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Sheean Cornerstone Laying Program
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| Title | Sheean Cornerstone Laying Program |
| Description | CORNERSTONE LAYING PROGRAM
The New Wesleyan Library - Illinois Wesleyan University
3:45 P.M. on October 14, 1967
President Lloyd M. Bertholf - Chairman
INVOCATION..... Chaplain William White
Almighty God, who has given wisdom to all ages, and who has given to
men the power of understanding, and the mastery of wisdom; behold the work
of thy servants who have labored to bring this library into being, and who continue
their labors that students may share the wisdom of the ages.
Brighten with your glory the minds of all who through the years may come
to this place of study, concentration, and thought. Amen.
STATEMENT.. President Lloyd M. Bertholf
Dear friends, a library is a living thing where students are confronted
with the great ideas of their generation and the knowledge of other days.
We have come to lay a cornerstone for a library which shall be not only
a storehouse of information, but a place of learning.
Here students will meet courageously the great ideas of every generation
and their minds will be extended and expanded.
That those generations to come may understand the age in which this
building is being constructed, we are placing in its cornerstone items of literature
and art which reflect the frustrations as well as the victories of our
generation.
*CONTENTS OF THE BOX............... '" Librarian Rodney Ferguson
(Here the librarian will read the contents of the box.)
Librarian: A message to future generations is being deposited here that those
who may someday move this stone will know us by our concerns.
*READING OF THE MESSAGE Library Committee Chairman,
Dr. Robert Leh
LITANY FOR THE NEW WESLEYAN LIBRARY............. Dean Everett Walker
Leader: Thomas Jefferson once said, "The mind of man is his most precious
possession." That the minds of students may be strengthened.....
All: WE LAY THIS CORNERSTONE.
Leader: Through books the mind is liberated and freed to soar to heights unbefore
known to man. That the minds of students may be free to pursue the unknown...
* (Text attached)
(2)
All: WE LAY THIS CORNERSTONE.
Leader: In our day great teaching has as its companion great learning. The
wisdom of the ages and the vast expanding body of knowledge of our contemporary
world and of future days is to be stored here for all who seek to learn.
That this may be a place of great learning.
All: WE LAY THIS CORNERSTONE.
Leader: Through books the ideas of men are freely given. All the conflicts of
every past age, and all the confusion of our own day are recorded here to
challenge the ideas of others. That students through the years will be so
challenged...
All: WE LAY THIS CORNERSTONE.
LAYING THE CORNERSTONE..... Mr. Paul Allison, Chairman
Illinois Wesleyan Trustees
. Mr. Orme Evans, Evans and Associates
Mr. Allison shall say:
Mr. Evans, you have heard the purposes for which this building is being
constructed, and have so designed it that in its halls the lamp of knowledge
shall forever proclaim "eternal hostility toward every form of tyranny over the
minds of men. "
We instruct you to place this copper box in the cornerstone and to seal
it until such a day as this building shall become obsolete and is replaced by
another storehouse of eternal truth.
(Then shall the cornerstone be laid and sealed with mortar.)
'Then shall Mr. Evans say:
Mr. Chairman, and friends, we have placed the copper box in its place
and have set a cornerstone that all may note that upon this day, and in this
place, we have laid our hands to the unfinished task before us with renewed
spirits knowing that the thing we build shall be more than stones, and brick" and
mortar, but shall be forever a temple to truth.
BENEDICTION The Reverend James K. White,
District Superintendent, Bloomington District
The Methodist Church
Almighty God, we are aware that all truth comes from you. Bless the
constant endeavors of those who labor here to build a place where truth will be
available to all who seek it.
May this building stand as evidence to all generations that we do not fear
truth but ask after your way, which is the way of truth, and may it symbolize
to a cynical and critical mankind that our faith in the Giver of Truth is strengthened
rather than weakened when knowledge and wisdom are revealed to us. Amen.
CONTENTS OF THE CORNERSTONE
Read by Librarian Rodney Ferguson
October 14 f 1967
The contents of this box which we place behind the cornerstone of our li.brary
attempt to suspend a moment in time. We have tried to reveal the processes of our
library, the life of our university, and the stimulation of intellectual encounter as these
exist in the fall of 1967.
To reflect the procedures of the library we include A Student I s Guide to Illinois
Wesleyan Libraries; Periodical Holdings of the llinois Wesleyan Libraries (l966); the
Recent Additions List, September 1967; and the Library Newsletter, May, 1966. To show
the Library's processes in this connection, the Library staff has composed a series
of essays discussing the processes of ordering, cataloging, and circulating books and
periodicals in 1967. To show the steps involved in these processes, an included book
selected at random has been cataloged, and the paperwork ha s been preserved to accompany
the book. The copy of he newsletter included details how the library has adapted
itself to meet a new program of instruction at Illinois Wesleyan University: the January
short term. I also shows how the librarian collects and uses sta istics as a feedback
control upon the operation of his system.
A copy of the Catalog Issue, lllinois Wesleyan University Bulletin, 1967-68,
presents a two-dimensional picture of the University's life and times. The in-depth
view is provided in the Institutional Profile of Illinois Wesleyan University (1966-1967),
prepared for the periodic membership review of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools. This volume alone reveals our strengths and also shows what
we hope is some abi lity to objectively conceive of our shortcomings. Since the laying
of this cornerstone takes place during the 1967 Homecoming, a copy of the Homecoming
schedule has been included.
