LICE FREEMAN PALMER IN MEMORIAM -4 ,^.^^^" 77 ^^^J^^^^ /3^a^. ;GtA-^//.^^/sr- ALICE FREEMAN PALMER IN MEMORIAM ALICE FREEMAN PALMER IN MEMORIAM ISIDCCCLV— MDCCCCII ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE ALUMNJL MDCCCCIII D. B. Updike, The Menymount Press, Boston T3 f\'? CONTENTS LIBRARY SIAie NORMAL SCHOOL MMUAl AHTS AND HOME tCONOMtOS SANTA BARBARA, «ALIFORNIA rj«^ ALICE FREEMAN PALMER page A Memorial Skktch 1 ALICE FREEMAN PALMER As A Member of the Association of Collegiate Alumn.e 9 RECORD OF A MEETING Held at Boston, December 29, 1902, to Plan for Me.morials of the Life and Work of Alice Freeman Palmer. With Addresses by President Charles W. Eliot 16 Mr. Samuel B. Capen 18 Rt. Rev. William Lawrence 20 President Caroline Hazard 23 President Elmer H. Capen 26 President Mary E. Woolley 29 Dean Alice H. Luce 31 Mrs. Helen H. Backus 33 President William H. P. Faunce 37 President William J. Tucker 39 ^ CO »—( CL. ALICE FREEMAN PALMER A MEMORIAL SKETCH AJ-K jf\ V,. ItV. 11 loei 9* .TSF. 1901 .ET. 46 /^.' ALICE FREEMAN PALMER A MEMORIAL SKETCH y4 LICE Fkeeman Pal.-meu, the eldest of the four chil- /% dren of James W. and Ehzabeth Higley Freeman, J m. was born in Colesville, a small town near A\'indsor, New York, February 21, 1855. She died in Paris, December 0, 1902. The mother's ancestors came to the State of New York from the hill countiy of western Massachusetts near Stock- bridge, and her father was a descendant of the original Scotch owners of large land grants in the beautiful Susquehanna Vul- ley. Her father was first a farmer, as were his fathers before him, but after his marriage he was enabled, with the help of his young wife of seventeen, to realize his youthful ambition, and ten years after the birth of their first child he obtained the degree of M.D. Alice E. Freeman came into an excellent inheritance of body and brain. The example of her parents in mental appli- cation during her younger years early inspired a passion for study. Of this time, she was accustomed to say at a later period, " I grew up with my mother." She was ten years of age when her parents left the farm and took up their residence in Wind- sor. There she spent seven years in study at the Academy, and it was there also that she joined the Presbyterian church. It was said of her that "she was an eager, ambitious student, determined by the very forces of her nature towards the get- ting of knowledge and the building up of a symmetrical char- acter." At Windsor Academy she was prepared for college. In those days the requirements for women's colleges were not so rigorous as for men's, and that desire which was to be hers in all her educational work for girls later, was hers then. She wished to fit herself to meet the world, compelling equality [ 1 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER of respect as regards woman's part in it. Thus the compari- sons, on the part of her classmates at Windsor, of the varying standards of requirements, spurred her to choose the institu- tion where she could be assured that these were the highest. Her choice was Michigan University, which only a few years before had offered to women equal privileges with men. Entering the University in 1872, with so many conditions that it was a grave question whether she should be admitted, she had by the beginning of her Sophomore year removed them all, and established her leadership in her class. She was graduated among the very first in a class of seventy-six, twelve of whom were women. The subject of her Commencement oration was "The Conflict between Science and Poetry. " She was not only scholarly, she was a leader in social activities, and in those pioneer days of co-education, inspired respect for wo- man's capacity, whether as a member in the College debating club, where, even then, she showed rare powers of persuasion, or as an active officer of the Students' Christian Association. In December, 1874, there were floods on the Susquehanna River. A letter came from her father telling of his reverses and saying that she must return home. Her reply came not from the University, but from Ottawa, Illinois, where, with the prompt help of professors, she had found an opportunity to teach in the high school. There she taught Latin and Greek from January to June, still keeping her college study unin- terrupted as a member of the Junior class. From that time she was self-supporting. After graduation she taught in Gen- eva, Wisconsin, for a time, in a private school for girls. From 1877 to 1879 she was principal of the high school at East Sagi- naw, Michigan. At this time she received a call to a professorship of mathe- matics at Wellesley College ; but her youngest sister — the idol of the family — was making a brave fight for life against con- sumption, and she would not consider it. In the death of this sister at eighteen, her deep and abounding devotion to girls [2] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER had its veritable consecration. Tlien in 1871) slie was called to a professorship of history at Wellesley, and accepted the position. Two years later she became Acting President, and in 1882, when she was twenty-six years of age, she accepted the presidency. AMdely trained— trained by the knowledge and enthu- siasm of college professors, trained by work as a teacher in public and private schools, trained by the devotions and sor- rows of a peculiarly intimate home life and religious life — she brought to the presidency of Wellesley College a Avealth of experience that made her tact infinite, her executive ability masterly, and her intelligence keen and clear. To all this was added a wonderful capacity not only to remember names but to individualize students, parents, and friends, a power that must be counted a special gift. It was not strange that she was known to those who loved her most as "The Princess," and that her work in the College for six years during the time of its most rapid and creative development should forever seem incomparably well done. It was accomplished witii a courage that is an inspiration, for it was in those years that, because of weak lungs, she was told she had but six months to live, and was advised to spend them in the south of France. Her marriage, in 1887, to George Herbert Palmer, Profes- sor of Philosophy at Harvard University, took her from the presidency of a particular institution and made her a trustee of many institutions and a leader in the solution of many educational problems. It was the beginning for her of a still larger service. In 1892 she accepted with much hesitation the position of dean of the graduate schools and colleges in the University of Chicago, to be in residence during one-third of the academic year. The office had just been created, as had the L^niversity, and it was her task as much to establish the social conditions and relations of the students within the University as to plan their courses of study. The initial impulse in the life of a [3] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER university is always the enduring impulse, and so it was as a creator of traditions that she worked for Chicago University. In 1895, she resigned, convinced that tlie many problems inci- dent to the founding of this great university needed her per- sonal help less than other work that called her. During these years her generous service and eager desire for larger helpfulness in all matters of education were widely recognized. Honorary degrees were conferred upon her by several colleges, — Ph.D. by Michigan in 1882,L.H.D. by Co- lumbia in 1887, and in 1895 and 1896, LL.D. by Wisconsin and Union. Her work was varied, but her purpose was clear. She labored earnestly in many paths to increase opportunities of service for college women, and in every field to choose for advancement those with capacity for leadership and scholar- ship, who should themselves become creators of new and larger opportunities for others. In her public addresses she showed always an eager sincerity, a knowledge of her subject, and a kindliness in expressing conviction that disarmed hostility and won others to share her enthusiasms. President of the ^Vo- nian's Education Association of Boston from 1891 to 1901, twice President, and finally General Secretary, of the Asso- ciation of Collegiate Alumnfe, one of the chief executive of- ficers of the Association for Promoting Scientific Research by Women, President of the International Institute for