Columbia Library columns (v.44(1995))

(New York :  Friends of the Columbia Libraries.  )

Tools


 

Jump to page:

Table of Contents

  v.44,no.1(1995:Winter): Page 13  



A Columbia Famu-y
 

Academy of Design, at 663 Broadway). His first
name echoes that of his Irish-born maternal
grandfather, Francis Boyle (1797-1864), to whom
I also can trace my name. The middle name is the
same as the first name of his paternal grandfather,
but he became known as Frank Jay Dupignac,
probably adopting a nickname—I am not aware of
any connection \vith the family of the jurist John
JayCA.B., 1764; A.M., 1767).

At the time of Frank J. Dupignac's enrollment
at Columbia, the School had a two-year program,
as it is described in the Eighth Annual Catalogue of the
Officers and Students of the Law School of Columbia College,
for 1865-1866 (where his name is printed in the
list of members of the junior class). The catalogue
announces an unequivocal open admissions poli¬
cy: no college degree was required; there was no
entrance examination; and no particular course
 

of preparatory study was stipulated. The fee for
tuition was one hundred dollars a year, payable in
advance. It is noted that board in the city may
range in cost from five to seven dollars a week, and
rooms may be rented for one to two dollars a
week. The catalogue prudently advises that if two
students room together, they may lessen their
expenses. If the dollar amounts of these figures
seem ludicrously low by today's standards, it
should be recalled that five dollars a week (six
twelve-hour work days) was at the time a typical
wage for a working person in a clerical job, the
modern counterpart of which would now pay
approximately one hundred times as much (for a
five-day, forty-hour schedule). Similarly, one could
at that time go to a modest restaurant and enjoy
an adequate dinner for twenty-five cents. If the
fees for tuition, room, and board are multiplied by
 

^r/-.    /^
 

A
 


 

5'?.       9^^/lyVl^   .
 


 

Si^mture of Frank Jay Dupignac, October 6, 1868,from the eiirolliiiir/it book of the Columbia Law School.   Columbia Law Library
  v.44,no.1(1995:Winter): Page 13