“A Sure & Permanent Basis:”
Modern Languages at Hampden-Sydney, 1784-1882
Written and Edited by J.B. Potter ‘11
Archival Research, Fact Checking, and Citation Work by Owen Kahn ‘27
Just over a year after the Virginia General Assembly had issued Hampden-Sydney a charter, the newly minted college was possessed by that unmistakable revolutionary zeal that defined the zeitgeist of late eighteenth-century America. Although still anchored in the Classics, an education on the Hill now included modern languages. As noted in the board minutes on June 23, 1784, “[t]here shall be in the College at present, besides the President, one Tutor of the Sophomore and Junior Classes, one French Master and one English Master.” [1] By September of the next year, the role of languages in the curriculum was drastically altered. French was now on par with Greek. The trustees resolved, in fact, “that when any of the students of this College shall upon examination appear to be as well acquainted with the French language as it is usual to expect that candidates for Literary Degrees should be acquainted with Greek, that such students passing the usual examination in other branches of science shall be admitted to a degree without being acquainted with Greek.” [2]
For the first time in American higher education, proficiency in a modern language could fulfill the traditional requirement of being versed in Greek. And yet, for all its revolutionary potential, this radical curricular experiment proved short-lived. In March of 1787, just two months before the U.S. Constitutional Convention, the trustees concluded that allowing the substitution of French for Greek “produce[d] an unfavorable effect upon the students with respect to their improvement in science” and that it would suffice for young men to be “tolerably acquainted with the French tongue.” [3] Despite playing third fiddle to Greek and Latin, French and other modern languages were offered an ad hoc basis for almost the next hundred years until they became formally fixed in the College’s curriculum.
Above: A modern artist’s rendition of the College (ca. 1785) by N. Douglas Payne, Jr. ’94
The back-and-forth over modern and classical languages at H-SC was a bellwether for larger debates in American higher education that began in the late 1700s and persisted throughout the nineteenth century. The kind of debate over French that happened the Hill also occurred at other fledgling institutions. When Williams College opened its doors in 1793, for example, it became the second place in America to experiment with substituting French for Greek. The first ever professor at Williams, in fact, was Professor of French Samuel MacKay. He was also, ironically, the first Williams professor to be fired. After four years of exemplary employment at a reduced salary, MacKay found himself out of job on September 3, 1799, when the board of trustees voted to abolish his professorship in response to growing anti-French sentiment. [4]
As seen in the early days of schools like Hampden-Sydney and Williams, French and German were considered useful for but not essential to a college’s prescribed course of study. Latin and Greek remained, as it were, the alpha and the omega of the liberal arts. Even so, modern languages became a growing niche at many American institutions in the early 1800s. By the 1820s, however, traditional scholars had largely reversed this change. Many universities – including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia – significantly scaled back or completely removed modern languages from their respective curricula. [5] It was not until the middle of the century that language instruction started working its way back into American higher education. Scholars found themselves obliged to sing a different tune in a different tongue because leading scientific and theological works from Europe were available in only French or German. [6]
Although Hampden-Sydney was the first college to alter its curriculum with an eye towards modern languages, these academic aberrations were not fully integrated into the College’s program of study until 1881-82. In the 1820s and 1830s, the trustees expressed greater interest in modern languages, albeit in an auxiliary role. The board minutes from September 23-24, 1824 declare that “[p]rivate instruction will be given in the Oriental and Modern Languages.” [7]
Answering this call for private instruction was Colonel Louis Gasperi, an Italian-born military engineer who was as eager to teach Romance languages as he was to regale H-SC students with soldiers’ tales of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). After serving at the superintendent of construction at Fort Monroe on the coast of Virginia, Gasperi taught French, Italian, and Spanish at the College from 1826 to 1827. Though Gasperi may well have been a “zany charlatan,” the reason for this European raconteur’s unusually short tenue was likely peculiarly pecuniary. [8] The board minutes from September 27-29, 1836 speak to the financial situation for modern languages in that era. “Faculty empowered to employ a teacher of modern languages, ‘provided the remuneration for his services do not come from the funds of College.’” [9] After Gasperi’s departure, Spanish instruction would not return to the Hill until 1918, when Dr. William Henry Whiting, Jr. ’80 (1862-1949), an intellectual bulwark of the faculty, began offering courses. [10]
Another similar snapshot of the times comes from the 1833-34 H-SC academic catalogue, which notes that “[t]hose students who wish to study the Modern Languages, may substitute them for all the Latin and Greek of the Junior year, except Horace and Sophocles. Private instruction will be given in the Oriental Languages.” [11] Though still at the core of the curriculum, even the Classics could not escape the growing scholarly influence of German. The same academic catalogue states that “[i]n the Department of Ancient Languages the German Editions are used as text books.” [12] As this preference in textbooks suggests, exposing students on the Hill to modern languages had become a long-term goal of the board of trustees by the end of the decade.
