Beauty and the music of the trees

The old adage “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is one I believe in. But I also think that sometimes we need to stop and intentionally soak in the sights around us in order to really see that beauty and appreciate it. Springtime on our campus is always beautiful as color begins to creep across the landscape: the green tree buds and the growing grass, the yellow forsythia bushes by Alumni Hall and the Brick, the purple violets around the carillon, the flowering crab trees and the red breasts of robins as they hop around in search of that early worm. We see the dedicated physical plant crew steadily cleans the detritus of winter and prepares the flower beds to soon hold a variety of colorful blooms.

Too often we apologize for our rural location instead of extolling its beauty and the outdoor opportunities it can offer all of us. Having just celebrated Earth Day and soon another Arbor Day, I would encourage everyone to slow down during this hectic closure to the academic year and notice just how much beauty we have surrounding us each day. Have pride in it, help maintain it and most certainly enjoy it.
Much of what we see on the site of the original campus (the area taken in by Kanakadea, Powell, Steinheim, Alumni Hall, Herrick Library and the Brick) was planned and cared for by our second president, Jonathan Allen. We often tout his work as an egalitarian who stood up with his wife Abigail for women’s rights and equality as well as leading our institution in its early years. But we don’t recognize his hand in beautifying our campus and how it tied in with his philosophy of teaching students to be well-rounded and strong citizens.
Not only did he manage the administration of the University and teach a variety of classes, but he also spent a considerable amount of time working on the grounds and encouraged students to do the same. In her memoir of him, Abigail said he “felt that beautiful grounds and buildings were among the best of educators… As soon as the grounds came under his immediate care, books were bought on landscape gardening, and a systematic work of beautifying was begun.”

It was not unusual for Allen to lecture on the topic of beauty and its importance in life. Allen felt that too often students were forced to learn lessons in "little, low, half-made, rickety old buildings…with backless benches…within such places many a dull, tedious school day, with its long, juiceless, nerveless, mummyized lessons, is whiled away, wherein the hungry soul of childhood is far away, listening in fancy to the merry chatter of the brook” or hoping to smell the “odorous south wind, laden with the bloom of the field and wood.” Allen saw the ideal school as a place where “hungering and thirsting souls are satisfied, where dormant energies are aroused, stimulated, inspired to noble life and action, where spiritual growth, strength, harmony, and beauty are the results; in short, develop all that is desirable to appear in the future.” He viewed nature as a “constant, faithful teacher, instructing in truth, beauty, law, and goodness.”

Allen literally practiced what he preached. “One spring he made it a daily task to go into the woods, uproot a young pine, bring it down on his shoulders, and plant it at the noon recess. During that summer some fifty-two trees were planted in this manner…” Many students were also engaged in planting trees and caring for flower beds. In the 1930s, students were instrumental in planting thousands of trees on Pine Hill which had only been open pasture land for a few years.

For many years, it has been a tradition for the graduating seniors to plant a tree during their Class Day celebration. One alumnus recounted a story of walking the campus in the summer of 1893 listening to the “music of the trees” as Allen had said he would after helping plant them many years ago. A lecture titled “The Mission of Beauty” had been eloquently delivered that long ago Arbor Day by Allen who had already prepared the ground and purchased trees for students to plant. Afterward he told them, “You are planting for the future, and when in after years you return, these trees will sing to you, and the music of your own will be sweeter than any other.” They were encouraged to return to campus from time to time to enjoy the beauty they had helped create. A beauty that we continue to see today around us. Stop some time and listen to that music of the trees, whether the stately pines or the majestic oak and maples, and remember Jonathan Allen and the myriad of students who helped create it so many years ago.