XIV. Scholarships
The first academic prize to be offered, after the close
of the war, was offered, in 1866, by Professor Venable,
of the School of Mathematics,—during four years, he
annually presented the sum of forty dollars to the student,
who, in the course of the session which had just
ended, had solved the largest number of problems submitted
by the head of the school in the daily and final
examinations. In 1868, three prizes were conferred in
the School of Moral Philosophy, and three in the class of
political economy.
A request by the members of the Washington Society
for permission to establish a scholarship for the benefit
of the "best set of editors for the current session" appointed
by them on the magazine board, was granted, on
condition, that, in the beginning, the privilege should last
only one year, in order that its feasibility might be tested;
and also that it should not be transferable. This scholarship
was to be bestowed after comparing the merits of
the different numbers of the magazine of the first editorial
period with the merits of those issued during the
second.
In June, 1871, eleven scholarships were founded by the
Board of Visitors, which were designated the University
scholarships. Five of these were assigned to the
academic department, and two respectively to the departments
of law, and medicine, and one to the combined
schools of industrial chemistry, civil and mining engineering,
and agriculture.[8]
In 1882, there was a change in
this arrangement, owing to the establishment of other
scholarships,—five of the University ones were now to be
conferred on the students of the academic department,
two on those of the law, two on those of the medical,
and two on those of the civil and mining engineering department.
The like awards in industrial chemistry and
agriculture had been withdrawn, because special scholarships
had been founded for those schools. Previous
to the session of 1874–75, what were designated state
scholarships were in existence, of which there were fifty in
all, since one was assigned to each senatorial district
and ten to the Commonwealth at large. The length of
the tenure was two years. These scholarships were abandoned
as soon as the General Assembly passed an act admitting
all students whose age exceeded eighteen years
to the academic schools without charge for tuition. Two
scholarships were founded by the trustees of the Miller
Fund in connection with the School of Analytical and
Agricultural Chemistry. Each student who received this
appointment was required to restrict his attention to the
studies comprised in the general department of agriculture,
unless the Faculty should authorize him to attend
lectures in other schools. The original number of
Miller scholarships was increased to three during the
session of 1881–82, with a value of three hundred and
thirty-three dollars each. One of these was awarded to
post-graduates only. During the session of 1885–86, the
number in existence seems to have been four. They were
always bestowed on competitive examination. After the
session of 1886–87, one Miller scholarship was awarded
at the end of each session.
In 1882, the Board, in commemoration of the liberal
gifts of three benefactors of the University, founded the
Corcoran, McCormick, and Vanderbilt free scholarships.
The right to name the incumbents was to belong to the
donors of the three funds; but should they decline to exercise
it, that right was to pass to the Faculty. The only
fee which had to be paid by the student who was awarded
one of these scholarships was the usual fee imposed for
the support of the infirmary. He was at liberty to enter
any department which he might prefer. Of the scholarships
known as the alumni scholarships, some had been
created by the executive committee of the general association,
and some by individuals. Apparently, the privilege
of appointment was not reserved at the time of their establishment
by those persons whose contributions had
called them into being.
By the arrival of the session of 1887–88, there seem
to have been in existence several scholarships which had
been made possible only by special endowments. These
were appropriately designated by the names of the persons
in honor of whose memories they had been founded,
—such were the J. Thompson Brown, the Isaac Carey,
and at a later date, the Valentine Birely scholarships.
The Birely was the gift of Mrs. Evelina Birely, of Frederick
county, Maryland, as a memorial of her husband,
and was restricted to students who had matriculated from
that State; the Brown was the gift of the widow of Colonel
J. Thompson Brown, one of the most efficient and
gallant officers in the Confederate army. The Mason
fellowship was founded by Colonel Archer Anderson, a
distinguished alumnus of the University, in memory of
his father-in-law, John Y. Mason, at one time Attorney-General
of the United States, Secretary of the Navy, and
afterwards minister to France. This fellowship was supported
by the income from a gift of five thousand dollars.
In 1893, it was provided that fellowships should be
awarded only to those students who should be fully
equipped to pursue post-graduate courses in the academic
department. They were required to submit a certificate
that they had already received a liberal education. The
appointment was restricted to a single year.