Girls in Spain, member of the jNIassachusetts State Board of Educa- tion from 1889, until, in 1902, she became by a third appoint- ment the senior member, also identified in many different capacities with organizations of influence, she e\'erywhere sought to win support in all wise endea^'ors for better educa- tion. Among college women she was a pioneer and leader ; with and for all women she was a confident optimist and worker. Her life-story, when written, must epitomize the victorious struggle of her sex for larger intellectual freedom in the last quarter of a century. Always with forward look, she labored, — whether as one of those most responsible for the children [4] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER of Massachusetts, or for the organized interests of the women of her countr}-, or for their hig.her education here or abroad, — and her work found her just at the beginning of a new term with greater intiuence as well as greater problems. Lavish of self in every relation for good, yet forgetful of self, she stood in all her inner life and its crises, isolated, and for this greatness of personal reserve, she received most re- spect from those nearest. No one can describe her personality. Exceptionally sensitive to beauties of form and color, intimately at home with living creatures, she was yet more intimately and simply at home in the heart of a child. \\'ith a child, she was boundlessly in love. For the children of larger growth, her work was among men as well as among women, and in it all she was always and every- where capable of a great sincerity. Hers was convincing sym- pathy and earnest foresight, which made her judgment so true that to her many owe not merely their success, but the right choosing of a life-work. Hers was the capacity to give to others at innumerable moments, courage and gladness. Hers was a self-effacement that raised fellow-workers and friends to the level of achievement and then to them gave the credit of vie- [ 5] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER AS A MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE ALUMNA ALICE FREEMAN PALMER AS A MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE ALUMNiE BY MARION TALBOT ON November 21, 1881, a conference was called in Boston to consider the suggestion that in the young but rapidly gi'owing body of women college graduates of the country lay great power for the promotion of the educational interests of women. To this conference went Alice E. Freeman, then in her twenty-seventh year, turning for the moment from the cares of the presidency of Wellesley College and from respon- sibilities which to many would have been all-absorbing. It was characteristic of her sagacity and far-sightedness as an ad- ministrative officer and educator that she should feel the im- portance and wide-reaching possibilities of this untried move- ment. It was characteristic of her faith, her courage, and her insight, that in the little group of seventeen women from eight different colleges, called for the purpose of forming an asso- ciation of women college graduates, she should be one of the leaders. She made the original motion which led to the organi- zation of the Association of Collegiate Alumn£e, on January li, 1882, and this act well epitomizes her relation to the Asso- ciation for the twenty years that followed. In all the measures taken which have developed this little group into an organi- zation Avith over three thousand members and twenty-six branches, scattered over the length and breadth of the land, her voice was heard in council; her leadership was positive, creative, real. She not only held from time to time its chief executive offices, but she was continuously a leading member of its most important committees. Tlie story of her influence can here be told but in brief When the constitution of the Association was under con- sideration, Mrs. Palmer m-ged that the unanimous vote of the Executive Committee be alwavs required for the admitting of [9 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER an institution to membership. From that day on, officially and unofficially, her voice was continually heard in behalf of high collegiate standards as the one requisite for membership. There are many who remember how boldly she could withstand the demands made by those whose emotional zeal was too undis- criminating and who said, "Take all the colleges into your league ; when you have gathered them in, you will so encour- age them that the preparatory departments will be cut away, the corps of instruction will be strengthened, the funds of the institutions will be increased to the degree necessary to main- tain the true college, — this, that, and the other end will be achieved." There was no one who could say no, more gently and yet more firmly than INIrs. Palmer. Soon after the Asso- ciation was formed she made an investigation in order to ascer- tain on what grounds the various States grant charters giving the right to confer degrees, with the hope that the legislatures would aid in the work of raising standards by refusing charters to inferior institutions. It was found that no assistance could be gained from that source. Her interest was awakened in the subject, and in later years it was due largely to her personal and official influence that the Commonwealth of JNIassachu- setts took steps to protect the degree-conferring power by enacting that every petition to the legislature for a charter for an educational institution should thereafter be publicly adver- tised and reported to the State Board of Education. She was a leader in the effort of the Association to fix pub- lic attention on the need of strengthening existing colleges and of discouraging the establishment of new institutions in- adequately endowed. Her addresses and reports with refer- ence to collegiate standards and methods form a brilliant con- tribution to the study of this subject. An important matter to which she directed the attention of the Association was the need of better physical education for women in the colleges. The first publication of the Asso- ciation was on this subject; of the four parts, the section ad- [10] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER dressed to parents was written by her. It shows conclusively her wide knowledge of existing conditions and her keen in- sight in recognizing dangers which, if not checked, threatened every interest of educated women. Her practical earnestness was shown in the distribution of literature on this subject among women students, and friends of women's colleges, and in later years, her service was continued as the Association considered the subject in various modified foi-ms. The management and award of scholarship funds, the value of pedagogical training, and the methods of adapting the cer- tificate system to high standards of scholarship were subjects whose importance she continually urged. Alice Freeman Palmer brought to these activities insight and enthusiasm. The work which most claimed her interest was that of securing fellowships for women. At a time when many still questioned the practicability of collegiate education for women, when regular courses for the higher degrees were in general not accessible to women, and few fellowships were open to them, she acted on a suggestion made by one of the members, that the Association should undertake the establish- ment of fellowships. From that time, with ardor tempered by discrimination, she labored to open to women new approaches to advanced scholarship. Her successor as Chairman of the Fellowship Committee says, "During all the years of thework, in the midst of discouragement and trials, she was fertile in re- source, quick to respond, most helpful with suggestions ; while in the arousing of public interest and in the securing of funds, she rendered mostvaluable aid."Whenin 1896 she finally with- drew from official connection with the Committee on Fellow- ships, it was to promote the same interest through the Wo- man's Education Association of Boston, an organization in whose exceptional work for education she for ten years took an active part as its president. She eff'ected in this way a union of forces which has brought about large results, and she planned a far-reaching work which both associations will feel it their [ 11 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER privilege to support loyally in the future. When it became evident that the