Registration at Rice, 1939

Finally, on the third double page  of Ethel's scrapbook, registration! . On this next page we continue to find clippings dated September 12th -15th (1939). The first article, indicates Rice has yet to open it’s doors and remains in preparation for the new academic year.

Registration At Rice Begins on Thursday

1300 Students Expected as Institution Starts It's 28th year; Classes to Open Monday.

Registration for Rice Institute's twenty-eighth year will begin at 8 a.m. Thursday when approximately 1300 students will begin to enroll in the sally port on the first floor of the Administration Building.

New students in the academic course will register until 10:30 a.m., when sophomore, junior and senior academic students will begin to enroll, continuing through the afternoon. New architecture and engineering students will enroll from 8:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. Friday, and old engineering and architecture students will register from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Old academic students may register at any time Friday.

Jewish students will be excused from registration Thursday for the observance of the Jewish religious holiday, Rosh Hashanah Samuel G. McCann, registrar, has arranged that Jewish students register on Friday if possible, or on the following Monday, the first day of regular classes.

The traditional initiation of freshmen will start Thursday as soon as the first freshmen complete registration. Crowds gather in the sally port each year to watch sophomore men initiate the new men students. Freshmen girls will be initiated the first Friday of regular classes.

Tho construction jobs being completed for the opening of the new semester. The dining hall in the men's dormitories is being enlarged, and a new laboratory is being built onto the Chemistry Building.

The mess hall has been enlarged to almost twice its original capacity. The additional 200 feet of floor space will allow facilities for the accommodation of about 650 men. The dining hall formerly accommodated around 350 men.

The new laboratory space will be used by senior and graduate chemical engineering students for the study of unit operations. The two-story annex provides about 1600 feet of floor space. Dr. Arthur Hartsook is in complete charge of construction.

Two new scholarships are being offered for the first time this year for Rice students. The Samuel S. Ashe Scholarship endowed by Mrs. Sailie Ashe Fitch, the late Mr. Ashe's daughter, will be awarded annually to a deserving and necessitous freshman students who completes his first year's work with highest grades. The first award has been made to George W. Krog, class of 1943 of Houston.

Mr. Mabel Franklin Austen has endowed the Thomas Richard and Julia Hadley Franklin scholarship in memory of her parents. The first winner of the scholarship, to be awarded on the basis of scholarship standing and financial necessity, have not yet been announced.

Three new instructors have been appointed to the faculty this year. Dr. Edward S. Deevy, Jr. who received his Ph. D. from Yale University, has been appointed instructor in biology. Walter F. Scofield, new instructor in civil engineering, holds a B.S from the University of Kansas, where he previously held an assistant instructorship. Carl R. Wischmeyer, new engineering instructor  received his bachelor degree from Rose Polytechnic Institute and his master degree from Yale University.

Several curriculum changes have been made this year. New English courses are being offered in the late romantic and Victorian literature and in old English, including a special study of Beowulf. Two new math courses are open to graduate students this year, one in modern algebra, the other in continued fractions. New senior courses in physical chemistry and inorganic qualitative analysis are being offered, as well as graduate course in adsorption, heterogeneous equilibrium, and heterocyclic chemistry. 

This article surprised me on initial read. I wondered why would the Houston Chronicle print such detail information about the registration schedule at Rice? I guess, without email, Rice could best reach it's student body by posting this kind of information in the paper. We do learn from this article, that Rice has been in existence for 28 years and that they were expecting 1300 students in 1939! I love the mention of the Jewish High Holidays and the exception made for the Jewish students. It's nice to know that the university was sensitive to Jewish minority. I can’t wait to hear about the Freshmen initiation ceremony!

Casualty in the Rice Family

Ethel's Scrapbook is now back online after a short pause. I took some time off from blog writing during and after the Boston Marathon Bombings which affect my community deeply. My family and I were all safe, but it was a powerful experience which required some time and reflection. To read more about my experience visit my other blog Past-Present-Future's post Living History-Boston Strong.

It seems appropriate to return to my grandmother's scrapbook, which this next article, which happens to be chronologically the next entry on the page I left off. Timed perfectly with Memorial day, this article tells the story of a WWII young soldier who lost his life.

Prof. Moraud Cables Rice Son Is Killed

Sep 15, 1939

Young John Moraud, Who Formerly Lived in Houston, Presumably Lost Life in Military Service.

John Moraud, second son of Dr. Marcel Moraud, professor of French at Rice Institute, was killed in France, presumably in military service, it was learned in Houston Friday. 

