The Butler Imperium: 1902-1945 |
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An Annotated Timeline |
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| 1902 | ||
| Bio/Portrait/ Image/ Admin.Chron. |
February -- Nicholas Murray Butler elected 12th President of Columbia University; the third youngest incumbent at 40; inauguration attended by President Theodore Roosevelt | |
| 1903 | ||
| Bio/Portrait | Tentative agreement between publisher Joseph Pulitzer and Columbia University to establish a journalism school with a $1,000,000 gift from Pulitzer; agreement stalled by Pulitzer deciding against proceeding "till after my death." | |
| Map/Image | October 1 -- Trustees purchased land between Broadway and Amsterdam and 116th and 114th Streets ("South Field") for $2,000,000. Would become site of College buildings and School of Journalism; still later, Butler Library | |
| 1904 | ||
| Bios/Map/Image | Olivia and Caroline Phelps Dodge pledge $200,000 for the construction of St. Paul's Chapel; building completed in 1906 | |
| Map/Image | Ground broken for two undergraduate dormitories, Hartley and Livingston Halls, on east side of newly acquired South Field | |
| Bio/Image | Mining magnate Adolph Lewisohn offered $250,000 for a School of Mines Building (now Lewisohn) on condition that University use his architect, Arnold W. Brummer. | |
| College of Pharmacy affiliated with Columbia; retain own trustees as per Teachers College and Barnard | ||
| 1905 | ||
| -- NMB changes selection process of deans of Columbia's various faculties from elected by faculty to appointed by Trustees on the advice of the President | ||
| Map/Image Portrait |
September 27 -- The cornerstone of Hamilton Hall, future home of Columbia College, was laid. Costs covered by $500,000 anonymous gift (John S. Kennedy) | |
| 1906 | ||
| -- At urging of NMB and with funding from James Speyer, Columbia Trustees establish Theodore Roosevelt Exchange Professor with the University of Berlin and welcome establishment by the Prussian government of the Kaiser Wilhelm Exchange Professorship with Columbia University | ||
| Bio/Image | John W. Burgess appointed first Roosevelt Exchange Professor for 1906-1907 | |
| Faculty of Fine Arts -- encompassing Architecture, Design, and Music -- established as a separate Columbia faculty (eliminated in 1912?) | ||
| 1907 | ||
| Image | February -- Hamilton Hall opened as home of Columbia College | |
| Bio/Image | Spring -- NMB, widowed since 1905, married Miss Kate LaMontague, a Catholic | |
| 1908 | ||
| Bio | July -- Alumni to elect six members of the Board of Trustees to staggered 6-year terms; Alumni Bureau organized, with Rudolph Tombo as Director | |
| 1909 | ||
| January 19 -- Columbia announces plans to create a Forestry School | ||
| Bio | April 24 -- Alumni elect their first Alumni Trustee, Benjamin B. Lawrence (School of Mines, 1878) | |
| Bio/Image Adm. Chron. |
-- Administrative office of Dean of Graduate Faculties established; Deans of all non-professional faculties (Political Science, Philosophy, Pure Science and Columbia College) made subordinate to it. John W. Burgess appointed first Dean of Graduate Faculties | |
| Map | October 4 -- Cornerstone of Kent Hall laid; to be the home of the Law School and Faculty of Political Science (Opened October 29, 1910) | |
| November 7 -- Donor of $500,000 to build Hamilton Hall, John S. Kennedy, leaves another $2,250,000 in his will to Columbia | ||
| 1910 | ||
| Bios Admin. Chron. |
February 8 -- Secretary of the University Frederick Keppel (CC '1899) becomes Dean of Columbia College, upon retirement of John Van Amringe (CC '1860) | |
| June 9 -- Columbia establishes a two-year course in optometry | ||
| Bio | July -- Trustees suspend Preofessor Harry T. Peck after he became involved in a paternity suit; later sues NMB for slander | |
| Bio | -- Professor of Psychology James McKeen Cattell publicly criticizes Columbia Trustees for their salary policies with respect to junior faculty | |
| Map | July 11 -- Cornerstone of Philosophy Hall laid | |
| Map/Bio | University buys land east of Amsterdam Avenue between 116th and 117th Streest ("East Campus"), with much of the funding provided by William Vanderbilt; land considered likely future location for the Medical School (until it moved from 59th Street to 168th Street in 1925). | |
