I scanned this postcard for two reasons: we had two earlier postcard stories related to Wooster College, and because I had been thinking recently about college chapels.
Some time ago, we looked at a postcard view of Wooster, the city in Wayne County of northeast Ohio – about 50 miles southwest of Cleveland.
The city is now the home to a dozen large firms, including several food producers (Frito-Lay) and automotive manufacturers.
Wooster is home to three college campuses, and education is a key component of the local economy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooster,_Ohio
We also saw also a romantic postcard celebrating a marriage in Wooster.
This postcard features a hand-colored photograph of the Memorial Chapel at Wooster College.
The College was founded as the “University of Wooster” by the Presbyterian Synod of Ohio in 1870.
From its foundation, the school has been coeducational and graduated the first female PhD in 1882.
The first black student enrolled in the same year.
In 1915, a dispute between the faculty and the trustees led to the reorganization of the school as the “College of Wooster” with a primary mission of liberal arts education for undergraduates.
In 1923, the College of Wooster was a flashpoint in the fundamentalist wars that (years later) splintered the Presbyterian Church.
William Jennings Bryon, noted statesman and politician (who would prosecute the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in 1925) opened a campaign against the College President, Charles F. Wishart.
Bryan was a Presbyterian layman and sought to cut off funding for the College of Wooster as it had taught “evolution” for several decades.
Wishart emerged victorious in the struggle for leadership of the Church’s General Assembly – and the College remained a Presbyterian institution until 1969.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Wooster
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This postcard photograph was published by the Curt Teich Company of Chicago, but the original photograph may have been made by local party – possibly a decade (or more) earlier.
The postcard was not mailed individually, but seems to have been sent within a package of postcards from Wooster.
We may imagine that a new student collected college scenes to send to friends and family “back home”.
An inscription on the reverse reveals:
“I will send some other college pictures the next time / there are a lot more”
The message concludes with, “Love to all”.
