{"id":248,"date":"2021-04-28T00:38:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T00:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/?page_id=248"},"modified":"2021-06-09T20:35:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T20:35:02","slug":"william-elder","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/william-elder\/","title":{"rendered":"William Elder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is a photograph of William Elder which was taken in Boston, Massachusetts in 1888. William Elder was a professor at Colby during the 19th Century. He taught at Colby from 1873 to 1903. Elder taught chemistry at Colby, and he also taught biology for 12 years. Elder was born in 1840 in Nova Scotia. When Elder grew up, he attended Acadia College, and later went on to attend Harvard for special work in science. Before he began teaching at Colby, Elder was the chair of physical sciences at Acadia from 1869 to 1873.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In 1898, William Elder published the book, Ideas From Nature<\/em> which is pictured above. During the time that this book was published, Charles Darwin changed the view about the origins of biological organisms, and many began to accept his ideas. Elder, on the other hand, went against the ideas of natural selection, and relied on the existence of God to explain phenomena in nature: \u201cNature is the manifestation of God in things material; Christianity in things spiritual\u201d (Elder, 191). Throughout his life, William Elder was a very religious man, and his commitment to Christianity is seen in the way that he explains the natural world in Ideas From Nature<\/em>. Rather than accepting and understanding the new evolutionary ideas that began to come about after Darwin published Origins of Species<\/em>, Elder instead relied on religion and the existence of God in order to explain how the natural world worked. This was not uncommon for the time period. In fact, many people rejected Darwin\u2019s new ideas as they were so committed to their religious beliefs about the natural world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Elder, William. Ideas from Nature: Talks with Students,.<\/em> Philadelphia, American Baptist Publication Society, 1898.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cColby College Bulletin Series V, No. 4, In Memoriam: William Elder\u201d, October, 1906, Colby College Special Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Above is a photograph of the Colby College Bulletin which the College published in October, 1906 in memory of William Elder. As a professor at Colby, religion sometimes played a role in his teaching as well. In this bulletin, a student of Elder\u2019s notes, \u201cTo a rare degree, the personality of Prof. Elder was permeated by his religion and its unspoken influence was felt throughout the college and the whole circle of his acquaintance.\u201d During the 19th Century, new evolutionary ideas about the natural world began to surface. While many people adopted these ideas and understanding of the world, many such as Elder were hesitant to due to their religious beliefs and values. Over time however, as more scientific studies were conducted and the understanding of the natural world shifted more from creationism to evolution, religion began to lose its role in our scientific understanding of the natural world, and that is evident in the material that is taught at Colby today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curated by Michael Minard<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a photograph of William Elder which was taken in Boston, Massachusetts in 1888. William Elder was a professor at Colby during the 19th Century. He taught at Colby from 1873 to 1903. Elder taught chemistry at Colby, and he also taught biology for 12 years. Elder was born in 1840 in Nova Scotia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9273,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/histbiocolby\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}