-
Chapter 9. A New Day for Lincoln Memorial
- The University of Tennessee Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
chapter 9 a new day for LincoLn MeMoriaL Mr. ochs visited our institution once and was deeply impressed with what we are doing . He said something which i have quoted many times: “you are boring with a gimlet when you should be using an auger.” —Robert L. Kincaid, November 17, 1937 We are just an ordinary set of folks who are trying to do the best job we can with over four hundred kids. We make lots of mistakes, and the youngsters are much on their own to work out their own destinies. —Robert L. Kincaid, January 21, 1939 i have been thinking a great deal about l.M.U. lately. once you go there, there is something that gets under your skin and stays there. —Ray O. Welborn, May 29, 1939 robert l. Kincaid became executive vice-president of lincoln Memorial University at commencement time in 1937. His duties included fund raising and “assisting in other ways in the institution’s development.” in effect Kincaid replaced Hill to allow McClelland to devote more time to matters other than soliciting donations. “i am an alumnus of the college,” Kincaid wrote, “and a mountain product myself. The institution has meant everything to me.”1 one of Kincaid’s early initiatives was to mend fences among the university’s donors, and he did so by extolling Hill’s accomplishments. in a speech given at the university’s fortieth anniversary celebration on february 12, 1937, Kincaid called Hill “an inspiring personality.” He sent a copy of the speech to disaffected donors who had sided with Hill during the stormy days of 1935 and asserted that lincoln Memorial University “represents an imperishable monument to his ability, zeal, and devotion.” in later years, Kincaid readily admitted Hill’s faults, but he refused to ignore the chancellor’s accomplishments, especially in gaining “national publicity” for the school.2 “it seems to me that we are on the threshold of a new day for lincoln Memorial ,” wrote stewart McClelland to a potential donor as the fall term began a new day For lincoln MeMorial 184 in 1937. indeed, the picture for all American universities had brightened by this time. Enrollments increased, donations and income rose, and most institutions of higher learning were on an even keel financially. By 1941, the university’s endowment had soared to $832,000. McClelland charted a conservative course, mindful of the fact that the institution had previously “attempted too many things and did too few well,” as Kincaid put it. “We are now trying to do a quality job on a restricted scale.”3 McClelland enhanced what he later called the “lincoln story” as an important element in the university’s image. He greatly increased the number of lincoln books, artifacts, and manuscript material in the university’s possession. McClelland created a Department of lincolniana in the fall of 1937 and the Lincoln Diploma of Honor to award scholars in the field. The Mountain Herald had ceased publication in 1933 due to financial difficulties. McClelland resurrected it in october 1937 and changed its name to the Lincoln Herald in february 1938. rather than deal with past and current stories about the university, the Herald now was devoted to lincoln studies. The History Department also began to offer an upper-level elective course on lincoln.4 lincoln room of Duke Hall, repository of the university’s collection of lincoln artifacts and documents from the late 1920s to 1977. UA-lMU. [18.191.234.62] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 17:06 GMT) 185 a new day For lincoln MeMorial While Hill and benefactor Thomas r. Madigan had accumulated a small number of lincoln artifacts by the 1920s, displaying them in a special room on the upper floor of Duke Hall, little was made of this nucleus until McClelland sponsored an effort to enlarge it. He hired r. Gerald McMurtry to teach history courses and serve as head of the Department of lincolniana in 1938. it surely was, as Kincaid expressed it, the only lincoln library “south of the Mason-Dixon Line.” McClelland’s efforts to secure financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of new york failed because of the collection’s specialized nature, but the university managed to acquire an impressive number of personal belongings and other artifacts associated with the sixteenth president, as well as some personal accounts by Civil War soldiers, a large assortment of Civil War song sheets, and thousands of rare books dealing with lincoln and the Civil War...