousand dollars, the amount subscribed had been $12,335.11, of which James Loeb gave six thousand dollars. The final cost was $33,706.63, of which $21,371.56 had been taken from endowment. (Plate IX)
The alterations were completed in the summer of 1915. The greatly enlarged library—the cause for the extensive addition—was much appreciated. It furnished adequate space for nearly forty years. Besides, the addition to the building contained several more bedrooms available for students, a common room, a ladies’ parlor and a room variously used as a bursar’s office or an architect’s drafting room. These rooms, as well as the library, were made accessible by providing a second entrance. For the furnishing of the ladies’ parlor Miss Ruth Emerson (Mrs. Henry Martineau Fletcher), of Bryn Mawr, who died in 1910, left a generous bequest of five hundred dollars. Subsequent changes in the use of this room have now unfortunately led to the dispersal of these attractive pieces. It should still be possible to reassemble them in Loring Hall or in some other appropriate setting.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the School was celebrated both in Athens and in America. In Athens it was commemorated by a dinner on January 17, 1907, at which Prince Constantine was present. His Highness gave formal expression to the cordial good will that the Greek Government felt toward the School. Mr. Kabbadias, Ephor General of Antiquities, also paid his compliments to the School and expressed his pleasure in the Honorary Professorship of Hellenic Antiquities which had been conferred on him. Professor Doerpfeld brought the greetings of the other foreign schools.
In America this event was commemorated by a dinner given at the Somerset Hotel in Boston, Saturday, November 23, 1907. The attendance was gratifyingly large. Goodwin presided.
To the regret of all Norton was not able to come to this dinner. Professor John H. Wright had offered to call for him with a carriage and drive him home afterward, adding, “If you are not present in the flesh, you will be there in spirit—for you will be constantly in our thoughts, a vivid, potent presence.”
The death of Seymour followed not long after the anniversary dinner, on the last day of 1907. He had been appointed Annual Professor for the year 1908–1909. In the delirium that preceded his death he thought himself at the School and spoke words of encouragement to his students. The School had played a large part in his life.
The date of this twenty-fifth anniversary may well be taken to mark a change in the management of the School. Of the six men who made up the organizing committee five had died: Gurney in 1886, Palfrey in 1889, Ludlow in 1894, De Peyster in 1905, and Harkness in 1907. White alone survived, but he never attended a meeting of the Managing Committee after 1903. Of the other six who with these made up the first Managing Committee, Sloane had become Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia and had withdrawn from the Committee in 1897; Packard died in 1884, Drisler in 1897, Norton in 1908. Goodwin and Gildersleeve alone remained members of the Committee, but neither of them was able to attend its meetings. Goodwin lived till 1912 but attended his last meeting in 1901, and though Gildersleeve lived till 1924 he had never been active in the management of the School and had last been seen at a Managing Committee meeting in 1896. Van Benschoten, who had been so active during the early years, died in 1901. John Henry Wright died in 1908. The deaths of Seymour and Harkness and Wright, who had been assiduous in their attendance at the meetings of the Committee, and the virtual withdrawal of White and Goodwin gave an entirely new complexion to the Committee. The labor of White, Norton, Goodwin and Seymour was accomplished. The old order was changing, giving place to new.
The change in the personnel of the Board of Trustees was almost as striking. Of the original thirteen only four were living. Of these White retired in 1909, Goodwin died in 1912 but was inactive after 1910, Sloane held his trusteeship till 1918, and Gildersleeve till his death in 1924. The first two presidents, James Russell Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton, had both died, and the third, Francis C. Lowell, died in 1911. Goodwin, the first Secretary, retired in 1910 and was succeeded by William Amory Gardner. Samuel D. Warren and Edward J. Lowell, the first two Treasurers, were both dead, and Gardiner M. Lane, a son of Professor George Martin Lane, of Harvard, and a son-in-law of Gildersleeve, had been Treasurer since 1892.
At the meeting when Seymour’s death was announced to the Managing Committee (1908) there was also announced the election to the Committee of Edward Capps, of Princeton.
