A Call to Harmony at the Territorial University
A visiting lecturer proposes a city-wide fundraiser to gift a Steinway grand piano to the University of Washington, arguing that music education is a moral imperative for a frontier territory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The people of Washington territory have a peculiar and most especial share in all the glory of Thanksgiving Day. The ruggedness and beauty of its scenery and the bracing influences of a climate admirably adapted to a working population combine to make this Territory one of the most prosperous States of the Union. Education is the measure of a nation's growth. Education, not as meaningless accomplishments, but that which flows from love to humanity. As a tribute to the people on Puget Sound for the courtesy and hospitality they have shown me, I submit a suggestion: the most effective initial step in the cultural direction of this Territory will be the presentation of the best piano in the world, a Steinway Concert Grand, to the representative educational institute of the Territory—the Territorial University at Seattle. It is a triumph of science and art, fit for the dignity of the daily opening exercises. I believe the people on Puget Sound could each contribute a mite, but would it not be preferable to obtain a public good in the same business-like manner as a private one—by working for it? Two or three such concerts in Seattle at popular prices, say twenty-five cents admission, would, I believe, clear the price of the Grand. Such a children's concert would establish a new musical departure in this country, a precedent that would ultimately eclipse similar efforts successfully carried in England and Germany.
“The growth of plants and animals, not excepting bipeds, left to natural accidents alone, cannot produce such satisfactory results as nature produces when aided by science and art.”
This 1880 plea for a University piano speaks to the tension between Seattle's frontier status and its desire for cultural refinement—a struggle that repeats as the city grapples with the growth of its modern academic and tech institutions. The proposal to fund a 'public good' through collective grassroots effort remains a core ideal, even as the scale and cost of Seattle's public infrastructure projects have become exponentially more complex.
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