INTRODUCTION

The celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter in 1766 to Queen's College, now Rutgers College, was formally determined and arrangements for it were actually begun by the Board of Trustees in 1915 when they appointed Clarence Ward, Ph.D., Professor of Architecture, Chairman of a Celebration Committee to be organized by him.

He associated with him as members of that committee Professor Louis Bevier, Dean, Professor Ralph G. Wright, Associate Professor Edmond W. Billetdoux, and Librarian George A. Osborn; and this committee at once entered into consideration of the necessary arrangements for the occasion, having the President of the College, Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, in constant consultation with them and the Field Secretary of the Alumni Association, Mr. Earl R. Silvers, in constant cooperation.

Professor Ward, as chairman, exercised general oversight of all details, took under his individual direction all printing, and was in full and immediate charge of the pageant, which he personally prepared and directed. To Professor Bevier was given responsibility for the selection and securing of speakers and for drawing up the lists of institutions and societies to which invitations should be sent. Professor Billetdoux was placed in control of the issuing of all invitations and of the entire correspondence with institutions, delegates, and guests. To Professor Wright was given charge of all arrangements for hospitality and transportation, for dinners and luncheons. Mr. Osborn, with Mr. Silvers, secretary, and Mr. Ralph W. Voorhees, assistant secretary, took upon themselves all arrangements especially related to the alumni. Professor Walter T. Marvin was later designated to ar

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range for the reception of guests, Professor Richard Morris for their registration, and Professor Frederick C. Minkler for the transportation to and from the pageant.

The plans were so perfectly organized and the details so perfectly managed that the entire program was carried out with remarkable satisfaction and success at the appointed time.

The days chosen for the celebration were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 13, 14, and 15, the exact date of the granting of the Charter, November 10, being considered too late for anticipating favorable weather conditions. Preceding the historical and academic exercises of these days, on Thursday, October 12, an educational conference was arranged, especially for the school officers and teachers of the State of New Jersey, and it became an important part of the Celebration exercises.

The citizens of New Brunswick, deeply interested in the Celebration, were enlisted to insure its success, especially giving their cordial cooperation in opening their homes to visitors, in placing private conveyances at College disposal, in participating in the pageant, and in composing the anniversary chorus. The local Board of Trade offered their service in any possible way and distributed College banners of their own design through the City. The officials of New Brunswick, the members of the City Commission and heads of departments, by special attention gave all appropriate facilities. The Pennsylvania Railroad most courteously arranged all desired special stops of trains and in other ways most carefully and generously served the College's comfort and convenience through the four days.

The undergraduates undertook large and indispensable service in many ways, not only by taking part in the pageant, but as well by placing their dormitory rooms at the disposal of guests and by acting as escorts from trains and to registration rooms, to lodgings, and at the places of meeting.

The property of the College received special appropriate care and some notable renovation. The most noteworthy change was in the Kirkpatrick Chapel, where inner partitions were removed and the entire interior made into one assembly room. This was rendered possible by a gift of $10,000 for the purpose made by Mr. William P. Hardenbergh, as a memorial to his great-great-grandfather, the first President of the College, and the work was carried out by Mr. Henry J. Hardenbergh, his brother, who originally designed the building, and who at this time added as further memorial to President Hardenbergh a large stained glass window in the chancel, "Christ, the Great Teacher."

The work of change and renovation could not be begun until August 12 and responsibility was laid upon the contractors for the most rapid construction consistent with first class workmanship. Remarkable skill, diligence, and personal interest shown by the contractors brought the work to completion in two months. The result is a Chapel even more attractive than before and providing an increase of nearly three hundred in seating capacity. Under the direction of Professor John C. Van Dyke, the portraits were hung in a more artistic way and in a way more consecutive historically. Two new portraits were added to the collection-one of the recent President of the College, Dr. Austin Scott, presented as a graduation gift by the class of 1916, and one of President Demarest, presented at the anniversary time by the alumni of the College. Two tablets also were erected on the interior wall of the Chapel, one in memory of Hendrick Fisher, a founder of the College with Dr. Hardenbergh and first President of its Board of Trustees, presented by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Colonial Wars, and one in honor of Rutgers men enlisted for the Union in the Civil War, presented by the class of 1880. A third tablet, in memory of President Philip Milledoler, the gift of his grandson, Mr. Gerard Beekman, has since been erected. The organ, given in memory of George Buckham, Esq.,

of the class of 1832, by his daughter, Mrs. William J. Wright, and built by the Ernest M. Skinner Organ Company of Boston at a cost of $10,000, was not completed at the anniversary time but has since been installed.

The photographs of the graduating classes which had been in the Chapel lecture room were hung in the Alumni and Faculty House, the reception room of which had been entirely refurnished. The President's office which had also been in the Chapel building was removed to the Queen's Building. Arrangements had been completed for the needed paving of two sides of the Queen's Campus, and for the removing of telephone poles between it and the Neilson Campus, but the work, not done at the time, was completed a little later.

A further change in the property marking the anniversary, to the great satisfaction of all, was the painting of the cupola and doors and window frames of old Queen's Building white. This change restored its early fashion, departed from more than fifty years ago, and greatly emphasized the Colonial character of the building and its beautiful proportions. Upon the outer wall was erected a tablet in honor of the Queen's College men who served in the Revolutionary War, the gift of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Within the building, the original Chapel room, used in later years for classroom purposes, was completely renovated and made the Fine Arts Room, the collections being disposed in it under direction of Professor Van Dyke on their removal from their room in the Chapel building in consequence of the renovation there.

In Van Nest Hall was the general registration bureau, in charge of Professor Richard Morris and his associates, and the bureau of information, under the supervision of Professors William H. Kirk and J. Volney Lewis; the Alumni and Faculty House was the registration bureau for alumni, in charge of Mr. Charles P. Wilber, '05, and his associates. The Engineering Building was the men's building, in charge of Professor A. A.