Just over 70 years ago, in January 1938, Alfred
Jenkins Shriver (class of 1891) wrote to
university President Isaiah Bowman with "some facts about
the Elocution course" he had taken 50
years earlier.
"Elocution, Drawing and L.E.P. (Logic, Ethics and
Psychology) were courses compulsory
[underlined] to all undergraduates, of which I was one," he
wrote.
Shriver said, "Rev. Woodward was the instructor in
Elocution and was very unpopular. About
1888, President Gilman fired him. I recall distinctly in
1890 asking President Gilman when he was going
to have an instructor in Elocution, and his answer (I
remember it well) was 'As soon as I can find a man
I am willing to call instructor in Elocution of The Johns
Hopkins University.'"
Apparently persons meeting Gilman's standards were in
short supply, as Rev. Woodward's
successor, John R. Scott, was not appointed until 1894.
Shriver later became a prominent Baltimore attorney.
When he died in 1939, he left the residue
of his estate to the university to construct the building
that bears his name, Shriver Hall, on the
Homewood campus.
The bequest for the building, which was to serve as an
assembly hall for all of Baltimore, had
several conditions attached to it. Shriver specified that
several murals be painted on the interior
walls. They were to depict 10 philanthropists who had been
generous to Johns Hopkins and to
Baltimore, 10 "famous beauties of Baltimore" (as chosen by
Shriver), the first faculties of Philosophy
and Medicine, the original boards of trustees of the
university and hospital, and Baltimore clipper
ships. He also required that statues of presidents Gilman
and Bowman and Dr. William Welch be placed
near the building's main entrance.
Shriver also asked for a smaller painting of his class
of 1891, which was hung just outside the
Board of Trustees Room on the main floor. In the 1970s that
painting disappeared, without
explanation, only to reappear in the same spot several
years later.
The trustees had six months from the time of Shriver's
death to accept or reject his bequest.
If they rejected it, the bequest was to be offered to
Loyola College, and then to Goucher College,
subject to the same conditions. The trustees accepted the
gift within the time allotted, but
construction of the building did not begin until 1952. It
was completed in 1954.
Over the years Shriver Hall's 1,100-seat auditorium
has been the setting for many university
convocations, public lectures with prominent speakers, film
festivals, theatrical events and notable
musical programs, especially the Shriver Hall Concert
Series.
Ross Jones is vice president and secretary emeritus of
the university. A 1953 graduate of Johns
Hopkins, he returned in 1961 as assistant to president
Milton S. Eisenhower and was a close aide to six
of the university's presidents.
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