At this memorable meeting in 1908 Wheeler presented his resignation as Chairman, stating it as his opinion that “in an association of Colleges and Universities the representative of a single institution should not, on general principles, hold the chairmanship for a longer time than is necessary to secure a proper continuity of administration.” A special committee of three was appointed to nominate a successor. Wheeler consented to serve for the next year. At the following meeting (1909) the committee reported their unanimous judgment that Wheeler be asked to continue in office. He consented to do so and served till 1918.
Among the many studies made by the Fellows of the School during the next ten years—the remainder of Wheeler’s chairmanship—may be mentioned the publication of an inscription discovered on the Acropolis by Allen C. Johnson in 1909–1910. It is of special interest because it mentions an elaborately decorated short sword which Demosthenes alleges was embezzled by one of the treasurers, Glaucetes. Two other newly discovered Athenian inscriptions were also published by Johnson in the Journal for 1913–1914.
In May, 1910, a small but important excavation was conducted on the Acropolis at Athens. Hill had become much interested in the problem of determining the exact character of the “Older Parthenon.” To enable him to do this, permission was granted by the authorities to dig within the Parthenon wherever the absence of floor slabs made this possible. In the north colonnade a Byzantine tomb hitherto unopened was discovered, and the north edge of the platform of the old temple was located. Hill was able to demonstrate that the Older Parthenon was a peristyle enclosing an amphiprostyle temple with four columns at either end. The cost of this excavation was partly met by the Sears fund for the excavation of Corinth. The results were published in a careful study by Hill in the Journal.
Several excavations were conducted during these years (1908–1918) outside Athens and Corinth not under the immediate supervision of the director but under the auspices of the School. They were done by members or former members of the School.
Professor Carl D. Buck, of the University of Chicago, wished to establish the site of Opous. In 1910 the University put at his disposal five hundred dollars for this purpose. Buck’s interest in the Greek dialects led him to hope that inscriptions found here would furnish him with interesting data. But, as so frequently happens, the excavation did not yield the expected results. No inscriptions were found, but at Kyparissi, in Locris, remains of a considerable town were uncovered, and above it on an acropolis twelve hundred feet high the ground plan of a Doric temple and some other Greek and Roman buildings. A discussion of the site of Opous by Blegen, who had charge of this investigation, was published in the Journal.
Miss Hetty Goldman, Norton Fellow, 1910–1911, and Miss Alice Walker (Mrs. Georgios Kosmopoulos), Fellow of the School, 1909–1910, began their excavation at Halae, in Locris, in 1911. They furnished the funds for this work. A number of tombs were opened with results so encouraging that excavations were renewed in 1912. Much prehistoric pottery was found, a large deposit of bronze ornaments, some valuable objects of gold and silver, and much pottery showing the influence of Corinthian and Attic ceramic art on the local products. The Balkan War and later the outbreak of the general European conflict prevented further work at Halae, but Miss Goldman and Miss Walker promptly published a report of their work, supplemented by an article by Miss Goldman in the Journal on the inscriptions from Halae and a later publication in Hesperia [Hesperia, Volume IX (1940)]. (Plate X)
The excavation of Miss Boyd (Mrs. Charles H. Hawes) at Kavousi in Crete has already been mentioned. Her more important work at Gournia (1901–1903) was not done under the auspices of the School, but she was assisted during 1903–1904 by Miss Edith Hall (Mrs. Joseph M. Dohan), Agnes Hoppin Memorial Fellow. Miss Hall’s discussion of a new class of pottery found that season—white decorations on a black ground—is published in the Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, Free Museum of Science and Art at the University of Pennsylvania.