Association stood in need of change with a view to unifying its various forces, conserving its effort, and extending its influence, the dissociation turned again to Mrs. Palmer. She accepted the new office of General Secretary, or executive officer of the Association, with power to direct and supervise its policy, ^^^ith characteristic devotion, she undertook the new duty, carrying fresh enthusiasm to many centres of work among its members, and laying aside its responsibilities only on her departure for Europe. The record of her work in the Association brings into strong relief a trait which marks her as one of the great of her time. She was preeminently a seer. To persons, lier gift was to reveal undreamed-of resources ; to every organization which felt her power and influence, she disclosed visions of work to be done and good to be WTOught. Nor had these visions anything quix- otic about them. Her gracious manner and instant charm were balanced by a judgment which was sound and convincing. Great was her service, greater her inspiration. [12 ] RECORD OF A MEETING HELD AT BOSTON, DECEMBER 29, 1902, TO PLAN FOR MEMORIALS OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER RECORD OF A MEETING HELD AT BOSTON, DECEMBER 2.0, 1902, TO PLAN FOR MEMORIALS OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER The Meeting xvas called to order hi/ Mr. Lexvis Ke/niedi/ 3Iorsc, tcho said: AS a Member of the Committee of Invitation, I rise to call the meeting to order. I am sure we shall take pleasure in asking President Eliot of Harvard University to preside. Rcma7-ks of President Eliot WE have come here to-day to confer together as to the most appropriate and desirable mode of commemorat- ing the services of a very noble woman. We are not thinking that she needs anything at our hands. I want to read to you some lines of Richard Watson Gilder, sent by him for this meeting. Wien fell, to-day, the word that she had gone. Not this my thought: Here a bright journey ends. Here rests a soul unresting; here, at last. Here ends that earnest strength, that generous life — ■ For all her life was giving. Rather this I said (after the first swift, sorrowing pang): Hence, on a new quest, starts an eager spirit — No dread, no doubt, unhesitating forth With asking eves; pure as the bodiless souls Whom jioets vision near the central throne Angelicallj- ministrant to man; So fares she forth with smiling, God ward face; Nor should we grieve, but give eternal thanks — Save that we mortal are, and needs must mourn. December 6, 1902. I think those beautiful lines express, for us all, the spirit in which we must think of Alice Freeman Palmer. But we feel [ 15] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER a strong need of doing something for ourselves. We all loved her, we all recognized in her a noble woman, devoted to the public service. AVe wish to express our thought of her. We Avant to devise some means of holding up this life to the ad- miration of succeeding generations. It was devoted to educa- tion, the education of the young. We want some educating memorial of her which shall say to coming generations, "Go, and do thou likewise. ' AVe wish to make her life continue to teach the noble lesson which she gave while she walked among us. How to effect this is the problem that we have come here to consider. I have said that ^Irs. Palmer's life was devoted to education. It was, from the first moment of her graduation at Michigan University when she was twenty-one years of age. She had already taught in an Illinois school during half of her Junior year. She immediately entered on the career of a teacher; and when she was only twenty-three years old, she was principal of a high school in IMichigan. She went thence to be professor of history in AVellesley College, ardently rec- ommended for that position by her lifelong friend. President Angell. She was in her twenty-seventh year when she was made the president of AA^ellesley College. There she labored during the most difficult period in the development of that institution, as president, as friend of every pupil, as teacher, also, as wise adviser of the governors of the institution. She served the College for five years and made a deep mark on its records. Then she came to Cambridge as Professor Palmer s wife. There she has been my next-door neighbor for ten years. Almost immediately after her marriage she entered the service of the State. A\^ithin two years of her coining to Cambridge, she became a member of the State Board of Edu- cation. In that Board she has served the entire community of JNIassachusetts with rare wisdom and perfect generosity. All through Mrs. Palmer's career, she has been the counsellor of nuiltitudes of women, young and old. She has given advice [ 16] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER concerning the organization and the condnct of many schools, academies, colleges. She has given to thousands of young wo- men with whom she has been brought in contact the most intimate ad\ice concerning the conduct of their lives. Slic has given cordial welcome and good advice to administrators of educational institutions seeking competent women for posts which are difficult to fill. Throughout her career she has been distinguished by an extraordinarily (juick, generous, liberal sympathy, which went forth spontaneously to the person with whom she was talking. She seized upon that person's fi'ame of mind, saw his or her disposition, and knew how best to touch the motives of his or her being. This advisory function has been one of the most fruitful of all Mrs. Palmer's labors in recent years. She has touched American education at every point, — the elementary education, the secondary, the higher. She was called to Chicago L^niversity for two years, from 1893 to 1895, as the dean of the graduate schools and colleges. Every- where her work lifted the standard of education. Everywhere, her teaching, her example, and the virtue which went out from her, tended to make people better and happier. There is no bitterness or strife, no doing of evil that good may come, in this life that we hope to commemorate. It is all good, and nothing but good. Of so few of us can that be said. There are here friends of JNIrs. Palmer's who have been cognizant of her activities in many relations of life. We need to hear from these friends. We need to have some picture given us of the fruition of this remarkable career. Mr. Samuel B. Capen is the president of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foi'eign INIissions, and is also the president of the International Institute for Girls in Spain. In both of these in- stitutions Mrs. Palmer had official station, and her work for them is known to Mr. Capen. I ask him to be the first speaker at this meeting. [ 17 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER Remarks o/'Mu. Cai>i:x MR. Chairman: Although it is more than three weeks since the sad message came that Alice Freeman Palmer was dead, I am sure that as yet it is all vmreal to us. It does not seem possible that that wonderful personality, so full of life, force, energy, is never personally to touch us again here. \Ye knew we trusted her, but how great that dependence was, we are beginning to realize now. We knew that we lov^ed her; how great that love was, we did not know until she had passed from our sight. I am asked to speak especially of her relation to the Ameri- can Board, and to the International Institute for Girls in Spain. Mrs. Palmer was one of the corporate members of the Ameri- can Board which consists of three hundred and fifty members scattered all over the country, of whom but seven are women. This fact indicates the confidence in which she was held ; and her interest in missions, as you can realize from her character, was of the most practical form. I have often quoted a remark of hers, that the weakness of the Congregational denomina- tion is the fact that it neglects to teach boys and girls about missions. But her interest in this direction seemed to centre in the Institute for Girls in Spain. For several years she was the pres- ident of its Board of Directors. Although she felt compelled to resign this position, she still remained a member and made its interests a part of her very life. She gave time and thought to it without reserve. It seemed to be the passion of her life to establish in Madrid another Wellesley which should do for the girls in Spain what our girls' colleges have