Doctor Moraud cabled Rice Institute that his son had been killed and that his sailing for home to resume his duties at the institute would be delayed. 

Jon, about 19, who formerly lived in Houston, was going to school in France. He had looked forward to joining the French navy, said friends here, but after studying to enter the navy he was not selected, because native French citizens were the first taken. John then turned to other military studies, the friends said. They did not know what branch of military he entered.

Chose French Citizenship.

His father was in the French intelligence service during the world war, stationed in Washington. John was born in the United States and, under the law of France, had the choice of being a French citizen if he so chose. He decided to become a French citizen when he selected a military career, the friends here said.

Brilliant Student

Before going to France to attend military school, John was a member of Boy Scout troop No. 11. under Scoutmaster C. W. Gribble. 

The youth spoke both French and English fluently and was called a brilliant student. His older brother, Marcel, Jr., is studying to be a professor of French and English, so that he can alternate between the two countries, as his father had done. Besides the two boys, Doctor Moraud has two daughters, the oldest May Elise having attended Rice for a time. 

Doctor and Mrs. Moraud and their younger daughter had gone to France early in the summer to visit the other children, the Houston friends said. Their Houston residence is at 1216 Bartlett Street.

This article, seems to have been published immediately after Rice received the cable from Professor Moraud, and missing information. It will be interesting to see if Ethel wrote about the fallen soldier, later on.

Dr. Marcel Moraud

Five days earlier, on September 10th,  Ethel published an article listing various Rice professors and their summer trips to Europe titled: Professors at Rice End Europe Trip. There she mentions, professor Moraud's expected return that same week. I attached a photo of Dr. Moraud on that post, but thought to repost it here as well.

This is the first article in the scrapbook, dealing with WWII. I found it interesting to note that World War II was not known as a world war as of yet and therefore when Ethel refers to WWI and professor Moraud's role as a French intelligence officer, she only refers to the great war as "the World War". Life at Rice, like in most of the United States, was very sheltered from the events in Europe, but slowly, even as early as 1939, incidents like this one are testament to the trickling effect the war had across the ocean.

First Night Football Game at Rice!

Ethel was not a big sports fan as far as I can recall, but my sons will be pleased to discover that she did know a bit about college football. She may have never set foot at the newly remodeled football stadium, on campus, but here is an article she wrote about Rice's promising 1939 team and their upcoming schedule.

Eyes of Nation Football Fans Will Turn to RiceSept. 30 for First Night Game

September 12th, 1939

The eyes of football fans all over the nation will turn toward Houston on September 30, where one of the major early season games will be played between Rice Institute and Vanderbilt University.
The game will also initiate night football at Rice Stadium. Lights have been installed at the new stadium, which has been put in readiness for the 1939 schedule. The Owls opened training last week.

Outstanding Team.

Owls have been touted by sports writers throughout the Southwest inference as one of outstanding teams s of the conference. Besides a wealth of material held over from last year's squad, including Ernie Lain and Olie Cordell, the varsity is enlarged by a great freshman squad of last year.

1938 returning Rice Football stars
Ernie Lain and Olie Cordill
Source:U.S.School Yearbooks>Texas>Houston>Rice>1938>p.216.
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2010.p.216 

The four games of the season three of them at Rice Stadium will be played at night. After Vanderbilt, the Owls on October 7 played Centenary at Houston then on October 14 play Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and return home to meet Sam Houston State Teachers College on October 21. All night games start at 8 o'clock.

Conference  Action.

The Owls will then go to Austin to swing into action action in conference competition, meeting the University of Texas on October 28. This, and the remainder of  games on the schedule, will be afternoon game, starting at 2:30 p.m.

On November 4 the Owls will travel to New York to meet Fordham University Rams in the last intersectional game on the schedule. They then resume Southwest Conference play, meeting the University of Arkansas Razorbacks here on November 11 and then Teas Aggies here on November 18. 

Rice will play Texas Christian University Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on November 25, will return home to meet Baylor University’’s Bears on December 2 and will close the season in Dallas, playing Southern Methodist University on December 9. 

Rice's Winning Football Team from 1938
Campanile Yearbook 1938
Source:U.S.School Yearbooks>Texas>Houston>Rice>1938>p.210. 
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com 
Operations, Inc., 2010. 

The 1938 squad Ethel mentioned, indeed had a great year. They were the first Rice team to reach the Cotton Bowl where they defeated Colorado 28-14 (Rice Historical Society Timeline). This championship team surely benefited from a newly remodeled stadium.  On September 23rd, 1938, the Thresher reported that the construction cost of $160,000 was raised by Rice fans in exchange for ticket options. Clearly, Texas was pulling out of the Great Depression! In 1939, the lights were turned on for the returning championship team, who were to hold the first game of the season at night!

