Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Harvard Now Has More Extra-Curricular Groups Than Ever Before No exception to Harvard's tradition of rich diversity in extra-curricular interests, the Class of 1946 busied itself during its years in Cambridge in dozens of organized activities from mathematics to movie-making-some short-lived and informal, some with years of tradition on the Harvard scene, but all a part of the educational program in a liberal arts college. Among the publications, '46 saw the birth of two new literary magazines, Wake and Sigmzture. Hugh L. Whitehouse Stan Karson '48 instructs Harvard AVC delegates to the Massa- chusetts State Convention in 1947. The AVC was the most successful of the veterans' organizations in its membership drives. '46 and jack Adkins '46 helped found the former in the fall of 1944, and J. Robert Leed '46 was in on the conversion of the magazine from publication of weak student efforts to the printing of the work of established writers, such as E. E. Cummings, as well as lesser known contemporary authors. Signature sprang up in September, 1947, as a joint Harvard- Radcliffe operation, devoting itself at first to dramatics and writing on the College scene. Burt Glynn '46 did a series of striking cover photographs of Radcliffe lovelies. Another new postwar activity was Harvard's first motion picture producing group, founded in 1947 as Veritas Films by a student group including Louis Baker '46 as chief cameraman. Changing their name to Ivy Films to avoid threatened legal complications, the society has written and produced its own script, A Touch of the Timer, a fictional commentary on the futility of the industrial civilization and its labor-management misunderstandings. The scientific clubs have always provided bankers' holidays for the talented few who understood Math. 2 and completed their laboratory courses without blowing them- selves up. The learned monthly lectures of the Mathematics Club bore fruit in 1947, when three of its undergraduate mem- bers won Harvard a first prize in the Putnam mathematics 412871- competition of the Mathematics Association of America. The Engineering Society evolved into a graduate and faculty group during most of '46 experience, but the Pre-Medical Society was reborn in 1945 to a program of lectures by dis- tinguished doctors, and arranged for its members to observe autopsies in the Harvard Medical School. Among the new scientific groups was the Social Relations Society of Harvard, established in 1947 to further informal contact with professors and field trips to psychiatric clinics and social agencies, among its other projects was a popular course selection guide pre- pared by '46-man Abraham Rogatnick's Course Committee. Also new in Cambridge was the Students' Association of the Natural and Social Sciences, sponsoring lectures of general interest on the interrelation of the natural and social sciences and the problem of the scientist in society. Sporadic Activity Among the special activities clubs, the Stamp Club reorganized itself as the Philatelic Society in 1945 and was able to present an exhibition in Widener Library in December, 1947. The Photographic Society recruited members for an active future, and the Bridge Club emerged from smoke-filled rooms at the Business School to plan for a future Harvard Bridge Team in the Intercollegiate Tournament. The jazz Club attracted a large membership in 1943, and presented sessions with famous jazzmen such as Art Hodes, Mezz Mezzrow, and Peewee Russell, as well as a jordan Hall Professor Frye of Boston University demonstrates the peculiari- ties of vector algebra to Mathematics Club members in the Lowell Common Room.