| -- Trustees vote to involuntarily retire Cattell; decision stayed by expressions of faculty support for Cattell | ||
| December 28 -- University signs agreement with Presbyterian Hospital to plan new teaching hospital to be staffed by P & S physicians; plan in accord with recommendations of the Flexner Report (1908) and underwritten with $1,300.000 from E.L. Harkness | ||
| 1911 | ||
| Map | Avery and Philosophy Halls completed and opened for occupancy; Construction of President's House (Morningside Drive and 116th Street) begun | |
| Bio | July -- October Trustees fire English Professor Joel Spingarn for his verbal attack on NMB in protesting Peck's suspension. | |
| Bio | Joseph Pulitzer dies, releasing $1,000,000 to construct a School of Journalism at Columbia | |
| 1912 | ||
| Map | Trustees approve creation of a School of Journalism and appoint School's first two professors, using supplemented funds ($2,000,000) provided by Josph Pulitzer estate; schoool initially open to applicants without college experience, but not to women. | |
| Bio/ Adm.Chron |
May 7 -- The administrative position of "Provost" reintroduced; responsibilities do not encroach on those of Dean of Graduate Faculties; akin to to that of Assistant President; Professor William H. Carpenter appointed as Columbia's second Provost [John Mason the first, 1811-1816]. | |
| July 1 -- Dean of Graduate Faculties John W. Burgess retired; succeeded by Philosophy Professor Frederick Woodbridge (1912- 1929?). | ||
| July 2 -- Cornerstone of Journalism Building laid | ||
| Corporate name changed by order of the New York Supreme Court to "The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York" | ||
| 1913 | ||
| January 7 -- Maison Francaise opened; intended to cultivate Franco-American cultural relations | ||
| February 4 -- Queen Wilhemina Lectureship established; intended to strengthen University ties with the Netherlands | ||
| June 7 -- University establishes a faculty exchange program with Austrian universities | ||
| Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry become graduate schools, limiting admission to students with at least three years of collegiate study | ||
| Bio/Text | Associate Professor of Politics Charles A. Beard publishes An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, in which he stresses the economic motives of the Founding Fathers; book roundly criticized for its imputed anti-patriotism | |
| 1914 | ||
| April 7 -- Fine Arts Faculty abolished; CU link with National Academy of Design terminated | ||
| Map/Image | June -- Statue of Thomas Jefferson unveiled between Journalism and Furnald Hall; a pedant to statue of Alexander Hamilton between Hamilton and Hartley Hall | |
| August -- War breaks out in Europe, pitting Britain, France and Russia (The Allies) against Germany and Austro-Hungary; President Wilson calls upon Americans to be "impartial in thought as well as in deed" | ||
| September -- NMB critical of militarism; blames war on "kings and cabinets" and urges US to stay out of it. | ||
| Map | October 10 -- University Hall, located behind Low Library, burned to the ground. | |
| October 25 - A Navy post-graduate program opens in the Engineering School | ||
| 1915 | ||
| Bio/Image | February -- Columbia College Dean Frederick Keppel opposed plans to use nation's campuses for student military training | |
| March 24 --Collegiate Common Sense League formed at Columbia to oppose militarism | ||
| Text | March 26 -- Faculty Committee reports to NMB on "the Chinese problem in the University." Committee sympathetic to problems of Chinese and Japanese students encounter as undergraduates; propose changes in the language requirements to permit Chinese as an ancient language and Japoanese as a modern language. Report lists 17 Japanese and 51 Chinese stdying at the University in 1914-1915. | |
| Bio/Image | Professor Emeritus John W. Burgess defends German actions against criticisms from pro-Allied commentators | |
| May -- Following Gernam sinking of the Lusitania, Professor of Sociology Franklin H. Giddings denounced US neutrality; urged support of Allies in their war against Germany. | ||