done for America. She said, not long ago, that if she were a little younger and had fewer cares, she should be glad to go to Madrid and be connected with the Institution. What I have said, Mr. Chair- man, shows the breadth of her vision ; that the field for her was the world, and was as broad as humanity. [ 1«] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER We are here to confer as to what we shall do for some me- morial which we wish to establisli. It seems to me there are three reasons at least why such a memorial is most fitting. At forty-seven years of age, though born in a home with many limitations, she had come into the front rank of Ameri- can women. Courteous, cultivated, gentle, she was firm and decided. With intense convictions of her own, she was most charitable towards the opinions of others. She put the most important things first, and so came the symmetrical life that we have seen and the personality which has been so great a force. The second point I have in mind, Mr. Chairman, is one to which reference has already been made, — that in an eminent degree she had herself learned, and taught to others, the Mas- ter's lesson of nineteen centuries ago, that gi-eatness consists in service. She counted not her own good, her own pleasiu'e, her own life, if only she might help others. At a meeting not long ago, I sat by her side. I found her so hoarse that she could hardly speak. Yet she had left her home that winter night to speak for the cause she loved. And if I might venture another personal reminiscence, I would refer to a long letter received from her some time ago, concerning a matter in which I had asked her judgment, and about which Boston was stirred. I said, when that letter came, "Oh, how she lavishes herself for others' sake!" I think it is President Tucker who has said, "If one is to do anything in this world that is worth the doing, that person must be very lavish of himself." INIeasured by that test, I am sure Alice Freeman Palmer was chief among us. And finally, we should have this memorial because she has taught the power of personal inspiration. The mightiest force in this world, we all recognize, is a living person in touch with others. The printed page has its value. But when the truth on that page is in the heart and the brain of another, and then with earnestness and intensity is sent home, — then it lives. Was not that the secret of Mrs. Palmer's power, that she could fire [ 19 1 ALICE FREEMAN PALMER others with something of her own enthusiasm and convictions ? Think of the work she did at W^ellesley with those girls in leading them to unselfish service ! Think of the way in which she lives again to-day in homes everywhere, in school-rooms everywhere, because she has taught so many, through the in- spiration of her own life, to do the noblest and to live the best. And therefore, Mr. Chairman, we must, I am sure, have this memorial. As to its form, this is perhaps not the place to discuss it. It seems to me, sir, if I may be allowed a sugges- tion, that the form through which our love shall find expres- sion, if I may put it in that way, might well be referred to a committee of three. President Eliot, Governor Crane, and Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, in whose judgment all our citizens will have full confidence. They said Mrs. Palmer was dead. No, she is living here to- day in all our lives, and in thousands of lives all over this land and across the sea. But let us have a memorial to let others, who ai'e to come after us, know the power and the gx'eatness of this life. President Eliot: An institution through which ]\Irs. Palmer expressed much of herself, her will, her personal force, her in- tellectual influence, was Wellesley College. I shall next ask the President of the Board of Trustees, Bishop Lawrence, to speak to the meeting. Remarks o/" Bishop Lawrence A COL LEGE president at twenty-six years of age! If one of us recalls a niece or a daughter twenty-six years old and then thinks of her as a college president, one catches a suggestion of what the college presidency of Miss Freeman meant to the community. The community, however, had not begun to realize what the president of a women's college was or could be, — and she a woman. The country had seen noble [ 20 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER women as school-teachei-s, but it had never seen a college wo- man as a president. This young woman entered into the office. And the attitude of the comnnmity was something such as we can hardly conceive or even now recall. Everywhere the idea of a college education for women met lethargy, injustice, and even hostility, — at best, the sympathy of comparatively few. So that she gave herself to a career entirely strange to New England and the country. Moreover, there were conditions in the College that made her situation very difficult. The munificent founder had had a great conception; but Miss Freeman found in the College cer- tain conditions and traditions, academic and religious, which in time no doubt the founder himself would have set aside. It became her duty, a stranger, to enter into an administration in which many of those traditions and limitations were to be modified or remo\ed. She accepted this duty and became its President at a time when the public looked on the College as an academy for girls, so far as tiie public knew anything about it. Her first work was the organization of the Faculty. We must not forget the difficulties of that task. So recently had the higher education been made accessible to women, that at that time it was almost impossible to obtain women teachers who were competent to be real professors. When Miss Freeman took the presidency of Wellesley Col- lege there were four hundred and fifty students ; when she left the College there were six hundred. Yet that tells only half the story. During her administration, the standards had been so far raised and the country had so little appreciated this ad- vance, that young women flocked to Wellesley only to reach the gates and be tiunied back for insufficiency of preparation, a condition which she used to call the "massaci'e of the in- nocents." So I say this young woman held and filled her position as President of ^Vellesley College; and as she passed out of the gates, there went with her the devotion, the affection, the en- [21 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER thusiasm, and the reverence, of the graduates, of the Faculty, and of the community. Keen in her sense of justice, thoughtful, considerate and sympathetic, she had the qualities that gained the love of all girls; strong as an administrator, she had the power that won confidence and respect among educators. After her i-esignation in 1887, INIrs. Palmer became a trus- tee of Wellesley College. The same force of character which she had showTi as President, she brought to the Board of Trus- tees. She had made radical changes in the traditions, the meth- ods of control, and the conditions, of the College, and when she entered the Board of Trustees, there was a change. She became the means of putting the Board on a much surer footing, so that it gained more and more in the confidence of the community, and to-day those who entrust to Wellesley College large gifts are assured they will be administered as the donors desire. Alice Freeman Palmer, from within the College as Presi- dent, from within the administration of the College as a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees, gave of the best of her life to Wellesley. And however much she may be beloved, however far her influence may reach or her loss be felt, the one word that can be spoken of her is that she was above all the Presi- dent of Wellesley College. President Eliot: As Bishop Lawrence has said, Mrs. Palmer's interest in Wellesley College did not terminate w ith the end of her career as its president. She was a trustee from that time on, and always intensely interested in its af- fairs, always delighting to serve the College in any way in her power. INIay I ask President Hazard, of Wellesley College, to tell this meeting something of the subsequent services of Mrs. Palmer to that institution? [22 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER -/ Remarks o/' President Hazard MR. President: Bishop Lawrence has just referred to Mrs. Pahners speaking of the "massacre of the inno- cents." It seems to me that one of her characteristics was that she