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Harvard's Mountaineers Are World Renowned Some special elixir in the atmosphere around the rocks and icy crags on which the members of the Harvard Mountain- eering Club spend so much of their time must get into the blood after prolonged exposure, for few College activities have led their devotees to such far corners of the earth, or continued to call them from their business and professional careers after leaving Harvard. Since the founding of the Club in 1924, its members have left their pitons in crevices from the Andes to the Himalayas, and made such important contri- butions as that of Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates' expedition to Mount McKinley in 1941 to test mountaineering equipment for the U. S. Army. For undergraduate mountaineers, the HMC offers basic training in the Quincy quarries and makes short climbs on Mount Washington, Cannon Mountain, and other New Eng- land summits. The Club runs a cabin at Mount Washington, on which members base their skiing and climbing trips. Dur- ing the war, '46 mountaineers were limited to these week-end expeditions, and no major climbs could be attempted. By 1946, however, an HMC climbing party including Club President William Latady and former Presidents Andrew Kauffman, Mal Miller, and William Putnam made the second known ascent of Mount St. Elias in Alaska. The following summer, Putnam took a party on twenty-four first ascents in British Columbia's Coast Rangeg and 1947-48 Club President john Ross and six others flew into the Canadian Lloyd George Range and, besides climbing, made surveys and collected botanical specimens. The years ahead will undoubtedly see '46 alumni participating in more of these major climbs, which have brought the HMC world-wide renown. Mountaineering Club President William R. Latady during the ascent of Mount St. Elias and Hayden Peak in july, 1946. Outing Club members relax after a hiking trip. Varied Outdoor Pursuits Attract Outing Club Members Smaller in numbers but indefatigable in spirit, the Harvard Outing Club carried on a reduced schedule during '46 College years, but by 1947 had restored most of its many and varied activities, devoted to getting away from College and enjoying the outdoors. Short Sunday trips include biking around the Boston region with girls from Wellesley, Rad- cliffe, and Sargent, hiking in the Blue Hills, and Snowshoeing and skiing trips in the winter. The annual Harvard-to-Welles- ley bike race is an HOC institution, as are frequent square dances, boasting a large turnout from all the Boston area colleges. The Club arranges rock climbing, with complete instruction for beginners, on trips to Rattlesnake Crags in the Blue Hills, often in preparation for summer climbing in the Rocky Mountains and Grand Tetons. Freshmen, drawn to these activities by the physical training credits granted by the Hygiene Department, have stayed to become the Club's enthusiastic supporters. Low Cost Rentals HOC membership has provided '46 devotees not only with excellent opportunities to get together with other men interested in the outdoor life, but also with the material bene- fits oflow-cost rental of Club skiis, knapsacks, tents, and other equipment, discounts in many sporting goods stores, and the weekly issues of the Dope Sheet, a bulletin listing activities at Harvard and elsewhere in New England. An important postwar addition to the Outing Club's facilities has been the construction of the Kushner Memorial cabin, at the base of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, for summer hiking and winter skiing. With more to offer than ever before, the HOC again stands ready to run any out- door activity in which its members are interested. -12861

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The Harvard Photo Society's exhibit tempts Prescott Benn '52 at the 1948 freshman registration in Memorial Hall. concert of Dixieland jazz. The Harvard Art Association held some well-attended exhibitions in Fogg Museum, and sporadic activity was reported from the Ornithology Club, the Folk- Dancing Society, the Psychology Club, and the Philosophy Clube-sparked for a time by Dan Yankefwitz '46, The ROTC Caisson Club, a 1943 casualty, was reacti- vated in 1946, and among the ofhcers who directed its social and military activities in 1947-48 were President Thomas Fisher '46, Vice-President Chester N. Cramton '46, and Treasurer Charles O'Connor '46. The very unmilitary Rifle Club shrank into the file case of Executive Ofiicer William W. Dunn '46 in 1943, but returned to intercollegiate competition after the war. The Hood of returning veterans in 1946 helped create, in the Harvard chapter ofthe American Veterans' Committee, one ofthe College's most active organizations working with political and economic problems, both local and national. f Ivy Films shooting their first production, A Touch of the Times. The commercial rights were bought in 1949 by a New Swelling to a membership of over 900 under its first chairman, Richard G. Axt '46, the A.V.C. opposed veterans' bonuses but helped win increased veterans' subsistence under the G.I. Bill, organized a housing ofiice to find accommodations for stu- dent families, and conducted a widely publicized non-partisan school in political action techniques. Slightly Partisan Among other organizations supporting various political or economic causes from left to right, '46 members found plenty of opportunity to mount the soapbox or stain their shirt sleeves with mimeograph ink. The Harvard Youth for Democracy, recognized by the University in 1947 despite the current red scare, sponsored lectures, aided Progressive candi- dates in municipal political campaigns, and published its own magazine, The New Stzzdent, for national distribution. The john Reed Society, suspended for the duration, resumed its -12881,