Do you venture to guess when the first ever college football game was played under the lights? I did a little research and the answer surprised me. September 28th 1892! The game was held in Mansfield, Pennsylvania between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary. Professional football did not hold a night game until twenty years later in 1902!

I can not help but conjure the popular TV series Friday Night Lights which aired a few years ago, based on a Texas high school football team. Today, the popularity of college football, has soared to unimaginable heights, and even high school football is played under the lights, in almost American towns. As reflected in Ethel's article, the Texan football tradition is deeply rooted. I bet she would have related to this highly acclaimed football tv drama. 

If you are a football fan and want to read more about the old stadium, here are several links to great posts, photos of the stadium and it's construction from the Rice History Corner Blog by Melissa Kean:

• The Old Old Football Stadium
• The 1937 Campus Map and the “New” Rice Stadium
• The View from Inside the Old Stadium

Following the 1939 Football season promises to be an exciting! Let's hope the Owls won their first night game against Vanderbilt University! I hope the scrapbook has more articles about the game!

Hot Off the Press

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica  "A colloid is a substance microscopically dispersed throughout another substance." Rice university was blessed with a world expert on the subject, it's very own Dean and professor, Dr. Harry Boyer Weiser. We've met Dr. Weiser several times already as he was mentioned in various other articles. See Rice Institute to Be Represented at Meet, for a photo of Ethel receiving her diploma from Dr. Weiser. Here, in another article from the first ten days of September, Ethel continues to report on the Chemistry department and her professor's new textbook.

"Rice Dean Gets Copies Of I! His New Book on Chemistry 

September 10th, 1939

First copies of a textbook, just off the press, entitled "Colloid Chemistry," have been received at Rice Institute by the author, Dr. Harry B. Weiser, professor of chemistry and dean of the institute.
Giving numerous applications of colloid chemistry in agriculture, industry and home economics, Doctor Weiser has tried to provide a textbook that will keep the students interested in the technical study through practical applications. Examples of this are the including of a method of manufacturing ammonia, the theory of why Jello and other gelatin desserts jell, a process for making petroleum drilling muds, and even a recipe for making mayonnaise.

Gall stones and agate both come from colloidal materials, he points out in another section of the book. Insect sprays are made to cover a larger area, wet the surface more thoroughly and last longer due to the addition of proper colloids.

Dean Harry B. Weiser
Source: Ancestry.com U.S. School Yearbooks 2010. 
Rice Institute 1938 p. 16

Sixth He Has Published.

This is the sixth book Professor Weiser has published. The text is intended to give the student a thorough grounding in colloid chemistry, with special attention to the modern theories and developments, and also to acquaint him,with the wide applications of science to industrial arts, biology land agriculture.

Applications to lubrication, adhesives and soaps are made in the first section of the book, in which absorption is taken up. Bentonite, the material which prevents the hardening of clay in the earth's strata around the drill in drilling for petroleum, is discussed in the division on colloidal gelatins.

Dyestuffs Discussed.

Dyes and dyestuffs are discussed in a later section, in which technical methods of keeping cloth from spotting when dyed brilliant colors are pointed out. The section also presents the best methods of preparing blueprints.

The book, to be used this year in Professor 'Weiser's courses at Rice in colloidal chemistry for senior and graduate students, is an outgrowth of his 25 years of experience as an instructor and professor in the science at Cornell University, the University of Tennessee. and Rice Institute.

Doctor Weiser is a member of the executive committee of Sigma Xi, national honorary science fraternity; chairman of the National Colloid Symposium, and chapter councillor of the Rice Chapter a Phi Lambda Upsilon, national honorary chemistry association. He is one of the foremost American authorities on colloid chemistry."

Photo of the original text book from Amazon

The book is now out of print, though a few used copies are available on amazon for about $3.00. My hunch is that Ethel, a senior in 1939, would have signed up for this class and was the first of Chemistry students around the country to use the textbook, written by the renown professor. Dr. Weiser seemed ahead of his time in trying to make Chemistry more attractive to students by focusing on it's practical implications.

What to Make of Two Almost Identical Scrapbook Articles?

Just when I was feeling pretty confident that Ethel's articles were all most likely clipped from the Houston Chronicle where she worked her senior year, I turned to the second page of the scrapbook and found the following article. You may recognize the content from last weeks post: Rice Institute to Be Represented at Meet.