never forgot one of her own experiences, but made each a universal experience. She reasoned from herself to all around her, to all her friends, and so made her own life of value to others in untold ways. Only a few days ago President Angell was at Wellesley and told me of her beginning at the L^niver- sity of Michigan. It so happened that the Dean was away in the year 1872 when Miss Freeman presented herself for exam- ination and President Angell himself was admitting the fresh- men that year. She had not been well prepared at Windsor, in the small country academy ; her examinations did not reach the standard. But he saw the eager, bright spirit and the keen mind in that shy girl, and he told his Faculty that he should like to be responsible for her for six weeks if they would ad- mit her on his personal recommendation. They did so. In six weeks she had proved that she could work off her conditions, which she did entirely in the first year. She was graduated among the very first in her class. I think that early experience of Mrs. Palmer gave her a very tender feeling for massacred "innocents." This, perhaps, was the beginning of that intense sympathy with college girls and their difficulties which con- tinued throughout her life. She was a member of the Stu- dents' Aid Society at Wellesley to the time of her death. I shall never forget the care with which she inquired into the circumstances of each individual student, ^^^hen a long list of names was being considered, she would know of some associ- ation with this one, that that one had prepared at such a school ; she had heard of another's parents and knew where they lived, and help must be given there. Her personal knowl- edge of the girls that came to college was something wonderful. In the government of the College, of which President Eliot [23 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER has asked me to speak, she was a potent factor. Her connec- tion with the State Board of Education and her wide knowl- edge of the affairs of other colleges, made her an authority. On all questions of a technical nature she was always appealed to; we all turned instantly to Mrs. Palmer. She would know what was the precedent, what was the usual practice in any case of difficulty. As Bishop Lawrence has said, she constantly sought to raise the standard of efficiency in administration, and she was able to do this not only through her loyal enthusiasm, but also through her capability for action. We are here to-day, a group of fiiends; and to fi'iends I should like to tell a little personal history which was to me very touching. I discovered it only a short time ago. We had promised to raise a certain amount of money in order to cancel the debt of the College before the end of my first year at Wellesley. This pledge was to be fulfilled by Com- mencement Day in June, 1900. At the last meeting of the Trustees there was still a considerable sum to raise. It was then beyond the middle of June. Between ten and twelve thousand dollars was lacking, and there was not very much prospect of its coming. It would have been a \"ery great misfortune for the College to go on another year laboring under the debt. It had been definitely said that the debt should be paid in that year, and I think Mrs. Palmer felt this necessity more keenly than I. We came out of the meeting together and parted at the foot of Park Street, she to go to Cambridge, and I turning this way. Her last words were words of encouragement, that I must not be troubled, that something would be done. The very next morning came a brief note saying, "Do not be troubled. It is sure to go through, and will go through at Commencement Day. You need not speak of it, but this is for your own private encouragement." That lifted a great burden, though I did not know what she had done. She had many friends to whom she could appeal. I supposed she had found some one who would make good the amount. After many months I learned that [ 24 ] ALICE FKEEiMAN PALMER she, with Professor Pahiier s approval, had herself taken their savings-bank books and deposited them with the Treasm'er of the College, saying that that sum was to be made good; the debt must be paid. She would give what was necessary. It was the savings of a lifetime she thus pledged. I am happy to say this large sum was not called for ; the friends of the college responded, and the amount which she finally contributed was a comparatively small one. But she was willing to give the whole of her savings that ^^"ellesley's debt might be paid. Only a few weeks ago she wrote of Wellesley, "that beauti- ful place, that blessed place." Wellesley, I think, would be found written in her heart. It \vas the place she was de\'oted to, the place she had given her life for, the place whose motto she exemplified in her own life, "Not to be ministered unto but to minister." President Eliot: Many letters have been received by the very small committee which asked you to come together ; and I will ask Mr. Morse to read two, the first from the Rev. Dr. INIunger, the second from Governor Crane. Ne)t> Haven, December 22, 1902 MY DEAR Mrs. Eeiot: I regret it is impossible for me to attend the meeting of friends of JNIrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, held to plan some memorial of her life and work. I heartily sympathize with the object in view. For her wise ad- ministration of AVellesley during a critical period of its his- tory, and her great influence in inspiring the best ideals of American womanhood, she deserves to be commemorated in some lasting form. The love of those who knew her and cherish her memory will make it an easy task. Respectfully yours, Theodore T. Munger Mrs. Charles W. Eliot n Quinri/ Street, Camhridge [ 25 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER Commonwealth of Massachusetts Exemtive Depaiiment Boston, December 24, 1902 MY DEAR Sir: I regret extremely that absence from the city will prevent my being present at the meeting to be held to plan a memorial of the life and work of JNIrs. Alice Freeman Palmer. I beg to be permitted to say here, what 1 should be glad to say were I able to be present at the meet- ing, that the Commonwealth appreciates not only the four- teen years of faithful and efficient service which she rendered as a member of the State Board of Education, but also her great devotion to educational work during more than half her life. Surely, a life so full of generous service to others de- serves appropriate recognition. I am Very truly yours, W. Murray Crane Mr. Lewis Kennedy Morse 4 Liberty Square, Boston President Eliot: Governor Crane's letter brings very clearly to mind the service which Mrs. Palmer rendered to the Commonwealth. President Capen, of Tufts College, has long been a member of the State Board of Education and has known intimately the nature of Mrs. Palmer's service to the State. I ask him to tell this meeting something of it. Remarks of President Capen WHEN INIrs. Palmer became a member of the State Board of Education, she had already achieved a fame which I suppose we may call world-wide. Yet I suspect there was a doubt in the minds of some of her associates whether, with all her wonderful brilliancy and her great achievements in education, she would grasp the situation presented to the members of the Board ; whether she would be able to put her- [26] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER self at once in close and sympathetic touch with popular edu- cation as we have it in Massachusetts. But there never was a moment from the beginniney MR. Chairman: It has been well said this afternoon that IVIrs. Palmer made those with whom she came in contact better and happier; and, again, that she had learned the lesson of putting first things first. I shall not bring to you at this time any new conception of her life and work, but rather the gathering of all our thoughts, as they have already been expressed many times, of Alice Freeman Palmer as an educator. First, she emphasized the value of scholarship, — scholarship which should be thorough, broad, far-reaching, exact. She be- [29 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER lieved that women have the power to attain such scholarship ; and her faith and confidence in that power did much to de- velop it in the students with whom she came in contact. She believed that the higher education of women is in- tended to send them out into the world not only as scholars, but also, and