It is not easy to show t e scope and extent of the library's collection in a few
representative titles f but the committee submits what follows as an attempt in that
direction. Lie Down in Darkness, a novel by William S yron; Cities, a collection of
think- pieces on urbanology compiled by the Scientific American.i The Responsible Businessman,
edited by John A. Larson. a series of articles on the businessman I s encounter
with the problems of our time, from Fortune. Victor Weisskopf' s Knowledge and Wonder:
The Natural World as Man Knows It, draws our minds beyond the fuzzy boundaries of
recent discovery to the uncertain but interesting science of (what is to us) - the future.
Peter Weiss' play, Marat/Sade, to be presented by the School of Drama in March, 1968,
justaposes the sickness of normal men upon the sanity of the insane. The Responsive
~, by William C. Seitz, describes a widely- seen exhibition of op-art in which illusions
are carried out in a variety of media used by artists. Radical Theology and the Death
of God, by Altizer and Hamilton, reflects the collision as religion meets the present world.
We are proud to include in our collection work created on this campus. The
Theory and Practice of Nursing Service Administration, by Shanks and Kennedy was produced
by two members of this faculty in 196::> and acknowledges the challenge made to
the healing professions by the tremendous expansion in healing knowledge and care
needs by science and politics. A two-track stereo recording ( at 3 3/4 ips speed) presents
the Illinois Wesleyan University concert band, choir, orchestra, chanber singers f
and soloists in presentations of a variety of works from the classical to the ultra-modern
indicating the breadth and richness of the musical heritage of 1967. Some works were
composed by the faculty. To further amplify on musical education at Wesleyan copies
of certain programs have also been included. An etching, Self-Portrait, by Brian (1967) is
included as an example of the meaningful creativi y fostered in the School of Art.
All these works symbolize our hope that his library may become the center for the
production and display of the scholarly and the esthetic.
A MESSAGE TO FUTURE GENERATIONS
Read by Dr. Robert Leh - October 14, 1967
This building, whose cornerstone we place today, will perform a unique and
essential purpose on this campus. It will serve to both house and facilitate the distribution
of the artifacts of knowledge: of the culture that was, and is, and the culture
yet to be. Not only is the learning of the Western World recorded here, but of all mankind;
for wherever man has lived he has been curious and has tried to learn. The box in
the cornerstone is filled with books. We had a reason for doing so. These books are
not being removed from circulation and sealed up in a wall as though there were something
wrong with them. They are a record of both the contribution of scholars to the tumult
of our time and a standard for what we as a company of scholars hope our library collection
will become. So deeply do we believe in the value of the encounter of keen intellects that
we have suspended a moment of that encounter for inspection by some succeeding generation.
In doing so, we have tried to evidence the art of service which is librarianship.
Whatever librarians do to facilitate the availability of knowledge also facilitates the
intellectual encounter.
Education is a social process among human beings occupying various stations in
life. The being s on this campus are filled with the sense of knowing and yet of not knowing
as they challenge and are being challenged. We are no more serene about ourselves
than are others serene about us. Our faith centers more on our intentions than on the result
of our efforts, and this is well for it enables each of us to treat his fellows with
dignity and mutual respect. We struggle with a new curriculum; we argue over the allocation
of limited resources; we discuss the selection of a new president. These minor
whirlpools and eddies of the sea of life somehow seem important. This could only arise
out of the deep regard we hold for each other as human beings, and our concern for the
past, present, and future of Illinois Wesleyan University.
Superimposed on these minor whirlpools and eddies of campus conflict are the
gigantic maelstroms of our time: the tragic sacrifice of human life that is Viet- Nam; and
with this the eruption of aspiration that is occurring in the underdeveloped societies.
The decay and re-emergence of the American city; the growing gap between the impoverished
backwater and the affluent suburb; the glut of population and the scarcity of food;
the fleeting chimera that is the cooperation of nations; and the failure to recognize the
brotherhood of men, hidden behind the flimsy veils of race and creed. Ahead looms the
yawning vortex of nuclear annihilation. We would return to the now- stagnant pool s of
primitive innocence and truth half-realized, but our craft is swept on by the force of
human curiosity to more thrilling vistas and - who knows - greater triumphs over nature.
To represent as broadly as possible the interest in the profound that permeates
this university, we have included certain intellectually stimulating works that both reflect
their time and contribute to the advancement of understanding. D-ivisions, schools,
and departments have been consulted as frequently as time limitations permitted, but
the committee on the cornerstone takes full responsibility for all selections finally made.
To recall the titles of books included is to indicate the multiverse interest and the
currency of impact.
Some works were, singled out for special mention because they reflect the creativity
and originality emanating from offices and studios on this campus. We are proud
to number among us such creative people.
This copper box becomes the heart of our library. It reflects the controversy of
our times but it radiates the dispassionate assessment of the issue, the gathering of
knowledge, and the assertion of judgment that scholarship implies. It radiates, too, man IS
compassion.
( 2 )
May this library I as it continues to serve Illinois Wesleyan University I be the
institution this copper box is intended to represent: a chamber filled to overflowing with
pages of challenging and useful information I reflecting and answering the challenges
of the era.
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| Subject | Buildings
Universities & colleges
Time capsules
Unidentified
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| Publisher | The Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington Illinois, 61701 |
| Date.Original | 1967-10-14 |
| Date.Digital | 2011-06-20 |
| Format.Original | typescript |
| Format.Digital | pdf |
| Type.Original | Text |
| Type.Digital | Text |
| Record Group | 6 - 6/4/3 : Sheean Library Cornerstone |
| Rights | Illinois Wesleyan University retains the rights to this material. Permission to reproduce these images must be granted by IWU. Contact archives@titan.iwu.edu or 309-556-1535 for more information |
| Collection Name | IWU Historical Collections (Illinois Wesleyan University) |
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