ABSTRACT
The origin of Antioch was connected with the twilight of Horace Mann's notable career in American education. Horace Mann clearly wanted Antioch to be an intellectual opening to the West. He had intended to cut a gap through the foothills of poor education and the ragged mountains of sectarianism, a gap through which would flow westward the best that the East—and he—could bring. From the first few years of the transformation the Antioch staff developed a preference for the well-rounded man over the more professionally competent but narrower subject matter specialist. Arthur E. Morgan, well aware that for the implementation of his designs the kind of student obtained was no worse than second in importance, if that, to the composition of the faculty, worked hard at attracting and selecting students. Money became the problem that overshadowed all others; by the time the first class went to its commencement, the principal supporter had been wiped out by the panic of 1857.
