Favorite Cornell Founder: Ezra Cornell or A.D. White?
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Slope Song
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Almost every Cornellian can confess to getting up close and personal with Andrew Dickson White. Ask any of the alumni descending on campus this weekend for Homecoming if they have at one point sat on stern-faced Uncle Andy’s lap, and I’m sure they will proudly share a story, either as a lost freshman frolicking on the Arts Quad or as a cap-and-gown wearing senior.
The lovin’ A.D. White, founder and first President of Cornell University, receives from generations of Cornellians shouldn’t be surprising. Let’s face it: Andrew Dickson White is the younger, hipper and more intellectual of our two founders. And he has a sweet house.
A.D. is credited as the true architect and visionary of the University —not only did he envision an ideal on paper, but he also orchestrated the development of the actual university, “one with buildings, a faculty and students,” according to University Historian Carol Kammen. He wanted an interdisciplinary institution reminiscent of the great, historical universities of Europe, but free of religious affiliation. While A.D. and Ezra shared a commitment to the founding of the University, A.D. was both 25 years younger and more educated than the self-made Cornell. A.D. was apparently also responsible for polishing the words of good ole’ Ezra. Morris Bishop, in his history of Cornell wrote, “White liked to improve, for publication, the utterances of his rude companions … Cornell [probably] actually said something like: ‘I’d like to start a school where anybody can study anything he’s a mind to.’” Would that have won best motto by Motto Magazine? Doubtful. Thanks, A.D.!
Cornell’s Rare and Manuscript Collection also credits A.D. with the deliberate selection of “person” in our charter and award-winning motto, probably a reference to his lifelong advocacy for, and fascination with, coeducation. He urged the adoption of coeducation in his Inaugural Address, and together with Henry W. Sage (as in the Hall and the Chapel), presented a report in support of it to the Board of Trustees. Coeducation also hit close to home for Andy: his second wife, Helen Magill, was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in America.
As a scholar, much of A.D.’s focus was on the tenuous relationship between science and religion. (His book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom was published in six languages in his lifetime.) He brought his disdain for religious intervention in education and research to Cornell University — he is considered largely responsible for Cornell’s revolutionary lack of religious affiliation. As President, Andy authored a pamphlet entitled The Cornell University: What It Is and What It is Not, in which he wrote that institutions that affiliate with denominations are inherently limited and it spoke of Cornell’s strength to be free from a single religion.
A.D. also apparently gained an almost religious following amongst Cornell students. According to the Society of the Humanities webpage, an 1881 editorial in the student paper the Cornell Era urged the President to make his annual address to the student body, because “more high resolutions are formed and better ideas of our student duties gained from a single address annually delivered by our President than from six months of sermons at Sage Chapel.” The Society of the Humanities is now housed in A.D.’s stately old home on East Avenue.
The next time you’re trudging up the suspension bridge stairs or up from Collegetown for your 9:05 a.m. section in White Hall, realize you have Uncle Andy to thank. The aptly named building houses the Department of Government, the modern-day equivalent of the Department of Political Science, founded by A.D. when he was president. The Law School Admission Council and law schools around the country thank you, A.D., for their abundance of Cornellian government major applicants.
A.D. White also exemplified today’s international approach to the studies of government, as he had a “distinguished diplomatic career” — including Minister to Prussia, Russia, Berlin and Ambassador to Germany — after leaving the presidency, according to the Rare and Manuscript Collection. He did return to Ithaca in 1904 after representing the U.S. around the globe, and he remained here until his death in 1918.
Andy is also recognized as playing a role in Cornell’s “Hottest Ivy” status — Newsweek’s coverage of Cornell included a photo of students perched on a ledge in the A.D. White Library in Uris. The Library, one of the most posh hangouts on campus, is often referred to as the “Harry Potter” library. Its stately, elegant ambience can make even the most mundane studying seem Ivy League-worthy. Andy envisioned a community dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, and his library is the embodiment of that ideal.
Younger than Ezra, A.D. White was able to stick around Ithaca 44 years later than his counterpart and was truly a part of not only the founding, but the crucial stages of Cornell University’s development. He truly shaped what Cornell is, and what it is not.
Elana Beale is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at ebeale@cornellsun.com. Slope Song appears alternate Mondays.