Florida’s First Liberal Arts Based School (1880-1900)

Rather than turn the West Florida Seminary into a literary school, one of the five proposed divisions of the new university, President Edgar recommended that it become a four-year liberal arts college.
Technical, normal and military training were being furnished at other institutions and he felt there would be unnecessary duplication if his institution also offered these programs. Approval was granted. The West Florida Seminary, forerunner to Florida State University, became the first liberal arts-based school in the State University System of Florida.

During the next two decades, WFS hired faculty specialists and expanded and remodeled its facilities. Chemistry was studied “with a view to giving the student a clear conception of chemical action and a knowledge of the laws which govern chemical combination.” Equipment was fair, but the laboratories and library needed constant expansion to keep up with the growth of new knowledge.

In the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mining, manufacturing and transportation were developing, metals were being extracted from ores, and drugs and other compounds were being naturally or synthetically produced. As food and other products were marketed, chemical analyses were conducted for safety. This created a growing need for chemists, and curriculums became increasingly sophisticated to meet these needs.

The Seminary’s first science curriculum leading to the Bachelor of Science degree was offered in 1898. The program included four semesters of chemistry, six of biology, two of physics and one each of geology and astronomy. Advanced courses in chemistry, physiology and electricity were available as electives. WFS had three teaching laboratories.
Chemistry is generally considered to be the science central to other sciences. Available chemistry courses of the time included inorganic, organic, analytical, advanced inorganic, medical and pharmaceutical chemistry.

The chemistry lab was fitted with drawers, hoods, gas, water, more tables, shelves, chemicals and equipment and was proclaimed the best-equipped laboratory of the institution. Located in a well-ventilated and lighted room, it was in constant use.

By the turn of the twentieth century, science as a field of study was finally being accepted as an intellectual pursuit!