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Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1809-1889) succeeded Charles King as
president of Columbia College, now Columbia University. During his long
administration (1864-89), Columbia grew from a small undergraduate college of
150 students into one of the nation's great universities, with an enrollment of
1,500. He was instrumental in expanding the curriculum, adding departments, and
fostering the development of the School of Mines (founded 1864; now part of the
Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science). He extended the
elective system and advocated equal educational privileges for men and women.
Barnard College, the woman's undergraduate unit of Columbia, was named for him,
a staunch advocate of higher education for women. Renowned for his sophisticated
portrayals of American rural life, Eastman Johnson was also one of the most
cosmopolitan painters of his era. During the 1880s, he turned almost exclusively
to portraiture. This chalk drawing is probably a study for the large oil
portrait that hangs in Low Memorial Library.
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