Reverend Dr. John Kost, the Chancellor of the University of Florida, approached Heidelberg College with an interesting deal, to say the least. He offered a museum collection, worth thousands of dollars, for free to the school, if they meet only a few conditions.

1. Heidelberg College would take the steps necessary to change its name to Heidelberg University.
2. Heidelberg formed a Polytechnic department.
3. Heidelberg built a museum to house his donation, along with another smaller donation from Kost's friend Swander.

These were BIG changes that Kost wanted, but the Heidelberg Board of Regents was more than willing to comply. After all,

" To falter under such circumstances and refuse to follow the leadings of Providence would have been unwise and criminal, and would have incurred the displeasure of God."

The wider Tiffin community was also looking at Heidelberg and putting pressure to accept the offer:

"This is certainly a rare and grand offer to Heidelberg College and the city of Tiffin, and should by all means be accepted."

So what exactly was all the fuss about?

This article from the Heidelberg Monthly Journal gives the reader a sense of what would have been in the museum collection. The majority of the collection was in fact specimens of plants and animals. It also shows how grateful Heidelberg was for the opportunity, and the tone of the article shows how the governing members of the Heidelberg community influenced the rest of campus to feel the same way they did about the opportunity.

As excited as the school may have been to have this extensive collection, they still had a lot of work to do to meet Kost's demands.

The first step was to recharter the school as a University.

Under the leadership of President Dr. Williard, the Board of Regents rushed to take the steps to change the name. The process was not exactly simple, as they had to vote amongst themselves, then get approval by the Reformed Church, and finally get approval by the State of Ohio. Thankfully, there was a general movement at the time to move from College to University among the different Ohio colleges, so Heidelberg's transition was not viewed as too out of the realm of normal.

Once the school was rechartered, the school formed a Polytechnic Department to meet Kost's second demand, making him the President of the Department.

The polytechnic department taught classes in sculpture, taxidermy, and architecture. One can imagine the most important part of the institute for Kost would have been the taxidermy classes, as many of his specimens he collected went through this process. The department began formation under the 1889-1890 school year.

"This department of the university is, as yet, not full organized. Still classes in Sculpture and Taxidermy have done good work in the year just ending. By the time of opening of the Fall Term several additional branches will be in operation.

By the 1890-1891 school year,

"This department is now in good working order in several important branches."

After making Kost President of the Polytechnic department, they also made him Chancellor.

If you are interested, you can read about the controversy surrounding his appointment to Chancellor by clicking the button below.