Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/342

 302 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The need of a building, or, rather of several buildings, was more than urgent. It was distressing. It had been recognized by the Trustees from the beginning. As early as April, 1892, six months before the University was to open its doors to students the follow- ing action was taken by them: Resolved, That the Board agrees to appropriate the first one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, available for such purposes, to the construction and furnishing of a biological laboratory. From the beginning the need of a biological laboratory seemed never absent from the President's mind. He repeatedly referred to it in his quarterly Convocation statements and always with increasing urgency. At the Summer Convocation of 1894 he said: The greatest need of the University today, beyond all question, is that of a biological laboratory. No group of departments in the University is more strongly manned, or has in it more definite promise of greater and richer results, whether in the line of instruction or investigation. Yet these depart- ments, requiring the most carefully adjusted accommodations, are compelled today to occupy rooms, some in one laboratory, some in another, scattered about on different floors, without unity of plan, without adequate accommo- dations. The University has done its utmost to meet the demands of all departments organized. It is ready to confess, however, that to the biological departments, the obligations which it assumed in their organization have been less satisfactorily fulfilled than to any other. With Geology temporarily housed, with Physics, Chemistry, and Astronomy permanently provided for, there still remains the task of making the necessary provision for the great group of biological departments, Zoology, Botany, Paleontology, Physiology, and Anatomy. We cannot hope to make full provision at once, but the interests of science and the immediate interests of these departments demand that, within another year, there be erected at least one laboratory which shall meet pressing needs. It is literally impossible for the work to continue in its present quarters. The laboratory needed can be erected for one hundred thousand dollars. Who will build it ? At every succeeding Convocation he urged this need, enlarging on it in the December (1894) Convocation and reiterating it in the June (1895) statement, when he added the following cry of despair: The situation in a word is so serious that we shall be compelled to give up a portion of the work already undertaken unless help comes most speedily. Six months later came Miss Culver's great contribution for the biological departments. The funds were now, for the first time,