DR. W. 0. MILLIGAN WILL SPEAK AT BOSTON MEETING

Dr. W. O. Milligan of the chemistry department at Rice Institute will address the ninety-eighth national meeting of the American Chemical Society at Boston, September 10. Doctor Milligan will speak before the division of colloid chemistry on "Electron Diffraction Studies on the Hydrous Oxides Amorphous to X-Rays." This address will be a report of recent research work carried out in the Rice Institute chemical laboratories by Prof. Harry B. Weiser, dean, and Doctor Milligan. The results of this work will be published later in a chemical journal.) 

The technique of electron diffraction is being used by these two Rice scientists to study the structure and constitution of colloidal materials, such as the hydrous oxides of iron and aluminum. Professor Weiser and Doctor Milligan have applied the method of X-ray diffraction to the problem of the constitution of the hydrous oxides :for 10 years. A fine beam of high speed electrons is allowed to pass through a very thin film of the oxide being examined. If the oxide is crystalline, a pattern of concentric rings will be recorded on a photographic plate. The entire apparatus is within a high vacuum.

Doctor Milligan will attend a meeting of the national research council committee on the application of X-rays to chemistry and chemical technology in Boston, September 13.

I've included a photo of the first article here again for comparison and closer examination. The information is similar but not identical. Interestingly, the date handwritten on the first post was September 10th, while on the post from the second page, September 1st. The second post (though from an earlier date) is a bit longer and more technical in it's description of Dr. W. O. Milligan's research. This article is marked by lines, an making we already observed last week on an earlier article. The headline on the second article written in all Capital letters while on the earlier clipping, it's written in title format with only the first letter of each word capitalized.

This new finding leads me to question the theory that all of these articles originated from one newspaper. It's unlikely the Houston Chronicle posted two articles discussing the same Rice professor travelling to the same conference in a span of ten days.

I double checked the Threser and could not find this articles in any of the September publications. As far as I can tell, there wasn't a September first publication. The Thresher was published on Friday. The September 1st, would have been a Sunday. Therefore I believe one of these articles must have been published in the Houston Press while the other in the Houston Chronicle. A theory I will have to prove by examining these two publications on Microfilm, hopefully in the near future!

I found a picture of Dr. Milligan and his later achievements from a Southwest Resort article in 1950.

(Click to Enlarge)
Source: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.. Southwest Retort, Volume 3, Number 1, October 1950. [Dallas, Texas]. UNT Digital Library. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc75248/. Accessed March 22, 2013.

Workday Wednesday Downtown Houston c1940

A couple of weeks ago, as I was finalizing the idea for this blog, I pulled out a photo of my grandmother Ethel, and placed it, front and center on my desk.This is my system of raising a photo high  up on the priority lists of photos to investigate. After my experience with the Guenard Speed & Clemens building from another mystery photo (see: Where Was This Picture Taken?) I knew, the writing on the awning behind Ethel, was a huge bonus and should help me discover the story behind this photograph.

Last January, via twitter, I met Lorraine Arnold  (@LegacyRoots) who specializes in the history of buildings and business. Lorraine, was able to identify the location of a building in a photo of Ethel's father, William Bloomfield from around 1920. She featured this amazing photo detective tale in her blog Legacy Roots. I hope Lorraine will be proud of the photographic detective work I was able to do with Ethel's photo today!
Though the writing on the awning behind Ethel is obstructed by her head, thanks in part to the glasses, it's pretty obvious the sign says Houston Optical Co.


The Big Clue


The crowds and tall buildings indicate a busy Downtown Houston street. Her outfit, the fitted blazer, sharp skirt and high heeled pumps suggest Ethel was dressed for work. She looks pretty young, so I am estimating the photo to be from around the early 1940s. Maybe heading to her first job as a secretary after college.

My next step was to look for information on the Houston Optical Co. Google was unhelpful so I turned to the US Ci Directory on Ancestry.com. I went to the 1940 City of Houston Directory and BINGO!

The Houston  Optical Co., owned by Ronald M Chamberlin, was located on 1006 Texas Avenue, Houston, Texas.

Houston Optical Co, third from the top.
(Click to Enlarge)
Source: Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta) [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Texas > Houston > 1940 > Houston, Texas, City Directory, 1940 > p.271

Then I had another thought. Maybe this was next to the Houston Chronicle offices. I flipped back one page and found the entry for the daily paper where Ethel was a Rice Correspondent, during her senior year (1939-1940). The Houston Chronicle was housed in the Chronicle Building, 512-520 Travis Street, Houston, Texas.