| May 12 -- A senior honor society, Sachems, founded. | ||
| June 8 -- Plan announced to build a medical campus at 168th Street; to be site of new Presbyterian Hospital and P & S. | ||
| November 21 -- Columbia College Dean Keppel advocates use of moving pictures and phonograph as instructional aids | ||
| 1916 | ||
| Bio/Image | January 22 -- Professor of Philosophy John Dewey begins to reconsider his earlier neutrality stance in the pages of the increasingly interventionist New Republic | |
| School of Business established; to provide two years of collegiate-level instruction | ||
| April -- Trustee Committee on Education interrogates Professor Charles A. Beard on his presence at a meeting of community organizers at which "To Hell with Flag" uttered; Beard satisfied Trustees that his involvement misreported | ||
| 1917 | ||
| Bio/Image | January -- Professor James McKeen Cattell sent leters to 28 members of the Columbia Faculty Club questioning NMB's competence; Cattell was persuaded by faculty collegaues to apologize but then withrdrew his apology upon its being publicized. | |
| Bio/Image | January -- Professor of History Carleton Hayes denounced military training on campuses | |
| Text | January 17 -- Columbia professors E. L. Thorndike, Robert L. Schuyler and James Harvey Robinson call for US to break diplomatic ties with Germany | |
| February 6 -- Following resumption by Germany of unrestricted submarine warfare, NMB declares himself in favor of US intervention | ||
| Text | February 13 -- NMB telegraphs President Wilson of Columbia's readiness to support military intervention | |
| Bio/Image | February 17 -- NMB defends right of Professor David Muzzey to express anti-militarist views | |
| Bio/Image | March -- German-born Professor of Anthropology Franz Boas criticized by some students and alumni for statements to his classes viewed as supportive of German cause | |
| March 6 -- Faculty adopt resolution to inquire into whether some faculty are propagating undemocratic doctrines | ||
| April 6 -- Congress declares war on Germany | ||
| May 6 -- Farewell service on campus for 200 students and alumni going into national service | ||
| Bio | May -- Professor Henry Wadsworth Dana participates in a public anti-militarist meeting; later refuses to disavow the anti-war sentiments of the meeting | |
| June 6 -- NMB uses occasion of addressing alumni at Columbia Commencement to declare that public opposition to the war from faculty would henceforth be considered grounds for dismissal; "what had been wrongheadedness was now sedition." | ||
| June -- Professor Cattell's son arrested for anti-war activities; Cattell publicly defended his son's actions; NMB took this to violate his Commencement statement and convenes a faculty-administrative committee ["Committee of Nine"] to consider Cattell's and Dana's dismissal. Special Trustee Committee also investigating these cases. | ||
| August -- Columbia College Dean Keppel takes leave for war work in Washington; Mathematics Professor Herbert Hawkes appointed acting dean | ||
| September 16 -- Columbia reports that 200 of its faculty enlisted for war service | ||
| Bio/Image/Text | September 24 -- Trustee F. S. Bangs declares "the power of the Trustees to regulate the affairs of the University is absolute." | |
| Bio/Image | September -- President Wilson convened a group of academics ["The Inquiry"] to consider post-war challenges and propose solutions to assure a permanent restoration of peace; Columbia faculty, conspicuously Professor James T. Shotwell, and Columbia PhDs figure prominently in its activities during war and later at Versailles. | |
| Bio/Image | September 25 -- A majority of Committee of Nine, including its chair E.R.A. Seligman (but not John Dewey), recommend the dismissal of Cattell and Dana. | |
| Bio/Image | September 29 -- Professor of Anthroplogy Franz Boas wrote to NMB in defense of Cattell as "his services to science are so eminent." | |
| Text | October 1 -- Trustees vote to dismiss Cattell and Dana; deny Cattell his pension | |
| Text | October 4 -- Professors Beard, Dewey and Robinson reported in Evening Post to have opposed firings in remarks to their classes on opening day of the term. | |