But the most important work of the School in Crete was to be done by Richard Seager. He was registered as a student of the School in 1903–1904 and 1905–1906. He had dug with good results at Vasilike, near Gournia, in 1906 and at the Island of Pseira in 1907. In the spring of 1908 he began with funds partially supplied by the School his brilliantly successful work at the Island of Mochlos. Here were found evidences of all the successive Minoan civilizations except the last. A great number of the finest vases were recovered, as well as many objects of bronze. The deposit was one of the richest in Crete. (Plate XI)
The promptness with which Seager prepared his material for final publication was as commendable as it was unusual. In May, 1910, Wheeler announced that it was in the hands of the Committee on Publications, Explorations of the Island of Mochlos, the second book issued by the School.
The untimely death of Seager in Crete, May 19, 1925, was an irreparable loss to the School and to the cause of archaeology. His interest in the School was continuous from the time when he first registered as a student. Almost every year he visited the School on his way to Crete. His coming was always anticipated with delight by students and faculty. At his death he directed that his residuary estate be divided equally between the British and American Schools. The Richard B. Seager Fund for Excavations of the American School amounts to $45,742.24.
Coincident with the passing of so many of the early friends of the School in 1908 came the retirement of Doerpfeld from full work at Athens. Year after year the students had been welcome to his lectures on the buildings of ancient Athens. He gave the complete course for the last time in 1908. Fortunately he often returned to Athens, and in 1924 resumed “his afternoons of lucid topographical persuasion,” as Carpenter called them. His advice was always available and generously given to the American students. He died in 1940 at Leucas, still firm in the belief that it was Homer’s Ithaca.
Dr. George Karo, his successor, was equally kind to students of the School. They were as courteously received by him at the German Institute and as welcome to his lectures. His knowledge of Greek archaeology was as wide as Doerpfeld’s, his classical foundation better, his scholarship more sound, and the charm of his diction, whether he spoke in English, German, French or Italian, unmatched.
Just before the war brought the activities of the School to a standstill, the question of accommodations for women began to agitate the Managing Committee. At the meeting in
1915 the appointment of a committee was authorized which should look into the question in all its bearings. The following year it reported that a plot of land on Speusippou Street opposite the School was for sale and that it would be a suitable location for a women’s hostel. Whereupon it was voted that the committee be continued under the chairmanship of Professor Francis G. Allinson, of Brown, and that they be “authorized to solicit subscriptions for the erection and maintenance of a hostel for the women of the American School at Athens.” Payment of the subscriptions was to be conditioned on the raising of the full amount. The committee wisely secured the cooperation of the women’s colleges and, what was more effective, the leadership of Miss M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr. They were able to report at the very next meeting (1917) that sufficient funds were available for the purchase of the land for the erection of the hostel. This was indeed record progress. But now the scene shifted to Athens, and the seemingly inevitable delays began. The next year Acting Chairman Perry was only able to report that “negotiations are still proceeding” and that “the Director is hoping to acquire the land for between 50,000 and 60,000 drachmas.” The American and British Schools were to pay for the plot jointly. The committee reported $4,893.51 on hand.
This was the state of affairs when the Managing Committee met in May, 1919. But during the meeting a cable arrived from the new chairman, Edward Capps, who was in Athens, stating that the deed for the property had been passed that month.
The price was eighty thousand drachmae, of which the Greek Government paid thirty thousand, the American School 27,777.80, and the British School 22,222.20. The larger payment by the American School was due to the fact that the plot was unevenly divided, the American share being twenty meters wider. Each school planned to erect a building, using a joint entrance to the grounds.
Henry D. Wood, Fellow in Architecture, 1906–1908, had given much of his time to a study of the west wing of the Propylaea at Athens. On his arrival in Athens for the first of his ten years’ residence William Bell Dinsmoor, Fellow in Architecture, 1908–1912, took up Wood’s task of investigating the Propylaea. At the end of his first year’s work Dinsmoor had arrived at conclusions concerning the whole structure quite as revolutionary as those of Wood regarding the western wing. This work was ready for publication. It appeared as the “Gables of the Propylaea at Athens” in the Journal. His re-appointment for two more years (1909–1911) gave him an opportunity to study in detail the whole west front of the Acropolis. This involved the study of several building accounts and led to an examination of the Beulé gate. Here were the fragments of the Choragic Monument of Nicias. A careful study of these and a small excavation at the southeast corner of the Stoa of Eumenes enabled Dinsmoor not only to correct the accepted reconstruction of this monument but also to demonstrate that it stood at the point which he had excavated. These conclusions were set forth in a brilliant paper in the Journal on “The Choragic Monument of Nicias.”
