UGA ARCHIVES

The Campus as Shown in Gleason's Pictorial and Drawing Room Companion, May 13, 1854

(click here for larger scan)

Street traffic is much more hazardous for dogs today, but many of the buildings remain.  Shown from left to right are: Phi Kappa Hall,  Waddel Hall, Old College,  New College,  the Chapel, Demosthenian Hall, the "Ivy" building and a Presbyterian church.

Phi Kappa, Old College and New College are easy to recognize today.  The Chapel is little changed, except for the removal of its bell tower.  Demosthenian Hall is drawn with gables, rather than its hipped roof.  Considerable artistic license has been taken with tiny Waddel Hall,  making it appear as a major structure.   The Presbyterian church was replaced by the Library Building, which eventually became the right wing of today's Holmes-Hunter Academic Building.   The Ivy Building, named for the thick coat of vines it eventually developed, was absorbed into the left wing of the Holmes-Hunter Building.

Both the caption and the title of the short description refer to the University of Georgia as Franklin College, the name of the College of Arts & Sciences. 

University Archives also has acquired what we think is an earlier version of this scene, a color lithograph, UGA 06-026, which can be viewed at: http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/uga06-026.html .

A Description of the University of Georgia from  Gleason's Pictorial and Drawing Room Companion, May 1854

FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF GEORGIA This institution, of which we present an engraving above, is located in Athens, Clarke county.  As early as 1778-9 the Legislature of Georgia made liberal endowments for the establishment of the University, but is did not go into operation until 1801.  Alonzo Church, D.D., of Brattleborough, Vermont, a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, has been its president since 1829.  Dr. Church possesses every qualification for the office he had so long filled.  It has six professorships, and three instructors, and at present reckons 151 students, in the various departments.  The buildings belonging to the college are two used for lodging rooms for students, a philosophical hall and chemical laboratory, a chapel, a library and cabinet, president's house and three houses for the professors.  The library contains between eight and nine thousand volumes.  The philosophical apparatus is one of the most extensive and complete in the country - the chemical laboratory is ample, the cabinet of minerals large, the botanic garden in good order.   Connected with the college are two societies.  Each has a very neat and convenience hall, erected at the expense of the society.  The library of each of these associations contains over two thousand volumes.

Our thanks to Gilbert Head for loan of his copy of the original paper for scanning.

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