The Houston Chronicle
Source: Ancestry.com same as above p.270

Next, I need to figure out how far apart were these two locations. I returned to google, this time, entering the two locations on google maps. This is a crude estimation of the 1940s location, but hoping the lots haven't been renumbered to many times since 1940, it should give me a good idea of the proximity of where this photo was taken and Ethel's stomping grounds, The Houston Chronicle. (Note: I did also check on the address of the Houston Press, where Ethel worked during her junior year, 2001-2019 Rusk Avenue, which was much further away from the Houston Optical Co. location).

View Larger Map

Point A is 1006 Texas Avenue, the location of the 1940 Houston Optical shop. Point B is 512-520 the location of the Houston Chronicle building (which today takes up the whole block). As you can see, Travis Street and Texas Avenue intersect. If you click a street view at the Texas Avenue location, this is what you see:

View Larger Map

The building today is the Historic Rice Hotel Building which houses the Post Lofts, and spans from Travis to Main Street on Texas Avenue.

If you follow the virtual tour around the historic building and onto Travis Street, you find yourself in this spot:

View Larger Map

Your view from the Travis Street corner of the expanded Chronicle building is:

View Larger Map

You can zoom in and see the historic street lamps the city of Houston preserved for the district, almost identical to the ones from Ethel's photo (take another look). 

The Rice Hotel, according to the Houston's City Directory, spanned from 917-925 Texas Avenue. The Houston Optical Co. at 1006 Texas Avenue was at the Main Street intersection, literally across the street from the Hotel. There is not enough detail in the buildings in Ethel's photos, to pinpoint which direction of the street the picture was taken from. What is clear, she was standing on the corner of 1006 Texas Avenue between main street and Travis Street where the old Chronicle building stood. I'm pretty sure the building to her left (to the right side of the photograph) must be the Rice Hotel. Here are some old postcards of the old Houstonian landmarks. 

What precisely was my stylish grandmother doing in the hip part of Houston that day,  I can only guess, so I'll put my best guest forward. I think she was either dropping off an article, going to a staff meeting or maybe picking up her $15 paycheck from the Houston Chronicle. Maybe in her bag she had a copy of that day's edition to take home and cut out her article for the scrapbook?

The Chronicle Building 1913
US Archives.org http://bit.ly/16JDS0i

The Rice Hotel 1912
The University of Houston Digital Library:
 http://digital.lib.uh.edu

Page One from Ethel's Scrapbook Completed

This is the fifth and final article Ethel posted on the first page of her scrapbook. They were published in a period of 11 days, from August 31st-September 10th. And again, the Chemistry department makes news. Three of the articles feature the department where Ethel studied. We'll have to see if this is a trend, or just a coincidence.

As the country was pulling out of the great-depression which lasted from 1929-1939, Rice was investing in the sciences, particularly the Chemistry department, buying new equipment and building new labs. The new fall semester was just underway and Ethel was about to enjoy both the new Mess hall and the extra space in the Chemistry building (her major), just in time for her senior year.

"Construction is Speeded on Rice’s Campus September 11th, 1939.

Size of Mess Hall Almost Doubled and Annex to Chemistry Building is Being Completed.

---

Nearness of the new school semester is speeding the completion of two construction projects begun this summer on the Rice Institute campus.

The mess hall, between South Hall and East Hall in the men's dormitories, has been enlarged to almost double the former capacity and the chemistry building has a new annex to be used by the chemical engineering department.

The addition to the mess hall will accommodate about 300 students, bringing the total capacity of the dining room to around 650.

About 2000 square feet of floor space has been added, Albert Meyerson, contractor, said.
---
Chemistry Building Annex.

The chemistry building annex contain equipment for senior chemical engineering students. Several large pieces of apparatus bought recently by the department will be moved from the basement laboratories into the new section immediately. A 100-plate copper fractionating still, installed last winter, will be the first piece of equipment to be moved into the laboratory.

The annex will provide space to complete the demonstration of every unit process in chemical engineering, Dr. Arthur J. Hartsook, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Rice, believes. Blueprints for several new pieces of equipment to illustrate each of these processes are being made by Dr. Hartsook. He is in charge of designing and will supervise construction.
----
 Apparatus Included.

Apparatus to be placed in the annex for use in advanced courses includes a fractionating tower, a temperature control column, rotary dryer, humidifier, small steam boiler for heat material balance, and equipment to illustrate absorption and adsorption, rectification, thickening, hydraulic classification, crystallization extraction, and water softening.