Dinsmoor did not, however, devote all his energies to the west slope of the Acropolis. Other members of the School and K. K. Smith in particular had become interested in the French excavations at Delphi. Here Dinsmoor worked part of the time in 1909–1910. At the open meeting of the School on April 8 he presented a study of the Cnidian and Siphnian Treasuries at Delphi which for lack of space in the Journal was printed in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique. These articles showed the same amazing grasp of detail and clarity of exposition that had characterized his two earlier School papers.
He now devoted himself to the restoration of the building inscriptions for the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Propylaea and later the statue of Athena Promachus.
These preliminary studies had cleared the way for work on the Propylaea itself, the work which was, in Wheeler’s words, “to constitute the principal part of his labors for the remainder of the time we can expect him to remain in the School.” The article on the Treasuries was in proof in 1912, and the building accounts well along toward publication.
Stuart Thompson was appointed Fellow in Architecture in direct charge of the alterations to the School building for 1913–1915 “to enable Mr. Dinsmoor, the Architect of the School, to give his time without undue interruption to his work on the Propylaea.” During 1913–1914 Dinsmoor’s careful work and his surprising grasp of architectural detail enabled him to prove that the base of the Agrippa monument was much older than the first century after Christ and that it had had an earlier use. He was also able to show such serious errors in the reconstruction of the Temple of Athena Nike as effected by Ross, Schaubert and Hansen that its rebuilding would be desirable.
At the end of 1914–1915 the “extensive study of the Propylaea and western slope of the Acropolis” had reached a point where Dinsmoor “expects to be able to complete his task in another year.” The next year (1915–1916) he was engaged for some time in Corinth but “has about completed his work on the Propylaea.” A year later (1917) the “study is now about completed.” Speedy publication was hoped for. Another year passed, some digging was done in May, 1918, but like those algebraic functions that are always approaching but never quite reaching their fixed limits Mr. Dinsmoor was continuing “his elaborate studies on the Propylaea at Athens” and had “brought them nearly to a conclusion.” In August, 1918, Dinsmoor was commissioned Lieutenant in the United States Army and attached to the staff of the U. S. Military Representative in Greece. This ended his official connection with the School till 1923.
And the history of the Erechtheum publication is no more pleasant reading. It will be remembered that Stevens, appointed Fellow in Architecture for 1903–1905, had been devoting himself to studying and drawing the Erechtheum because the scaffolds erected for the building gave opportunities to measure and photograph parts of the structure usually inaccessible. The publication of these studies of Stevens with an archaeological account of the temple and the inscriptions had become one of the School projects, and as early as 1904 it was “well advanced.” Two papers published in the Journal were the direct result of this work of Stevens on the Erechtheum—“The East Wall of the Erechtheum” by Stevens, and “The Building Inscriptions of the Erechtheum” by O. M. Washburn. The former was illustrated by Stevens’ beautiful drawings. The perfection of these and their marvelous accuracy aroused all the more the desire for the completed work. To Washburn’s article on the text of the building inscriptions were added restorations and comments by August Frickenhaus. Here, too, may be mentioned two later articles that came from the study of this building: “The ‘Metopon’ on the Erechtheum” by Caskey and Hill, and “Structural Notes on the Erechtheum” by Hill.
When Stevens returned to America in 1905 he brought the Erechtheum drawings with him. The manuscript, which had received Heermance’s approval, required “a formal rather than an essential revision” and was in Caskey’s hands. Fowler was to write the chapter on the temple sculpture. A committee on the publication of the Erechtheum volume was appointed. These arrangements were reported to the Managing Committee in 1906. A year later Hill had returned to Athens as Director of the School, and it was felt that much was still to be done on the manuscript. “Professor Wright has strongly advised that the book should not be hurried to completion.” Never was advice more literally accepted.
