1880s Overview
1884 Freshman class, with Prof. Rohrback (middle) and Chancellor Goff
English became a defining term in the 1880s, when, for the first time, two members of the faculty, Professors P.V. Veeder and Theodore Moses Barber, were named Professors of English and English became a department of study.
In 1882, the university was reorganized into a College of Arts and Philosophy, a School of Engineering and Chemistry, and the Preparatory School. The newly-formed College of Arts and Philosophy featured 17 “departments of study.” Theodore Moses Barber was responsible for two of them: Latin Language and Literature and Rhetoric and English Literature. A third “department,” Rhetorical Exercises, was the responsibility of Barber and Henry Gibbons (Professor of Greek).
In the newly formed Department of Rhetoric and English Literature, the freshman would study English literature of the 19th Century, “in the written discussion of themes therefrom, and in the recitation of choice portions.” Sophomores would study English Literature of the 18th Century. Juniors would have three recitations a week throughout the year, with two terms devoted to the study of Rhetoric and two to the study of English literature. Seniors, the catalog said, “will give one hour weekly for three terms to the study of earlier English literature."
The 1886 catalog announced a change in the curriculum, with more hours given to Chemistry and Physics. Other areas of study would need to be cut to provide room, and most of the cuts fell to the study of Latin and Greek. There was now a Department of English rather than a department of Rhetoric and English Literature. The catalog provides a much extended discussion of the course of study in English. It says, “Under this general head are included the three branches, Language, Literature, and Rhetoric; in other words, English in its philological, literary, and practical aspects. Courses in all three areas are continuous throughout the four years of study.”
And, according to the catalog statement, these three branches of English are “mutually auxiliary.” That is, the study of literature would provide subject matter and models for composition; the compositions (“analyses, summaries, paraphrases, reviews and biographical sketches”) would provide a clearer understanding of the literature; the courses in rhetoric included the study of style and the “lost art of reading aloud;” and the study of language provided a “clearer conception of the meaning and uses of important words at different periods of their history.”
The aim of the department was to provide instruction in “What to Read and How to Read; that is, to cultivate a taste for the best literature and to form in the student that habit of reading with close attention, frequent consultation of the dictionary and other reference books, and subsequent reflection and mental digestion—in short, the habit of reading intelligently.” (The emphasis was in the original.)
The Language courses were intended to “show the continuity between the period of the Saxon settlement in England to the present day.” The courses relied on the works of Marsh, Earle, Skeat and Morris to supplement the textbook. The literature classes focused primarily on English authors--including Tennyson, Scott, Addison, Milton, Shakespeare and Chaucer. Bain’s English Composition and Rhetoric was the standard text for rhetoric and composition. During the Junior and Senior Years, each student was required to deliver eight original orations before students in the College of Arts and Philosophy.
In 1883, the Chancellor established two prizes of twenty dollars and fifteen dollars to be given to the two top students in the study of English literature. The prizes persisted throughout this decade and into the next.
Courses
Preparatory School
Throughout the 80s, students in the English curriculum in the Preparatory School studied grammar, orthography, reading, and composition. The textbooks included Whitney’s Essentials of Grammar; Swinton’s Composition; Critical Study with Tancock’s Grammar and Reader; Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship; Language Lessons; Reading, with Subject Analysis; Hudson’s Classical English Reader; Critical Study; English History. American literature was introduced to the courses in reading. In 1889, the Preparatory School became the Parks Institute. The curriculum remained largely the same.
Collegiate Curriculum
The 1886 Catalog provides a rare view into the details of the undergraduate curriculum in English. It provides an “approximately complete list” of the textbooks and readings that were assigned, in the order they were assigned. They were
Bain’s Composition Grammar; Lounsbury’s English Language; Irving’s “Old Christmas” and “Bracebridge Hall,” illustrated by Randolph Caldecott; Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” or “Marmion,” or “Select Poems of Tennyson” (Rolfe’s editions); “Typical Selections from the Best English writers (of the 18th century) or Hales’ “Longer English Poems”; Arnold’s Addison; Bain’s “English Composition and Rhetoric”; Collier’s “History of English Literature” and Brooke’s Primer; Richardson’s “Primer of American Literature;” Shakespeare’s Henry V or King Lear or The Tempest (Rolfe’s editions); Dowden’s Shakespeare Primer; Sprague’s Milton; Chaucer’s “Prologue, Knightes Tale, &c,” edited by Morris.
In the 1886 catalog, the English curriculum is defined by three branches, Language, Literature and Rhetoric, “in other words, English in its philological, literary, and practical aspects. Courses in all three areas are continuous throughout the four years of study.”
