Abrams honors Ephraim Douglas Abrams (1874 - 1956), who was associated with Stanford for more than 60 years, first as a Stanford undergraduate and graduate student, and later as a University professor of botany.

Because of his quiet disposition, Abrams wasn’t well known among fellow faculty members. However, his students affectionately knew him as “Father Abraham,” a name Abrams gave himself in a little joke.

One of Stanford’s first faculty members, Earl Barnes, came to the University in 1891 as a professor of education. Unconventional both in his life and research, Barnes explored such child development issues as color perception, religious consciousness, poetic instinct, and imaginary friends.

According to a story published in October 1894 in the San Francisco Chronicle, a survey Barnes conducted on children’s lies shocked “respectable” local mothers. Each insisted that “her child had never, never done such a thing in his life.” A few days later, the Stockton Mail printed this observation: “This (response) may be said to prove two things: first, that if the children do lie, they came naturally by the trait, and second, that Professor Barnes doesn’t know much about mothers.”

In 1897, Stanford President David Starr Jordan dismissed Barnes for apparently conducting a love affair. Consequently, Barnes spent his remaining career working as a freelance lecturer and writer.

Hoskins bears the name of Leander Hoskins (1860-1937), Stanford emeritus professor of applied mathematics. After earning advanced degrees in science and civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Hoskins taught at Stanford from 1892 through 1925.

His pioneering study on the flow of water in large pipes served as a point of departure from other studies, and his work on earthquake oscillations continued up until the time of his death. A memorial to Hoskins describes him as “careful, courteous, kindly, noted for his thoroughness and patience, intolerant only of sham and disorderly habits of thought.”

Hulme is named for Edward Maslin Hulme (b. 1868), one of Stanford’s first graduates, Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, and Stanford professor emeritus of history. Born in England, Hulme arrived in the U.S. as a child and was forced, after just five years of schooling, to “take employment”, eventually as a shipping clerk.

Despite his lack of formal education, Hulme was passionate about history, literature, fine art, music, and theater. When he learned about the newly-opened Stanford University, Hulme convinced President David Starr Jordan to accept him as a student. After graduating from Stanford in 1897, Hulme taught high school, earning enough money to study further at Harvard, Cornell, and in Paris.

Hulme returned to Stanford in 1921 and taught history until 1937. Hulme wrote textbooks on English history and the Middle Ages, and his book on the Renaissance and Reformation was, for many years, the most popular text in the field. Hulme’s friendly and sympathetic interest in students endeared him to them, and enthusiasm for his scholarship attracted students from all departments of the University.

Frank Mace McFarland (1869-1951) played a leading role in organizing Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Biological Station in Pacific Grove, where he served as director and co-director. McFarland came to Stanford in 1892 as an instructor and graduate student of histology, and later received his Ph.D. from the University of Wurzburg, Germany.

The English country cottage that McFarland and his wife built in 1914 at 775 Santa Ynez Street (for $7,060.40) is on the National Register of Historic Places. In the study, McFarland kept his collection of sea slugs on shelves. The shelves are still in the house, although the smell of formaldehyde is gone.

The Apartments