The next spring (1908) Stevens visited Athens and took more notes for slight revisions of his drawings. It was stated that work on the publication was going on steadily. The next year slow progress was registered; Elderkin was working on the historical introduction, and Hill on the inscriptions.
At the meeting of the Managing Committee in 1910 the newly appointed committee on publication was urged to hasten the publication of the work on the Erechtheum, and funds were put at its disposal to expedite the project. A year later the appointment of Professor J. M. Paton as editor of the Erechtheum publication with a stipend of twelve hundred dollars was announced. He went to Europe in the summer of 1911, hoping to find new material for this publication in the libraries there. Considerable historical material was found, and “steady progress” was reported the next year (1912), but delays had now become “unavoidable.” The following year good progress was being made, and the time of publication was “distinctly nearer.” During the winter of 1913–1914 Paton went to Rome to consult Stevens, who was then in the American Academy. The conference advanced Paton’s “editorial work very materially” but also led to further excavations in January and February at the Erechtheum which gave further useful data about earlier structures on this site. In 1915 “there is still vexatious delay in completing the book on the Erechtheum,” “and as in a dream one faileth in the chase of a flying man—the one faileth in his flight and the other in his chase,” so at the close of Wheeler’s chairmanship, “The material for the publication of the Erechtheum is some of it in Rome, some in Athens and some here. Present conditions make it impossible to gather this into one place for printing.”
Just before the war brought all work at the School to a close both Director Hill and Architect Dinsmoor were honored by election to the German Archaeological Institute.
Even before war actually broke out, rising prices and unsettled conditions had affected the School. Hoppin had secured through the School permission to conduct a supplementary excavation at the Argive Heraeum in 1915. He was interested in finding the earliest sanctuary on this site and in relating the pottery found there to “‘Minoan’ and ‘Minyan’ ware.” The European conflict constrained him, however, to postpone this investigation, and his decision was reported to the Managing Committee at their meeting in 1916. The stipend of the School fellowship was advanced for 1912–1913 from six to eight hundred dollars, and two hundred dollars was added to the Institute fellowship. This extra expense was assumed by the Institute beginning with 1917.
Even so, there was no candidate for the School fellowship for 1913–1914. There was but one student at the School in 1915–1916—the School Fellow, Ralph W. Scott. He was given leave to spend 1916–1917 in Rome. No annual professor went out for 1915–1916. Two Fellows were elected for 1917–1918—James P. Harland, of Princeton, and Miss Janet M. MacDonald, of Bryn Mawr. They did not, however, go to Athens but with Miss Eleanor F. Rambo, of Bryn Mawr, elected Institute Fellow for 1915–1916, awaited the end of the war to occupy their fellowships. There was no fellowship examination in 1918. Since the affairs of the School were slowing to the inevitable standstill, some of the cooperating colleges withdrew their support.
In the midst of this process of disintegration it is a pleasure to record one constructive measure—the founding of the Auxiliary Fund Association by Edward Capps. In 1916 Capps began to gather a group of friends of the School, especially those connected with it as teachers and students, who would contribute to its support. Most of the subscribers pledged annual gifts, and though many of the contributions were small, the aggregate was considerable. In 1916 the treasurer received from this Fund $170; in 1917, $1,053; and in 1918, $1,567.73. After the war the annual contributions were about four thousand dollars ($10,751.32 in 1921, when T. Leslie Shear was Chairman). The Association is administered by a Board of Directors appointed by the chairman of the Managing Committee. It was provided that the principal of the fund might be used in an emergency. Fortunately, that contingency has been avoided. The yearly contributions have been consistently added to the endowment, only the income being used for current expenses. In 1942 the total endowment thus created was $102,758.70.
After a brief illness Professor Wheeler died in New York, February 9, 1918. He was only fifty-nine years old. He had been Chairman of the Managing Committee since 1901—seventeen years.