The laboratory, 55 feet long and 30 feet wide, is two floors high with an iron tap-walk at the mid story level. A scientifically designed skylight will give illumination much better than that found in laboratories of most large Eastern colleges. The annex was built to alleviate the crowding in the
original laboratories when the department acquired several new pieces of apparatus last year."

When I launched this blog last week, I was unsure which newspaper the articles in the scrapbook came from, the Thresher—the Rice weekly student publication, the Houston Press or the Houston Chronicle. I have now, confirmed that they did not come from the Thresher. See if you reach the same conclusion:

From the Thresher
 Front Page Sep 14, 1939
(Click to Enlarge
See Source below)

"Chemistry Building Increased To Hold Special Apparatus

New Laboratory Offers Seniors Method For Unit Operation

Added space has been given the senior chemical engineering students, said Arthur J. Hartsook, assistant professor of chemical engineering, this summer by the construction of new wing to the north side of the Chemistry building. 

This addition was needed to place special apparatus which has been designed for "chemical engineering student operations, experience and knowledge."

Apparatus By Hartsook

The greatest part of this apparatus... (see ANNEX page four).


The continuation from this article was practically illegible and I did not attach it here. There was a separate article in this same publication about the Mess Hall expansion titled, Mess Hall Grows, Seniors Floored, which went into more detail of how it affected the student body especially which dorm. 

Surprisingly, these Thresher articles do not credit the author. In previous years, the student paper listed the reporter at the top of most articles. In 1939 they must have changed their policy, so it's unclear who wrote these matching articles. My guess is that Ethel first submitted her work to the Chronicle  and then tailored the same articles for the Rice student body. She most likely wrote both set of articles, though she was not listed as a contributor to this particular issue dated Sep 14th, 1939. It's possible another student wrote the Rice articles, we'll never know for sure. One thing is sure. The scrapbook articles are not from the Thresher! 

Source: The Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 14, 1939, Newspaper, September 14, 1939; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230458/ : accessed March 19, 2013), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University: Woodson Research Center, Houston, Texas.

Rice Institute to Be Represented at Meet

For the second time in a week, the chemistry department at Rice makes news! This time, faculty members will be heading to Boston, while their college Professor Chandler from the Biology department will be in NY.

Rice Institute to Be Represented at Meet 9/10/1939

Two Rice Institute faculty members will represent Rice at the ninety-eighth national meeting of the American Chemical Society, in be held Monday through Friday in Boston, Mass.

Chemistry Tower
Rice University
From Rice Yearbook 1938

Source: Ancestry.com.
U.S. School Yearbooks [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data: 
Various school yearbooks
from across the United States.

Dr. Winfred O. Milligan, research assistant in. chemistry, will present a paper at the conference, Monday morning, before the division of colloid chemistry. His topic is "Electron Diffraction Studies on the Hydrous Oxides Amorphous to, X-Rays." The speech reports on research work that Doctor Milligan has completed at Rice Institute, in collaboration with Dr. Harry B Weiser, dean and professor of chemistry.

Dr. Allen Garrison assistant professor of chemical engineering will represent Rice, along with Doctor Milligan, at the conference and the two will attend a meeting of the National Research Council committee on the application of X-Rays to chemistry and chemical technology, Wednesday, in Boston.

Ethel with afore mentioned Dean and Chemistry Department
 profesor Harry B. Weiser at graduation, June 1940.

The scrapbook articles so far, portray Ethel as a serious aspiring reporter. Today, on my other blog, Past-Present-Future, I shared a lighter side of Ethel. As part of an ongoing series commemorating Women's History Month spearheaded by  +Lisa Alzo's. Today's prompt was: Social Butterflies, and I couldn't resist including the story about Ethel under that prompt, although it really should have been posted as part of Ethel's Scrapbook. Do make sure to check out! Day 17: Fearless Females: Social Butterfly? Very Fishy! 

Yearbook 1937-1938

Ethel's pasted her articles into her scrapbook during her senior year at Rice Institute. It was the academic year of 1939-1940. While most of her classmates at Rice were twenty-one years old or so, Ethel, had just turned seventeen. She was young, and female. The first three clippings hinted at the difficulties of women on campus. The discrimination felt by women was not unique to Rice. Since, this is Women's History Month, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the statistics regarding women at Rice during my grandmother's stay and see how far women have come in a span of three generations!

Rice, founded in 1912, was unusual amongst institutions of higher learning, as it accepted women from the get-go.  The class of 1912, made up of 48 young men and 29 young women, was taught by twelve member faculty (Rice University). Today, there are more than six thousands students, close to four thousand undergraduates, 48% of whom are female, according to US News college ranking.