And, according to the catalog statement, these three branches were “mutually auxiliary.” That is, the study of literature would provide subject matter and models for composition; the compositions (“analyses, summaries, paraphrases, reviews and biographical sketches”) would provide a clearer understanding of the literature; the courses in rhetoric included the study of style and the “lost art of reading aloud;” and the study of language provided a “clearer conception of the meaning and uses of important words at different periods of their history.”
Rhetoric: The first term of the Freshman year was devoted to the study of the “treatise.” This was meant to provide a transition between the work of the Preparatory School and the more advanced work of the Junior year. In the first half of the Sophomore year (the first two terms, that is), students were assigned declamations, readings, and essays on assigned themes. Attention was given to the “much-neglected art of reading aloud.” Juniors would apply the lessons of their rhetorical studies by preparing a study of the style of various authors. Juniors and Seniors were required to deliver eight orations before the collected students of the College.
Language: While there is not enough time, the catalog says, for a thorough study of the history of the English language, “an effort will be made to show the continuity of the language from the period of the Saxon settlement to the present day, and to follow the history of important root-words and grammatical forms….The works of Marsh, Earle, Skeet, Morris, and others are used to supplement the textbook."
Literature: The second half of the Junior year was devoted to a study of the “whole field” of British and American literature. “Special effort is made to guard the student against becoming confused by a mass of names and dates. Writers are grouped, both according to period and ‘schools’ and to the form of literature they cultivated, and the foremost in the several groups are made prominent and dwelt upon, while, at the same time, some attempt is made to indicate the relative place and important of authors of secondary rank.” Over the course of the four year curriculum, students begin with recent literature and move back to the early periods, ending with Chaucer. One and one half hours per week were given to recitations.
When, for example, students were assigned Scott’s “Marmion” or “Lady of the Lake,” they were required to read one of the Waverly novels and to write a review of it, to memorize “several long passages from the poem,” to prepare summaries and paraphrases of sections of the poem, “and to write a sketch of the life of Scott, based on Hutton’s biography.” When studying Shakespeare, students were assigned readings in Dowden’s Shakespeare Primer, followed by several written examinations.
A Tabular View of the College Courses: Beginning in 1886, the catalog provides a tabular view of the full curriculum. Below are the listings for 1889.
Faculty
Edward Payson Crane continued to serve as Professor of Rhetoric and Logic through the 1880 academic year. Crane first joined the faculty in 1866. He was Theodore Moses Barber’s senior colleague throughout the 70s and was certainly influential in Barber’s thinking about the place and role of English literature in the undergraduate curriculum. Crane remained at the University until 1882 [Theodore Moses Barber]
Theodore Moses Barber
Theodore Moses Barber (1846-1915) graduated from Dartmouth in 1870 to join the university as an instructor in Latin. In his first year, he was asked to edit the College Journal, a monthly publication of the Philomathean Society, a student literary and debating club. In 1873 he was promoted to Professor and became the faculty secretary. In 1882, as Latin enrollments declined, Barber began to offer courses in rhetoric and in English literature. In 1886, he was listed for the first time (and reluctantly, according to Starrett) as “Professor of Latin and of English.” He was, then, the university’s second Professor of English, following P. V. Veeder.
Barber was described by his colleagues as “very much of a recluse, and only the students who were good Latin scholars, or who were themselves quiet and sensitive, were permitted to see his collection of rare and valuable etchings.” He led the literary society and, according to one of his students, “he introduced us to Chaucer, Milton, Goldsmith, Pope, Dryden, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley.”
James Heard, a Pittsburgh physician and a former student of Barber, tells this story:
The professor would read aloud to us selected passages of poetry or of prose. His pupils would be given reading assignments, and their diction, rhythm, and accent would be commented upon. Following a poor performance, the teacher would read the same selection to the class. This he would do so beautifully that he could always retrieve wandering attention. On one occasion, while a student was reading Shelly’s Adonais to the class, the unlucky youngster was seized by impious and uncontrollable laughter. The repetition of the phrase:
Oh, weep for Adonais – he is dead!
had tickled his funny bone instead of moving his heart. His laughter was cut short by an angry and caustic rebuke; obviously he thought he would be dropped from the course. But Barber could not hold resentment long. At the end of the term he awarded a cash prize of fifty dollars to the offender.
Barber’s lecture on “The Moon in Mythology and Folklore” was reprinted in the student literary magazine, The College Journal. Barber retired from the university at the end of the school year in 1889.
Rev. P. V. Veeder, D.D., was appointed Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, English Literature and History in 1881, making him the first Professor of English at what would become the University of Pittsburgh. He had previously served as Acting President and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the City College of San Francisco. (In his first year in Pittsburgh, Veeder taught courses in the “Mental and Moral Sciences,” covering them for their usual Professor, Henry M. MacCracken, who was the new Chancellor-elect.)