In looking over the record of achievement during these years it is not easy to appraise his services to the School. The lack of activity at the School during the closing years of his regime was an inevitable result of the war. Till that time the attendance had been satisfactory. The students had been increasingly better prepared for their work. And the work offered to the students had been on a higher plane than ever before. The annual professors had, on the whole, given courses more germane to the environment. The other schools had offered a richer program of lectures, to which the American students were always welcome, the School trips under Hill had been a more rational survey of archaeological sites and less an exercise in pedic activity on bicycles and mountain slopes.
Under the auspices of the School excavations of real distinction had been conducted, for instance at Mochlos and Halae. The excavations by the staff of the School had been confined to Corinth and to exploratory digs on the Acropolis at Athens. The science of excavation as practiced by Hill and Blegen was not only far in advance of anything done before by the School but was also superior to the contemporary work of some of the other foreign schools in Athens.
The work of the Fellows in Architecture, particularly that of Stevens, was notable. In his grasp of detail and his ability to recognize and place correctly architectural fragments Dinsmoor had no equal.
The effect of these inspiring teachers on the students was evident in the character of the papers which they published and which they presented at the open meetings of the School.
Along all these lines progress had been made during the seventeen years of Wheeler’s chairmanship. Not so much can be said in praise of the larger achievements of the School.
At the beginning of Wheeler’s chairmanship it was said that three problems awaited solution. The systematic excavation of Corinth, which necessitated the securing of funds; the publication of the results of this excavation; and the increase of the School’s endowment.
Wheeler had succeeded in securing funds for the excavation—if not ample funds, at least a considerable amount of money was available. It is also true that not all the money intended for this excavation was spent upon it. A careful and systematic excavation had not been conducted. Instead of campaigns carefully planned to clear successive areas in a well ordered sequence, digging from year to year proceeded erratically. Finally, the main area of the city was entirely abandoned, while one nearby prehistoric site was examined, and a search was made for others.
In the matter of publications the record was even worse. Wheeler had been unable, as has been seen, to secure from the School staff any comprehensive account of the excavations at Corinth. The last published “preliminary report” was for the year 1905. There had appeared in the American Journal of Archaeology a considerable number of excellent articles written by the staff and the students, describing details of the excavation and the finds, but a well-coordinated plan to “publish Corinth” there was not. Compared with the completely organized and carefully planned excavation of the Athenian Agora by T. Leslie Shear, with its regular annual reports and its weekly bulletins, the activities of the School at Corinth seem inchoate and irrational.
Nor is it a sufficient answer to say that the Agora was abundantly financed while Corinth was not. There was evident at Athens a tendency, almost fatal, to abandon one project, half complete, to engage on another investigation that attracted the attention of the staff.
Corinth needed excavation and publication; it was the first duty of the School. But the energy needed there was diverted to the Erechtheum. The Erechtheum publication was left incomplete, and the older Parthenon was excavated, drawn and published. The Propylaea was to be completely and adequately published, but the work was never completed, while Nicias’ monument and the Delphic treasuries were beautifully reconstructed and published. Of the three larger publications which might reasonably have been expected of Wheeler and the staff of the School—Corinth, the Erechtheum, the Propylaea—not one was completed.
The endowment during Wheeler’s chairmanship showed a steady but not spectacular growth. The increase was due partly to the fact that several of the cooperating colleges began or completed the funding of their annual gifts. A few endowment funds like those in memory of Heermance and Adelbert Hay had increased the general funds. One large gift, twenty-five thousand dollars, had been received from the Carnegie Institution, but this had been almost offset by the use of endowment funds to finance the remodeling of the School building. In October, 1902, at the close of Seymour’s regime, securities and cash amounted to $97,790.88, an increase of $45,302.50 in the ten years since 1892. In September, 1917 (the last year of Wheeler’s chairmanship), the securities and cash amounted to $141,459.37, an increase of $43,668.49 in fifteen years. Under Seymour the increase had been over forty-five hundred a year, under Wheeler less than three thousand.