The 1938 Rice Yearbook, the Campanile, is available on ancestry.com as part of their US School Yearbooks online database. Ethel was a member of the sophomore class.

Ethel's yearbook picture. (First from the left). She was 15 years old.
The Campanile 1937-1938. 

Statistics gathered from the 1938 Yearbook:

• Board of trustees members: 7 members. All men
• Administration Offices: President, Dean, Registrar, Bursar and Advisor to Women. All male, except the Advisor to Women, Sarah L. Lane.
• Professors: 13, all men.
• Assistant professors: 8, all men.
• Instructors: 22,  all men.
• Assistance and Fellows: 23, (22 men, 1 woman).
• Graduate Students: 6, all men.
• Student Council: 6, (4, men, 2 women).
• Class Representatives 9 (5, men, 4 women).
• Women's Council: 12 women.
• Honor Council: 9 (4 men, 5 women).
• Sophomore Class: 362 students,  (98 women about 27%)
• Pre-Med and Pre-Law and Engineering Societies. All male. 
• Band: All male.

The faculty, was just about all male, but the university, sensitive to the women students, established an administrative position, the Advisor to Women to help the female students. The picture in the student body was quite different, and the women were well represented in the Student Council. They also advocated for themselves with the Women's Council. Careers like Medicine, Law and Engineering were completely male dominated. It would be interesting to see how many women compared to men, reached graduation. I bet, many, like Miss Whatley mentioned in the August 31st, 1939 article: Psychology Teacher And Rice Student Wed in New Mexico. The article only mentions that her husband, Professor Pattie, continued his professorship. It's unlikely the new Mrs. Pattie, continued her studies. For those of you curious to see what Miss Whatley looked like, I finally was  discovered her photograph in the yearbook (I was looking in the wrong year).

Billie Bess Whatley, Freshman 1937-1938

Source: Ancestry.com. U.S. School Yearbooks [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Various school yearbooks from across the United States.

Rice Opens New Courses in Chemistry

Today's article interestingly is about the Chemistry department. Ethel would have been a Junior in 1939 and a student of chemistry so this subject close to her heart. Noteworthy is the last section when she mentions which of the students were awarded fellowships. All four were men. In her unfinished memoir did describe the discrimination she felt applying for jobs in chemistry once she graduated. I wonder if she began noticing this kind of discrimination within the department as well. It will be interesting to see future articles about the chemistry department in the future. 

RICE OPENS NEW COURSES IN CHEMISTRY  9/3/1939

Revision of Senior and

Graduate Section. of Department at Institute Is Completed

Six new half-year courses and one new full-year course in chemistry have been established at Rice Institute this year in a complete revision of the senior and graduate section of the chemistry department, it was announced this week.

Half-year courses in chemistry will give short, concentrated presentations of highly specialized branches of the science. In previous years, only the longer, more generalized courses were offered. The new courses will enable advanced students to acquire more thorough grounding in chemistry, Dr. George H. Richter, assistant professor of chemistry, explained.

Special Examinations.

Also new this year are the special examinations required of candidates for master's and doctor' degrees in chemistry that have been added to the general requirements for these advanced degrees. Courses open only to students passing these examination have, furthermore, been created. The comprehensive examination to be given before October 1 on the academic year, will cover analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, as well as scientific German.

Senior students will have two new courses to choose from during the second halfyear—advanced physical chemistry and advanced inorganic qualitative analysis. Graduate students working toward an M.A. degree have open to them three new courses during the first half-year—adsorption, the theory of valence, and advanced physiological chemistry.

Heterogeneous Equilibrium.

A new course in heterogeneous equilibrium will be presented during the second half-year. Three courses will be open only to candidates for the Ph.D. degree. The most modern type of X-ray diffraction apparatus, installed this summer, will be used in chemistry 610. Heterocyclic chemistry

640 has been newly-created, and advanced inorganic chemistry completes the group. Four new men have been given fellowships in the reorganized department: Sam R. Bethea and Ervon J. Eggemann of Iowa in chemical engineering, and James Holmes of Georgia and William R Purcell of Mattoon, Ill., chemistry.

This is the second article dated September 3rd (yesterday's post, Professor A. C. Chandler, was about a Biology professor). There seems to be a science theme to day. I doubt new courses in any department at Rice would make the local newspapers today. It's interesting to think that type of information was worth of a newspaper article back then. Today, we may hear about new innovative programs at universities, but not a minor expansion of courses in a small department nor a trip to a conference by a conference by one professor.   


