Memorial Gym/Hansen Student Center Time Capsule Revealed!

(click to enlarge all images)

In a previous post I shared images and information on the time capsule that was recovered from the Memorial Gym. This photo shows an exhibit I installed on the main court of Hansen after the opening last night. The exhibit celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Gym and 20 years of its transformation into Hansen.

When the campus photographers’  images and video of the opening are available I will link them here. For now, here is a close up view of the side that shows just the time capsule contents.

The first item removed from the box was a Bible and the second was a packet of paper that turned out to be several sheets of paper that contains different facts about IWU and names of people involved in different parts of campus. The first sheet, though was this description of what was placed in the time capsule.*

Prior to the opening, I invited people to submit guesses about what we would find and two people guessed right!

  • First year student Liam Killian’s submission included newspapers and dust, dirt or rust. I am happy to say there was no moisture so no rust! All the dirt and dust was on the outside, but there were LOTS of newspapers.
  • University Librarian Stephanie Davis-Kahl’s submission included newspapers and photos. The one photo in the box was an 8×10″ of the 1921 football team. Unfortunately it had to be folded into quarters to fit in the box. It is cracked at those folds but the image is sharp!

It is amazing how much was in the small box. As the students kept removing more and more booklets, pamphlets and paper, the image of a circus car with endless clowns exiting popped into my head! When I remove the exhibit on October 11 I will do a more thorough assessment but these few photos can act as a teaser.

*The list of contents is as follows:
Copy of Bloomington Bulletin, November 4, 1921.
Copy of Bloomington Pantagraph, November 5, 1921.
Copy The Christian Advocate, October 27, 1921.
Copy Northwestern Christian Advocate, November 2, 1921.
Copy Epworth Herald, November 5, 1921.
Copy Wesleyan Argus.
Copy Articles of Incorporation of the Wesleyan.
Copy Catalogue Illinois Wesleyan University, 1921.
Copy Alumni Roll Illinois Wesleyan University.
Copy Spaulding’s Football Rules, 1921.
List of Faculty and students, current year.
List of student organizations.
Copy of Discipline Methodist Episcopal church, 1920.
Copy Year Book Methodist Episcopal Church, 1921.
Copy Minutes Illinois Annual Conference Methodist Episcopal Church, 1921.
Photograph of Football Team, 1921.
Copy of Holy Bible.

Named places: Munsell Hall

Munsell Hall is named for two brothers: Charles W. C. Munsell and Oliver Spencer Munsell. Both are credited with seeing IWU through its first financial crisis in 1857, growing student enrollment, and securing funds for the second campus building (1870). Charles served as IWU’s financial agent, in charge of raising funds for the struggling school, and Oliver served as second president of the University. President Munsell’s tenure also saw positive Board of Trustee action on admitting African American students (1867) and female students (1870). He resigned in 1873 due to questions raised about inappropriate contact with student. No criminal charges were brought but the incident was investigated by both the Methodist Conference and the Board of Trustees. Minutes of the latter are available in the University Archives.

Charles W. C. Munsell

Oliver Spencer Munsell

Named places: Buck Memorial Library

Buck Memorial Library is named for Rev. Dr. Hiram and Martha A. Buck. The Bucks became benefactors of the University starting in the 1890s with a donation of farmland. Hiram served as a trustee and Martha became IWU’s first female trustee on his death. On Mrs. Buck’s death a gift to the University included a request that funds be designated for a library and World Culture Center

HiramBuck

Rev. Dr. Hiram Buck

MarthaBuck

Martha Buck

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buck was IWU’s first free-standing library and served our community in that capacity from 1923-1968. It continues to fill Martha Buck’s wishes as home to IWU’s World Languages, Literatures and Culture department.

More information on the Bucks is available in IWU’s Historical Sketch and Alumni Record (1895) pp. 50-53 available online at https://bit.ly/2QX8865

Named places: Harriet House

Harriet Rust

Harriett House completes the Dodds/Dolan/Magill housing quadrangle. It opened in the Fall of 1997 and was the first new residence hall built on the IWU campus since 1970. At first only known as “New House,” the hall was renamed on May 10, 1999 to honor Harriett Fuller Rust, an Illinois Wesleyan trustee and president of the Illinois Wesleyan President’s Club from 1983 until her death in July 1997.

Mrs. Rust was actively involved in the campus and local community. At the time of the hall’s naming, then-president of the Board of Trustees Craig Hart said, “Her enthusiasm and energy has helped IWU in so many ways, but especially her strong commitment to our students makes this tribute especially appropriate.”

A video that pays tribute to Rust as a Bloomington-Normal “Woman of Distinction” is available at https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/memorials/7.

Named places: Hansen Student Center

Hansen ribbon cutting

The Hansen family is shown in the center at the ribbon cutting at the dedication on January 12, 2002

Hansen Student Center is named in honor of lead donor Tom Hansen, Class of 1982. His gift made it possible to remodel the Memorial Gymnasium, the first athletic facility on IWU’s campus, which was built in 1922. The building was dedicated to IWU students who died in World War One and their names can still be seen at the entry to the main court, across from the Information Desk. The basement, now Tommy’s, once contained IWU’s first swimming pool. A dedication ceremony for Hansen took place on January 12, 2002.