even more truly, as women. She was a womanly Avoman. And perhaps that means more, as we realize that in the beginning of the movement for the higher education of women it was natural that the pendulum should swing a little away from that conception, and that in the strife for the thing which women had not possessed, they should lose sight of that which was their invaluable possession for all time. A womanly woman as well as a scholarly woman was INlrs. Palmer's ideal. And, thirdly, she had learned to put first things first. I think it is very significant that in a meeting like this, empha- sis should be laid on her part, not only in collegiate and aca- demic work, in the common schools, the secondary schools, but also in the religious organizations and the missionary ef- forts of her own time. A scholarly M^oman, a womanly woman, and a Christian woman: it means very much to commemorate any one who stands for this trinity. We realize to-day that this is the ideal for which we must strive in the higher education of women. But I doubt whether we realize how much a woman like Mrs. Palmer has done toward making it a reality. Some one has said, "Set the noblest free." Is not that, after all, the aim of education, to set the noblest free? In talking about this me- morial, my own feeling has been, that influence is stronger than any memorial which can be planned by hand or thought of man. Equally true is it that that life which stands for the noblest and the best and the highest cannot be commemorated too frequently. It cannot be brought too strongly before the minds of the boys and the girls and the young men and the young women of the time which is to come. I believe in me- morials. The people of one's own generation feel the personal [30 J ALICE FREEMAN PALMER influence. But the time is coming when the name alone may not mean so much; and those who stand for the best things in education and in Christian hving should stand for the best things in the days that are to come, as in the days that now are. President Eliot: An institution is represented here with which Mrs. Palmer felt the most profound sympathy as a pio- neer in the work of educating women. Dean Luce, of Ober- lin College, was a student at Wellesley in its early years. Will she say a few words to this meeting about President Free- man's relation to the students and Faculty? Remarks of Dean Luce MR. Chairman: I am asked to tell what ]\Irs. Palmer meant to us who were students in Wellesley College during the time that she was teacher and president there. I am sure it would be impossible for any Wellesley alumna to put into words all that this wise and gracious and beautiful woman has meant to us in the years that are past. Whether we think of her as the young and enthusiastic professor who made her class-room our inspiration, or as the brilliant and delightful young president, of whom we were all so proud and under whose administration the College was entei-ing on that future which has since become her past and is now her present; whether, as members of the Wellesley Faculty, we thmk of her as the one member of the Board of Trustees to whom we felt we had a right to go, because we had been her old stu- dents and she knew us and was interested in us, or as that trustee whose counsel, brought as it was from so wide a range of experience, any institution might covet, — in whichever of these aspects we think of her, she is for every Wellesley stu- dent the one woman whose life seems to set a standard for women and whose influence one would most like to reflect in one's own personal life. [31 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER As the years have gone on, these various aspects of her hfe, to which such beautiful tribute has here been paid by those who were associated with her in various relations, have sunk into insignificance beside two which have seemed to me to stand out more and more as those qualities which separated Mrs. Palmer, in a way, from every other woman it has ever been my privilege to know. And one was, her power of living continually under the spell of great ideals. When life pressed upon us, when courage failed, when the way looked very dark, an hour with Mrs. Palmer would send us out refreshed and in- spired and encouraged for the dull, gray days that were ahead. She has seemed to me in these last years to be a sort of apostle, continually firing the world for a crusade. And, united with that, was a gift which is very rare, it seems to me, in combination with this power of ideality,^ — her saving common sense. INIany of you have sat through rather dreary meetings, when the discussion had wandered very much from the subject, and have felt the thrill of enthusiasm and the new life which came into the meeting when IVIrs. Palmer rose and brought the discussion back to the point, and with this saving common sense, solved the problem from the practical side. These are the two qualities which have seemed to those of us no longer in direct relation with her, most to be prized, as we have turned to her in the stress of life, for counsel, for help, and for inspiration. And under it all, through it all. and over it all, has been the great kindness of her heart. There could never come a cry from Wellesley, there could never come a cry from any suffering soul, that did not meet, in her, instant response. Of her, as of few others, are the woi'ds true: "She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone, or despise; But naught that sets one heart at ease Or giveth happiness or peace Is Icfw esteemed in her eyes." [ 32] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER As we look across the years when we shall miss this wise and generous woman, the years which will seem so much lone- lier because of this presence which has gone from us, she will stand to us increasingly as a woman who, in the truest sense of the word, did "Give earth herself and go up for gain above." Pkesident Eliot: What Dean Luce has just said empha- sizes certainly two of Mrs. Palmer's most influential and most delightful qualities. She assuredly was an idealist, and she was an optimist. And those two descriptions of her depend on two of her great qualities, her gi'eat courage and her indomitable hopefulness. She was always hopeful of the individual, hope- ful of the institution, hopeful for society. She believed thor- oughly in the power of organization ; in the getting together of people of the same mind and the same purpose, and in their working together to accomplish good ends. She was twice the president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnte and at the time of her death held its most responsible office as General Secretary. She heartily beUeved in that Association. She looked to it for help and support in the building up in this country of a rational education for women. We have with us this afternoon a former president of that Association and a co-worker with Mrs. Palmer. I ask Mrs. Backus, of Brooklyn, to say something of Mm. Palmer's work in that Association. Rema?-ks of Mrs. Helen H. Backus MR. President: In this hour of reverent tribute, the language of eulogy comes to seem the simple state- ment of fact. I am sure that each one here who has heard com- memorated various phases of this rare and wonderful life, feels a deep sense of obligation to the chairman of the meeting and to every speaker for thus emphasizing these qualities of Mrs. Palmer's character and activity. I am equally confident that [33] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER each speaker has felt that with him or her has rested some secret of her power, some phase of her influence which could be known in the same degree to no one else. As one and an- other has spoken of her heroic qualities and her wonderful power of adaptation, I have longed to be able to show how far the recognition of her leadership extends beyond this Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, even beyond these institutions of learning which owe her so much. Mrs. Palmer held the chief executive office in the Associa- tion of Collegiate Alumna", a national association having mem- bers in nearly every State. It was organized, in the days of her presidency at Wellesley, and when even the conception of a woman's college was new. Still more was it new and vague in 1882, to think of uniting the alumnae of colleges and univer- sities for practical educational work, and for the maintenance of those standards without