In 1882, in the description of English as a department of study, Veeder is not mentioned. Professor Barber is the faculty member listed as offering instruction in rhetoric and English literature, but he was the senior member of the faculty in this area and so this is not necessarily unusual. Veeder left the university in 1883. He later taught at Lake Forest College and in Tokyo.
I.N. Forner continued as an Instructor in the Commercial branches until 1885.
George M. Sleeth joined the faculty in 1884 as an Instructor in Elocution, a position he held until 1887. He also served on the faculty of the Western Theological Seminary as an Instructor in Elocution.
J. P. Stephen replaced Sleeth as an Instructor in Elocution in 1889.
Students
Freshman Class of 1889
The Chancellor’s Prizes in English Literature
In 1883, the Chancellor established two annual prizes in English Literature, one of $20 and one of $15. These were awarded at the end of the sophomore year to students of “first and second rank,” based on their work in literature over the first two years of study. The students were selected by a committee consisting of “the Professor of English, the Chancellor, and a third person whom these two may select.” In the 1880s, the Chancellor’s Literature Prize winners were:
1884 John Shields Kennedy, Samuel Eckeburger Duff
1885 Elmer Ellsworth Fulmer, Alexander Haft Holliday
1886 Joseph Croshor Boggs, Alphonso Barry
1887 Charles Morris Johnson, James Delavan Heard
1888 George Kelly Herron, Charles William Henry Ehlers
1889 William Andrew Johnson, Dudley Stevenson Liggett
1890 Henry Maximilian Ferren, Joseph F. Griggs, Jr.
Joseph Croshor Boggs, a veteran of the First World War, became a leading Pittsburgh physician.
Samuel Eckeberger Duff, who completed both his BA and MA at the university, became a railroad and bridge engineer, working for Northern Pacific and the Riter-Conley Manufacturing Company.
Edward E. Eggers became head librarian of Allegheny Library on Pittsburgh’s North Side. He served in that capacity for over twenty years, during which time he made numerous improvements to the library’s function, not least an expansion of the circulation system and the installation of an organ for public concerts.
Elmer Ellsworth Fulmer became a well-known Pittsburgh lawyer.
James Delevan Heard was a Major in the Medical Officers Reserve Corps during WW1. For 60 years, he had a medical practice in the city of Pittsburgh. He served as the Chief Medical Director of the Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital and Chief of Staff at St. Francis Hospital. He installed one of the first cardiographs to be used in the U.S.
Alexander H. Holliday, member of the class of 1887, went on to own and edit the Pennsylvania Western for two years of its seven-year run.
Charles Morris Johnson acquired a number of patents on behalf of the Crucible Steel Company of America. He published Rapid Methods for the Chemical Analysis, a standard reference in his field.
William Andrew Johnson published The Independent in Wilkinsburg. He later went to work for the New York Journal and the New York Press. He served on the editorial staff of the New York Herald and became editor of the New York World. He was the author of novels and short stories. With George Delacorte Jr., he was a co-founder of Dell Publishing.
Student Writing
The first of the entries below comes from the College Journal, the student run literary magazine. In 1882, the College Journal was replaced by The Pennsylvania Western, the source of the remainder of the entries below. The Pennsyvlania Western was published until 1887, when it was replaced by the Courant. While we don’t know if the poems or essays below were prepared as part of course work, they certainly show the influence of an education in the literary and rhetorical arts at the Western University of Pennyslvania.
“The Last Man,” a poem, by W. H. B.
“The Spirit of Modern Criticism,” by “Nomad.”
“Scientific Use of the Imagination,” by J. D. McCabe.
“History of the Franklin Literary Society,” by “Celes.”
“Elegy on a University Class-Room,” a poem, author unknown.
“Patriotic Songs," by “Clind.”
“Shall We Protect the Liquor Traffic?” an oration by J. O. Horning.
“The Philomathean and Irving Contest,” author unknown.
“Woman’s Work,” author unknown.
“An Essay on Professors,” by “Tyro.”
Footnotes
University Courant, Published 1887-1910
The University Courant, also known as the Western University Courant and the Courant, was published from 1887 to 1910. It was the successor to the College Journal and the Pennsylvania Western and was produced by the university’s Irving Literary Society. New issues were published at the rate of about one per month during the school year. The Courant contained poems, articles, and essays written by students, as well as by professors and administrators, and also reported on university and local events. A number of its editors and writers went on to have careers in literature and journalism, including Robert L. Vann, who was to become one of the founding editors of the Pittsburgh Courier, among the nation’s top black newspapers by the 1930s.
“Documenting Pitt,” the University of Pittsburgh on-line archive, provides access to the The College Journal (published between 1869 and 1880), the Pennsylvania Western (published between 1882 and 1887) and the Courant (published between 1888 and 1910).