| Bio/Image/Text | October 8 -- Professor Charles A. Beard resigns from Columbia to protest the dismissal of Cattell and Dana; reminds Trustees of his support of American entry into war. | |
| October 14 -- Peithologian Society protests firings of Catell and Dana; lament the resignation of Beard. | ||
| Bio/Image/Text | October 22 -- Columbia graduate Randolph Bourne (CC 1909), in "Twilight of Idols" published in The Seven Arts, expresses his disillusionment with Dewey and other academics who had come to support American intervention into the war. | |
| Bio/Image | December -- Professor of History James Harvey Robinson resigns his Columbia position to join his friend Charles A. Beard at the New Republic; in 1918 Robinson and Beard help found the New School for Social Research, where John Dewey taught for two years on leave from Columbia and H.W. Dana found permanent academic employment | |
| Bio/Image | December 4 -- Baranrd Assistant Professor of Economics Henry R. Mussey resigns from Barnard faculty in protest against Columbia policies censuring critics of the war | |
| 1918 | ||
| January -- Deutsche Haus, previously home of German Department, given over to faculty wives for war-relief activities; later renamed Columbia House. | ||
| February 13 -- Military training to be compulsory for all Columbia undergraduuates in the Fall | ||
| March -- NMB estimates that 10,000 Columbia alumni in war service | ||
| April 22 -- Officer Training Corps established at Columbia | ||
| Bio/Image | May 8 -- Dean Keppel resigns as head of Columbia College; Herbert Hawkes appointed Dean | |
| Image | September -- Branch of the Student Army Training Corps established at Columbia; South Field illuminated to permit nightime drilling; "War Issues" course made a required part of the undergraduate curriculum | |
| November 11 -- Armistice signed ending the war with Germany's accepting "unconditional defeat." | ||
| 1919 | ||
| January 21 -- Director of Admission Adam Leroy Jones announces introduction of the use of psychological tests in admissions | ||
| May 3 -- A year-long course in "Contemporary Civilization" is planned for incoming freshmen in the Fall; an outgrowth of the "War Issues" course taught in Fall 1918 | ||
| May 6 -- Professor of History James Harvey Robinson resigns; joins Beard in helping to found the New School of Social Research | ||
| 1920 | ||
| January 11 -- Contemporary Civilizations course made cmpulsory for all freshmen | ||
| 1921 | ||
| April 3 -- Columbia Registrar reports that only 40% of students from NYC | ||
| May 21 -- University discusses plans for an athletic stadium to be built at 218th Street | ||
| June 2 -- NMB declares that Columbia College in serch of quality, not numbers | ||
| 1922 | ||
| March 12 -- Columbia's claim to being country's largest university challenged by University of California | ||
| June 4 -- George F. Baker gives $700,000 to buy land above Dyckman Avenue for athletic field and stadium | ||
| 1923 | ||
| January 23 -- Columbia charged by Jewish group with discriminating against Jews in admissions to the College | ||
| Construction underway for School of Business building (now Dodge Hall); also to house University Extension and McMillin Theater; completed in 1924 | ||
| 1924 | ||
| January 16 -- Columbia College Dean Hawkes acknowledges policy of limiting College enrollments has been in effect for some time | ||
| April -- H.W. Jervey replaces Harlan Stone as Dean of Law School upon Stone's appointment to the Supreme Court | ||
| April 3 -- The presence of a Negro student, F.W. Wells, in Furnald Hall, prompts student protest; Ku Klux Klan involvement suspected | ||
| 1925 | ||
| Map | January 31 -- Ground broken uptown for Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center at 168th St. and Fort Washington Ave. Principal funding from Edward S. Harkness | |
| Map | January 31 -- Ground broken on main campus for Johnson Hall (now Wien), Columbia's first dormitory for graduate women | |
| Map | Baker Field Stadium completed on upper tip of Manhattan on land given by George F. Baker in 1922. | |
| Map | Cornerstone of Chandler Hall laid, located north of Mathematics Hall on northwest corner of Broadway and 120th Street. To serve the Chemistry Department. | |