which Mrs. Palmer felt that gen- eral education must fail of its best fruition. In this Association she was from the first a leader and always a most inspiring presence. The effectiveness of her work can be distinctly traced throughout the twenty years of its history. There are many, now widely'scattered, who know what counsel she gave in those earlier days, what royal assistance, not only as leader in the Association, but as adviser to one and another institution in their efforts to adapt themsehes to the demands of the new education. We have been following many devious courses in America in our public and private education, because it has been so difficult to define standards and, having defined them, to enforce them. In all the meetings of the Association where such questions were debated, there was no one who would speak more wisely and more resolutely in behalf of higher and better standards than Mrs. Palmer. As the league has gone on augmenting itself from the few college women who gathered together twenty years ago to its more than three thousand members, INIrs. Palmer's faith and insight have aroused ever-new belief in its possibilities for [34] ALICE FREEMAN TALMER larger effectiveness. It has always been on her support that the Association has relied at a difficult juncture. When two years ago, increasing work led to the creation of the new and important executive office of General Secretary, it was to Mrs. Palmer that the appeal was sent to accept the responsibility. She generously gave the Association her service, and in fulHU- ing these duties she has gone in the past year among college women in our different communities, visiting the Branches in eleven different cities from Boston to St. Paul. In this work, as in all others, when a new call for service came, it was never a question witli her, "Is it worth while for me to do this? Have I time for this?" but, "Is it possible, in view of this or that undertaking to which I am already pledged, to do this work in the spirit in which it should be done?" Having once accepted a service, she wrought to the end with unfaltering courage and the utmost devotion. I have been be- yond measure grateful to President Eliot for his word concern- ing Mrs. Palmer's courage ; because in the consecrated courage of Mrs. Palmer lay one of the great secrets of her power. She could do perpetually, she could do more than any one else, she could do better than almost any one else, — because the larger vision was always present with her. She never thought of herself. The smaller and more ignoble aspects of the work which she was called to do always sank into the proper per- spective in her mind, because she looked above and througl) them to the great ends to be accomplished, to the meaning of our responsibility to this great country. I would have this memorial as lasting as our institutions of learning and as catholic as her own beautiful spirit. iVlice Freeman Palmer represented all that is best in American womanhood. The representative college woman, the centre of wide social influence, the wife, the friend, — she stood, in her own person, as the embodiment of that welding of intel- lectual interests and love of home, — an ideal which must be ever more and more realized by the American women of the [35 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER twentieth century if their rich heritage of opportunity is really to bring blessing to our Republic. President Ei.iot: I suppose the central idea of INlrs. Palmer's life was service. She might have caught that in her girlhood from her father. She used to drive about with him in his chaise. He was a country doctor ; and I know no professional man of any calling who more perfectly illustrates than a country doc- tor the ideal of Christian service. Mrs. Palmer was prepared at any moment to spend and be spent in any cause which she loved and to which she was devoted. We perhaps have got an idea this afternoon that her services were rendered largely towards the institutions and organizations which work for wo- men. And that is indeed true of her. But we should not lose sight of the more comprehensive quality of her service to the State. That was for all the children, girls and boys. That was for all teachers, men and women. I kno^v, from a good many conversations with Mrs. Palmer, that she was often called upon to help men educators, men presidents of colleges. And 1 know how much some of them relied on her judgment and her tact and her perception of the quality of the individual con- cerning whom advice was asked. I knov,-, too, very well, how perfectly her judgment, her recommendation of a woman for a place was justified. That is a very high faculty; in the first place, to perceive the quality which gives success, and in the next place, to testify truly to that quality and never to give another official to understand that the quality may exist where it does not. JMrs. Palmer w^as as good in that last way as she was in the first. She never would give a recommendation to a young girl or an inexperienced teacher which she did not believe would be justified by the event. I think President Faunce, of Brown University, knows something about this quality in Mrs. Palmer. I will ask him to speak a few words to this company. [36] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER Remarks o/Tresidkxt Faincf, IT is hard to die in a foreign land, far from home and friends, with no opportunity to give or receive words of parting counsel. And yet this very fact makes this ending seem like translation and not like death. That there is no physical form here makes this service purely spiritual, a service of memory, affection, and gratitude. We, of Rhode Island, are grateful to Mrs. Palmer. From 1893 to 1895, as President Eliot has said, she was advisory dean of one institution. After that, she became advisory dean of a multitude of schools and colleges and universities, stretch- ing, as I personally know, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And perhaps in no aspect was her work greater than in this. When, ten years ago, we began to do something for the col- legiate education of women in Rhode Island, the women of Providence turned first to Mrs. Palmer and took counsel with her. The imprint of her ideals has been on our Women's Col- lege in Brown University all through these ten years. When, three years ago, we were searching for a new dean for oin- Women's College, I went first to Mrs. Palmer. I felt there was no other woman in tliis country to whom I could go in just the same way as to her. In President Eliot's house at North East Harbor, in the long sunlight of a September after- noon, we sat talking over the problem. The first name that came to her lips was the name of the present Dean of our Women's College. And when Miss Emery was inaugurated as Dean some two years ago, Alice Freeman Palmer was there to speak words of inspiration, counsel, and direction which we shall never forget. AVhat she did for Brown University, I know she has done for many other institutions. In greater or less degree she has rendered service of this kind at Oberlin and Iceland Stanford, at RadclifFe, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke, at Barnard, ^^^ssar, and Wellesley. What she did at Chicago University I need not [ ^7 J ALICE FREEMAN PALMER recall to some of you who are personally acquainted with it. The primary impulse in a univei'sity is always the enduring impulse. What is done in the first year shapes what will be done in the next fifty or one hundred years. At Cliicago, Mrs. Palmer's character and ideals had notable influence in estab- lishing right intellectual and social standards for the entire University. I have named only a few of the institutions that, at crises in their history, looked first to Mrs. Palmer for counsel and wisdom. Every one of them was sure of her alert, eager sym- pathy; every one of them was sure of her quick intelligence. She represented an admirable synthesis of the older and the newer ideals of womanhood. AVe need not attempt to define those ideals. We feel them rather than define them. We can all feel the difference between a gentleman of the old school and one of to-day, the difference in garb and speech and man- ner. Although we cannot define it, we all feel the difference between the older conception of womanhood and the noblest type of our own time. These conceptions were never at warfare in her nature. They achieved a coalescence, a perfect union, which made her seem to save the best from the old and great, the best from the new. The last time I saw her she was on her way to a railway station. I asked whither she was going. It was to some obscure little village in Northern ^^ermont, where they wanted a pub- lic education association in conjunction with other towns, and she was going on a true missionary enterprise. I thought of the rough roads and the inconveniences in Northern Vermont in that winter weather in which she was starting out alone; and I had just a glimpse into the spirit that moved her, the im- pulses that throbbed within her, and the ideals towards which she aspired, and taught others to aspire in these later and most fruitful years of her life. "It is expedient for you, that I go away." Expedient for Him, — we could understand that. But no. He said, "expedi- ent for ?