Remember Professor Pattie from the psychology department? The one Ethel wrote about in an article earlier the same week which I shared on the debout of this blog? Yes, the assistant professor who ran off to marry a student? Well, I was curious about him, and decided to look up the "scandalous" couple in the Rice Yearbook, the Campanile. There he sits at the bottom of the page. His bride, Miss Whatley is conspicuously missing from the Sophomore class where she reportedly belonged. I hope to find her in the future!

A page from Campanile, Rice Institute Yearbook 1938
Assistant Professor Dr. Frank A Pattie, Jr. bottom right.
(Click to Enlarge)

Ancestry.com. U.S. School Yearbooks [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Various school yearbooks from across the United States.

Friday's Faces from the Past: Professor A. C. Chandler

Yesterday's launch of Ethel's Scrapbook was quite successful! The blog enjoyed 100 visitors! +Jana Last was the first to join! Thanks +Jana Last and welcome to all my new members and readers!

One of mysteries posed by Ethel's scrapbook is which publication the articles came from. By process of elimination, I believe I have narrowed down the possibilities from three to two. After studying the Thresher weekly online, on the The Portal to Texas History website, I am convince these clippings do not come from the Rice student newspaper. The Thresher articles, for the most part, list the author. My grandmother is credited to quite a few articles. Therefore, I believe the articles in the scrapbook come from her job as the Rice correspondent for the two local Houston papers, the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Press.

Today's article is titled Rice Professor Leaves To Talk at Biology Meeting. Interestingly, the article is crossed out (see image below). Several other articles throughout the scrapbook are crossed out as well. I am hoping to discover a pattern that might explain why she chose to draw a line through some of these articles. I present to you, article #2 from Ethel's scrapbook:

Rice Professor Leaves To Talk at Biology Meeting 9/3/1939

Dr. A. C. Chandler, professor of biology at Rice Institute, left Saturday for a three-week visit to New York, where he will give a paper on "Investigation of Immunity in Tape Worm Infections" before the Third International Congress of Microbiology.

The congress will be held from September 4 to 9, and will feature talks by leading biologist from many nations. Doctor Chandler is corresponding member from the section on parasitology, and is the only Texan who will be on the program. 

"In experiments I found that tape worms absorb the food from nourishment a person takes into his body, and that if there is only one tape worm its growth is successful and long lived. But if more than one are found in a person , all die except for one. 

"There might be two reasons for such results. Either the person is immune from tape worm or the other can not grow because they are crowded.
"In the experiment, I fed rats already infected with tape worms with larve worms from beetles. After observing the rats for several days an operation was performed and all but one of  the worms removed. The result was that the worm continued to grow after the others were removed. This proved that the person was not immune, but that worms could not grow because they were crowded. 

"Experiments with vaccine were not successful  A vaccine had no effect on the worm in the infected rat. Even when the vaccine was given by mouth the tape worm was not harmed. 
"Premunition was the conclusion of the experiments," Doctor Chandler said. 

Premunition means protection against infection while the patient is infected. In other words if a person is the victim of tape worm disease, no other tape worm can become dangerous until the infectious one is destroyed. 

The Summary of his address was given by the doctor before he left. 

Now what scientist today goes to a three week conference? Times have changed! This article spoke to me in several ways. My husband is a scientist who uses rats and mice in his experiments. Apart from the length of the leave, I notice a few other major differences in the evolution of scientific research since my grandmother roamed the Rice campus. For one, no one would draw conclusions on humans directly from a mouse experiment. Mice are a good model, but one can not conclude the same result in human with human trials. Secondly, I had a difficult time reaching the conclusion he drew from the experiment of surgically removing the worms. I read the paragraph several times and I'm still not sure of the conclusion. If it wasn't a direct quote from his report, I would think my grandmother might have misunderstood his experiment. Finally, I'm curious if his results hold true today (I've made a note to look this up). 

Since today is Friday Face's From the Past day, I thought I would try to find a picture the renown parasitologist. I did even better. I found a great blog post about him on the Rice's Historian's Blog by Melissa Kean. Melissa wrote about a series of coincidences which lead her to learn about professor Chandler. Ethel's article will continue the stings of serendipitous events.

Professor Chandler c1940 from Historian's Blog

One of Melissa Kean's readers, relayed a rumor that Dr. Chandler smuggled a tapeworm inside himself. Another recalled that he named a tapeworm Homer and provided the bibliography to support his claim. 
The good news is, this professor did not run off and marry a student like his colleague Dr. Frank Pattie from the psychology department (see yesterday's post).