Despite the years of financial uncertainty caused by the Panic of 1837, the trustees did not shelve or sideline this educational ambition for the College. If the board minutes from September 26, 1839 are any indication, they considered modern languages to be vital to the future of Hampden-Sydney. “Of the utmost importance to raise the permanent fund to $60,000 [over $2 million in 2025] within five years in order to enable the Trustees to enlarge the institution by the addition of a Professor of Modern Languages and a Master or Tutor for the Sophomore Class, and eventually to establish the College upon a sure and permanent basis for the benefit of the present age and of all posterity.” [13]
These noble words were made flesh on September 9, 1840, when the trustees noted that “Samuel W. Watkins [is] permitted to teach the Modern Languages under the direction of the Faculty, and for such fees only as the Faculty may deem fair and adequate.” [14] Hampden-Sydney history buffs will instantly recognize that last name. Samuel Woodson Watkins (1819-1889) was a relative of Professor Asa Dupuy Watkins (1873-1932), to whom the Watkins Bell Tower on campus was dedicated in 1934. [15]
At right: President John Mayo Pleasants Atkinson ’35 (1817-1883), the father of modern language instruction at H-SC
Another namesake of a building on campus, John Mayo Pleasants Atkinson ’35 (1817-1883), was the tenth President of the College from 1857 to 1883. In 1863, he finally convinced the trustees to add French and German to the curriculum. [16] When the trustees convened from June 9 to 11, 1863, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was marching north to invade Pennsylvania. The board minutes from that meeting conclude that “[a] Professorship to be now created ‘to be called the Chair of Modern Languages, and the occupant of that chair to be required to teach the military drill: such chair to be filled as soon as the services of the Professor shall be required in the institution.’” [17] The seemingly bizarre job qualification of military drill is a reminder that Virginia was at war, a war that the trustees likely thought would last beyond 1865.
To finance the aforementioned “services of the Professor,” the College, until 1880-81, charged students who wanted to learn a modern language an additional fee. The board minutes from July 26-27, 1864 confirm this creative accounting practice. “The Faculty of the College authorized to employ a Professor of Modern Languages for the ensuing session; the tuition for modern languages to be $100 for each language; in conference with the candidate for Professor of Modern Languages the Faculty distinctly to inform him that he must depend upon the the [sic] tuition fees for salary.” [18] No academic catalogues from the years immediately after the Civil War, however, mention French or German instruction. The first written evidence dates to the 1872 catalogue, which classifies modern languages as “Studies Outside the Regular Curriculum.” The catalogue for the following year sets the cost for taking French or German at twenty dollars per language on top of the sixty-dollar charge for the standard curriculum. [19]
These additions to catalogues from 1872-73 were the result of the trustees adopting a model that became the norm for the next forty years. Under this model, professors of classical languages were required to teach a modern language as well. As the board minutes from February 21, 1871 state, “[r]eport of committee on instruction in Modern Languages—this course for the present must be outside of the established curriculum; the Professor of Latin to be Professor German and the Professor of Greek, of French; a two year course in each.” [20]
At left: Page 23 of the H-SC Academic Catalogue from 1874, when tuition was $60 per year and studying French or German cost an additional $20 per language
A decade after this decision had been made, the ghosts of 1784 returned to haunt the curriculum, this time for good. As had happened during the College’s brief experiment with French almost a century earlier, B.A. students could substitute French and/or German for either Greek or Latin. According to 1881 academic catalogue, “[t]he degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred,— (1), Upon those who complete in a satisfactory manner the course of study as taught in Moral Philosophy, Physical Science, Mathematics, Latin and Greek; and (2), Upon those who modify the course of study just indicated, by omitting one of the Ancient Languages, and studying in lieu thereof both French and German; as also (3), Upon those who may prefer to modify the course by dropping one of the Ancient Languages at the close of the Sophomore year, and substituting for it either French or German. This degree may, therefore, be reached by any one of these somewhat different courses.” [21] Whereas B.A. students could avoid studying modern languages, B.S. students could not. For a Bachelor of Science degree, in fact, instruction in both French and German was required to graduate. [22] At long last fully integrated into Hampden-Sydney’s program of study, modern languages could finally come into their own at a college that, until 1968, kept the Classics at the core of its curriculum.
Nota bene: If you enjoyed reading this amusing story of linguistic trials and financial tribulations – a yarn that could be spun only on the Hill – please consider including the Department of Modern Languages in your next gift to the College. Your generosity is an investment in young men who – be it in Chinese, French, German, or Spanish – are eager to spread the word across the world about Hampden-Sydney. Should you feel so inclined, you may drop the author of this article – a recovering alumnus turned nutty professor – a line at jpotter@hsc.edu. Assuming that his students are not hounding him to hang out or begging him mercilessly for mercy on an assignment (or both), he will respond to your kind words in English (or in German, if you like).
[1] Alfred J. Morrison, The College of Hampden-Sydney Calendar of Board Minutes 1776-1876 (Richmond: The Hermitage Press, 1912), 30.
[2] Morrison, Board Minutes, 33.
[3] Morrison, Board Minutes, 35.
[4] George B. Watts, “The Teaching of French in the United States: A History, Part II,” The French Review 37, no. 1 (October 1963): 68.
[5] Charles Hart Handschin, “The Teaching of Modern Languages in the United States,” (Washington: Government Printing Office, Bulletin No. 3, 1913), 19.
[6] John F. Lalande II, “Modern Languages in the American College Curriculum: The Coming of Age.” Foreign Language Annals 31, no. 1 (1998): 81-90.
[7] Morrison, Board Minutes, 95. See also page 16 of the 1824 academic catalog.
[8] John Luster Brinkley, On This Hill: A Narrative History of Hampden-Sydney College, 1774-1994 (Hampden-Sydney, Virginia: Hampden-Sydney College, 1994), 53.
[9] Morrison, Board Minutes, 115.
[10] Brinkley, On This Hill, 608.
[11] “Catalogue of The Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College.” (1833-34), 9.
[12] “Catalogue of The Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College.” (1833-34), 9.
[13] Morrison, Board Minutes, 122.
[14] Morrison, Board Minutes, 123.
[15] Brinkley, On This Hill, 443.
[16] Morrison, Board Minutes, 152.
[17] Morrison, Board Minutes, 151.
[18] Morrison, Board Minutes, 152.
[19] “Catalogue of The Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College.” (1873), 25.
[20] Morrison, Board Minutes, 159.
[21] “Catalogue of The Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College.” (1881), 22.
[22] “Catalogue of The Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney College.” (1881), 23.