The campus announced Hansen’s gift in an October 28, 1999 press release and the IWU Magazine ran a post-renovation feature story titled A Place to Call Their Own in the Summer 2002 issue.

Photo selections from the Memorial Gym’s early days are available online; more of these and of Hansen are held in the University’s archives online.

Examining a scale model of the Memorial Gym/Hansen renovation

Student Senate President Harold Gauthier, Class of 2000 sharing renovation plans with other students. October 25, 1999

Named places: Shirk Center

Shirk_Horenberger_1999

Russell Shirk and Jack Horenberger at the dedication of Horenberger Field, 1999.

Russell O. Shirk was a member of the Class of 1943. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1989 and was the Distinguished Alumnus in 1971. The Shirk Center opened in 1994 and is named in honor of him and his wife and Betty J. Shirk. Shirk is pictured here (on left) with his friend Jack Horenberger, who the Shirk Foundation honored through funding the improvement and expansion of IWU’s baseball field.

“The Shirks wanted a center for use by the students and faculty and also something they could be proud of. They were very pleased that the community was able to enjoy the facility as well, and that it has been such an asset to the community,” Ben Rhodes, then- director of development said in 1999.

ShirkCenterOpening_1994

Shirk Family at ribbon cutting ceremony in 1994. Also pictured are Athletic Director Dennie Bridges (L) and BOT Chair Hugh Henning (R).

Named places: Gulick Hall

Anna Gulick

Anna Gulick

The building we know today as Gulick Hall was called the “Southwest Hall” when it opened in October of 1956. According to the front page story in the 1956 IWU Bulletin, it was also home to “The Sarepta Bane Whipp Department of Home Economics,” located on the ground floor of the West wing, at the time of opening. The last official account of a benefactor group called the Women’s University Guild was the transfer of funds in 1955 in the amount of $2000 (which they previously designated for a women’s dorm fund) and the placement of a plaque commemorating their founding members in Southwest Hall.

The building was renamed for Anna Gulick in 1964 when the University received her bequest. Then President Bertholf said of her gift, “the major part will be added to our permanent endowment funds where the income will serve to bolster up our current budget and upgrade the quality of the University for centuries to come….”.

There was an earlier Gulick Hall—a house located at 1314 Fell Avenue—which the University sold to Alpha Omicron Pi.

Photo from July 1942 IWU Bulletin (p. 9)

Named places: Blackstock Hall

MaryBlackstock

Mary Blackstock

Blackstock Hall is named in memory of a long-time benefactress, Mary Hardtner Blackstock. In June 1937, IWU purchased the Benson residence, what we know now as Blackstock, to use as a women’s residence with housing for 24. It also held the Printmaking Studio for the School of Art in one wing.

At Commencement 1947 Dean Malcolm A. Love, presented Mrs. Blackstock for the degree of Doctor of Letters of Humanity by saying, “your … loyalty to the ideals of the church has passed over into the fields of education. You have been deeply concerned with the proper training of American youth and especially with the program of the Christian college…our institution acknowledges you as one of its most earnest and staunchest friends….”

More information on Mrs. Blackstock is available in the tributes published about her in the September 1954 IWU Bulletin (p. ).

Named places: McPherson Hall

McPherson

President Harry McPherson

McPherson Hall opened as IWU’s first modern production and instructional facility for Theatre on April 17, 1963. Prior to the Hall, a carriage house adjacent to Kemp Hall had been in use since 1949. This building is named for Harry W. McPherson, IWU President (1933-37), long-time Trustee and member of the Class of 1907. More information about him is available in his presidential blog post.

The Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre and Jerome Mirza Theatre are part of the McPherson Theatre Arts department.

Ken Albers (standing) is pictured with Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick was a 1932 IWU graduate and headed the University’s Drama Department from 1938 to 1943. A champion of the arts in Bloomington for several decades, she received both the McLean County Women of Distinction Award and Illinois Wesleyan’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Mirza

Jerome Mirza

The theatre in Illinois Wesleyan’s McPherson Hall was named the Jerome Mirza Theatre in recognition of a $2.5 million gift to the School of Theatre Arts (SoTA) from the Jerome Mirza Foundation in October 2015.

  A 1960 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan, Mirza (1937-2007) was a well-known Bloomington and Chicago trial attorney, who often credited his courtroom success to the theatre training he received at Illinois Wesleyan. See the press release for more information.

 

Named places: The Ames Library

The Ames Library opened on January 9, 2002 and is named for lead donors B. Charles Ames (Class of 1950) and Joyce Eichhorn Ames (Class of 1949). They challenged their fellow alumni that if others contributed $1 million each for three years they would match it. Literally hundreds of alumni responded to that call. The Ames family has also made major gifts in Joyce Ames’ name for the School of Art and for a scholarship to support students in the fine arts.

JoyceChuckAmes

Joyce and Chuck Ames on the day of the School of Art’s new entrance, May 23, 2012