| Map | Construction begun on John Jay Hall, a men's dormitory on the southeast corner of Amsterdam and 116th Street. | |
| 1926 | ||
| Map | Construction underway for Casa Italiana, located across Amsterdam Avenue from the apse of St. Paul's Chapel. Plan endorsed by Benito Mussolini. | |
| 1927 | ||
| Map | Construction underway for Pupin Hall, to provide additional laboratories for Physics Department. Located east of Chandler with back to 120th Street | |
| 1928 | ||
| Map | Construction underway for Schermerhorn Extension, to serve the biological sciences. Building's back to 120th Street; the eastern pendant of Chandler Hall | |
| 1929 | ||
| October 29 -- Collapse of the stock market marks onset of world-wide economic depression | ||
| 1930 | ||
| 1931 | ||
| Map/Images | Construction underway for new Library Building on South Campus, with backside on 114th Street. Partially funded by a $3,000,000 ggift from Edward S. Harkness. Was to be the last large building project undertaken by Columbia until after World War Two. Library renamed Butler Library in 1945. | |
| 1932 | ||
| November 8 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt (attended CU Law) defeats incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency | ||
| 1933 | ||
| January 13 -- F. J. Coykendall elected Chairman of Board of Trustees | ||
| March 4 -- President Roosevelt inaugurated; launches "100 Days" of emergency legislation; several of his "Brains Trust" advisers were Columbians | ||
| May 17 -- NMB declares era of "large-scale philanthropy" at an end | ||
| July 4 -- Lease of Rockefeller Center extended to 1962 | ||
| November -- Campus hosts Conference Against War | ||
| 1934 | ||
| James Wechsler editor of Spectator | ||
| 1935 | ||
| April -- Some call for a student strike as expression of anti-war sentiment; NMB opposes such a strike; P & S firings linked to ant-war activities of those fired. | ||
| 1936 | ||
| May -- American Student Union protests University's acceptance of invitation to attend the 550th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg | ||
| October 27 -- Blue Shirts organized by some undergraduates to combat radicalism | ||
| 1937 | ||
| April 2 -- Senior faculty honor NMB on his 75th birthday | ||
| April 19 -- NMB opposes President Roosevelt's plan to expand the Supreme Court | ||
| November 2 -- University Secretary Frank Fackenthal (CC 1906) named University Provost | ||
| 1938 | ||
| May 18 -- NMB seeks $50,000,000 fund from alumni | ||
| 1939 | ||
| 1940 | ||
| October -- NMB urges faculty who disagree with University's view on the war and national preparedness to consider resigning. | ||
| 1941 | ||
| March 10 -- NMB assails US aloofness from the war. | ||
| December 7 -- President Roosevelt declares war on Japan following attack on Peral Harbor; declaration of war against Germany follows directly | ||
| 1942 | ||
| March 28 -- Navy to use two buildings for housing and training Naval officer recruitsi | ||
| June 11 -- NMB gets honorary degree from Fordham University | ||
| 1943 | ||
| November 2 -- Professor of History Harry Carman named 5th Dean of Columbia College (to 1950) | ||
| 1944 | ||
| February 8 -- Publisher of the New York Times, Arthur Hays Sulzberger (CC 1913), elected a Life Trustee; 2nd Jew since 18th C. to be named to the Columbia Board | ||
| 1945 | ||
| February -- NMB urges Fiorello La Guardia's reelection as Mayor of NYC | ||
| February 6 -- IBM creates Computing Laboratory on Columbia campus | ||
| April 1 -- NMB celebrates his 83rd birthday | ||
| April 23 -- NMB resigns the presidency of Columbia University; held office for 44 years | ||
| May 8 -- V-E Day -- Following Hitler's death, the German provisional government surrenders; marks the end of fighting in Europe | ||
| August 15 -- V-J Day -- Following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government surrenders; marks the end to Worl War Two. | ||
| August 30 -- Maintenance workers, led by Mike Quill, hold a one-day strike to claim right to organize into a collective bargaining unit; right to do so conceded by the University | ||
| October 2 -- Provost Frank Fackenthal named Acting President | ||