/o?/." For He knew He could not fully enter into their [ -'58 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER lives and shape them until He had vanished from their sight. If it shall prove expedient for the education of American womanhood that Alice Freeman Palmer should pass beyond our vision, it will be only because the things she stood for have become our common inheritance and entered our daily striv- ing and living. I beg to suggest that the committee already appointed to plan some memorial, shall arrange for other committees defi- nitely to provide for the reception and disbursement of funds offered for this purpose. President Eliot: Dr. Faunce has correctly described the kind of thing that INIrs. Palmer was doing continually. That sallying out in a winter night to go to Northern \^ermont was just the sort of thing that her father used to do forty years before, and is, we hope, still doing. And now, as the last speaker of the occasion, I want to call on one who has known Mrs. Palmer well for many years, and one w^ho has always known her husband, has know^n him as a fellow-student, a teacher, and a preachei*. Mrs. Palmer had fifteen years of a singularly happy married life. It was a great part of all her life, the third of all. In it were the roots of much of her happiness in all her later years. In it she found sympathy and support in all her public work. I ask President Tucker, of Dartmouth College, to speak to us next and last. Remarks of President Tucker /% S I have listened, Mr. President, to the very rare trib- l\, utes w^hich have been paid to Alice Freeman Palmer, especially to her in the various causes which she represented, I have had the feeling, which I doubt not all share, that it is not we who can best tell what Mrs. Palmer did or what she w^as. The hundreds of younger lives from eighteen to forty which she reached as has scarcely any one else in our genera- [39] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER tion, will tell that story. Yet if we bring Mrs. Palmer back to those personal relations which she sustained to us, we can understand something of the exquisite quality of the life which went out so widely and so generously. It seems to me tliat there has been no other one of our generation, with the pos- sible exception of Phillips Brooks, who has stood to such a degree for those qualities in which we must all believe with an unquenchable faith if Ave are to do anything in this world. And her going out from that circle of workers which we rep- resent takes from us one of the greatest sources of our person- al strength. In naming one or two qualities in which she stood for so much, I would suggest at once the perfect naturalness of her service and of her sacrifice. She never had about her the taint of the conventional ; she was never institutionalized. She was always herself, in the perfect freedom of her spirit. She was not only not impoverished by her giving, but she seemed never to lose the power of giving herself. We do. It is almost impos- sible for us not to become artificial, not to resolve ourselves into our institutions, into our surroundings, into something other than our simple best. JNIrs. Palmer was always herself in the perfect, inexhaustible freedom of her spirit. It will be hard for us to get on Avithout her. One can number people of that kind in very small figures, and of those whom one knows, in smaller numbers still. I never went into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Palmer in Cambridge or in Boxford without feeling how small some of the things were which I had allowed to come to the front, or how much better it would be to live in a larger, freer way and in a more natural way. I do not say that she had the stamp of originality as some minds may show that quality, but she lived in the world, she lived in the universe. She had a wonderful understanding of things, partly through conscience, partly through heart; but. after all, essentially through the mind ; so that when she gave of herself, she gave her whole nature. She was catholic in her [ 40 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER giving because she was catholic in her receiving. She lived in the large, she gave in the large; so I emphasize her ability to receive much. The catholicity of her mind gave her this rare quality of receptiveness. It kept her in the asking and search- ing mood — or, as some one has said, always on the eager quest after truth. She was able to believe much because of her con- stant increase of knowledge. Faith renewed itself in sight. The believing quality was an actual extension of her power to know, — her power to know with an undeniable certainty. Her death, then, means as much to those who are trying to do the world's work, as to those who were directly dependent upon her for guidance and quickening. The qualities which we wish to see constantly manifest, were embodied in Alice Freeman Palmer, and found their highest and most natural expression through her home and in her service. As we plan this memorial let us make whatever enters into it, a truly personal and appreciative gift. Let us make it wide and let us make it free. Let us give every one the opportimity to contribute, and also the assurance that whatever is given will be wisely expended on a careful design. I beg leave, Mr. President, to gather up the suggestions which have been made and to embody them in this motion: RESOLVED : That a committee of three, who have al- ready been named, President Eliot, Governor Crane and IMrs. Quincy A. Shaw, be appointed to clioose the form of me- morial best adapted to perpetuate the life and work of Ahce Freeman Palmer; to arrange for committees to receive all funds and to select certain business men to act as treasurers for holding such funds until the conditions of final payment are determined. Miss Hazard: May I suggest that President Tucker and Richard Watson Gilder be added to the committee? [ 41 ] ALICE FREEMAN PALMER The Resolution, as read by President Tucker, and as amended by the suggestion of Miss Hazard, was then unanimously adopted. President Eliot: Has Mr. Morse anything to add to the proceedings of this meeting ? Mr. Morse : It seems fitting that before we part, the words of Mrs. Palmer, spoken at the memorial services of Mrs. Mary B. Claflin, the wife of ex-Governor Claflin, should be heard, as they may seem addressed to us also. She said : " This is my message: " All life is one. All service is one, be it here or there. Death is '■'• onhj a little door Jrom one room to another. So she begs us " in all her rich and iridiajit life and memory not to make much " of trouble, not to be weighed down here by sorrow, not to " think much or to be afraid of death for 07irselves or for those " who are dear to us; but to make life hc7'e and now, so rich " and kind and sxccct and noble, that this will be heaven. We " need no other iintil He comes and calls us into a larger life " tdth a fresher opj)ortunity.'' President Eliot: I think we may part with the renewed conviction that the realest things in this world are personali- ties and the ideals which personalities cherish. Alice Freeman Palmer has planted in the minds of thousands of Americans, young and old, men and women, boys and girls, a permanent ideal. This Meeting is now dissolved. THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. ftPR4 19*« RETONOV? 1987 26 Series 9482 4 ''ij'^i^i'f'WiyiniiiiiiiiHiJiiiiiii 3 1205 00755 1441 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARV Wf 'TV """"l!lllllllllli™!liiniirn|ii>||[.||i|[|iiii 000 691 806 4 n ■1/