Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Director of the Glee Club and Professor of Music, G. Wallace Woodworth frequently conducts the Boston Symphony. likely to have repercussions on undergraduate training in the Held. The Department of Classics undertook to find new ways Of relating its work to that of other areas and of arousing interest among students specializing in other subjects. Fine Arts set up a new type of departmental examination and Music Completely remodelled its curriculum, winning new students by the change. On the graduate level Romance Languages recognized two kinds of specialization, one in linguistics and one in literary history and criticism, thereby accepting a prin- ciple sure to be reflected in undergraduate instruction. Perry Miller's promotion to a professorship of American literature represented the first use of that title at Harvard and was an ofiicial recognition of the importance of the study of our native writers in current liberal education. A new department of Comparative Literature, planned for during several years, was officially established in 1947, to supplement the work already being done in literary and linguistic fields. These are only a few of the items in the record of the past half-dozen years which demonstrate that individuals and departments in hu- mane fields at Harvard have not been idle. In spite of all the handicaps ofa troubled time they have shown their confidence in those fields and have done much to provide opportunities for students in them. The Quest for Ideas and Faiths Their confidence has been abundantly justified. The transplanted professor who was so despairing in 1942 is now teaching again and the students who throng his classes are doing work on a level of seriousness and intelligence rare in his experience. Other teachers and hosts of other students are devoting themselves to a quest for the ideas and faiths 4411 WALTER CLARK Wztlvs Proft-ssurufSuli:1kri!. RAPHAEL DEMOS Alford Profs-ssnr of Nntiuritl Religion Mural Pliilosnpliy mul Civil Polity MARCEL FRANCON Asruuw. Prof. nf l rc-uc-li l.itcrul.uri' WILLIAM CHASE GREENE Profm-ssor of Uri-uk und Latin ALBERT J. GUERARD Associate l'rofv:4:mr of lixxglirill JOHN PHILLIPS COOLIDGE Assoi-:mv l'rnfvssnr of lfim- Arg., Dire:-for uf Fngg Art lxluspml, l IRVING FINE Assistimt l'rol'vssor of Music HENRY A. FROST l'rofi-ssorufAr1'l1iti'1'tl1r1- WALTER GROPIUS 1'ruf4-sr-lor of :hl 1'lllll'i1i-llI'0 ROBERT HILLYER Boylston l'rnl'i-sz-mr nf Omtnry und lllu-tnric Cllesigncd 10453

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Xrisiwiitta- l'l'uf4-ssor of Pliilnsnpli HEN RY DAVID AIKEN STUART ATKINS .fXH:4o1:iiiLi: l'rofi-me-ior of Gl!llllUll RALPH BEATLEY sr-ioviztte l,l'llf4'NHUl' of liiluifittiun HERBERT BLOCH Xssoc. Prof. uf Gm-iflc mul Littin JAMES M. CARPENTER Asisistnnt l'l'oft-Hrmr uf lfiue Arts Y l AMADO ALON SO 'roff-ssor of llnlniuwiv liungungvs und Liturixturc EDWARD BALLAN Tl N E Anson. Prof. of Music, l'linL'ritus WILLIAM BERRIEN 'rofi-sr-mr of R0lllll.lll'l5 l.ullgiiiu.tt'H unil Iiiteiuuirae JOHN BUSH Professor of English ALFRED K. CHIU lmctiurur on Cliilwsn Lungungc und Literature The Real Prophets How wrong such prophets were was proved not only by the continued activity of students and teachers during the war but in the continued development of the humanities in the more recent period of pseudo-peace. The years from 1942 to 1948 have seen Harvard scholars contributing their full share in all branches of the liberal arts. There have been books like Professor jaeger's monumental Paicleiu, already a classic, or like Professor Rollins's variorum edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Theodore Spencer and Theodore Morrison proved the vitality of the muses even in times of catastrophe, and each published a volume of poetry. Professor Ralph Barton Perry wrote tirelessly and demonstrated brilliantly the part which a philosopher can play in arousing a nation to an understanding of the application of philosophical ideas in the building of sound morale and the furthering of rational and effective action in war. Professor Piston won new successes as a composer. The University administration helped vastly by continuing to make promotions and new appointments and the departments employed visiting lecturers, such as Aaron Copland in music, Irwin Edman in philosophy, and Granville Barker in literature, to fill temporarily some of the gaps left by Harvard scholars who were absent in government service. Nor did the curriculum remain static. New courses were offered, and new departmental programs set up. In the German Department, instruction in Swedish language and literature was revived, very inadequately to be sure, but pre- sumably with good auguries for the future. The English De- partment overhauled its program of study for the Ph.D., a measure affecting immediately only graduate students, but Composer Walter Piston, winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony, goes over a passage with Dr. Archibald Davison, an authority on choral music. 4401

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without which no world, however rich in means for self- destruction or in its ability to exploit machines, can hope to survive. The quest takes many forms, of course, but now as always the humanities-----the arts broadly so called eare demonstrating their essential value for any life which is to rise above fears and crass material compulsions and to achieve freedom for hearts and minds not content with the bare physi- cal necessities of animal existence. The dark visions of those who read anticipatory funeral services over the humanities have been dispelled. Harvard students have not come back from the war solely interested in continuing work as chemists, physicists, personnel experts, or artists in the taking ofhuman life, but as men eager to find answers to questions which are not answered in laboratories or camps or by the most diligent management of statistics. Pitiful as the years of peace have been, it is plain that what little progress has been made toward making the world possible to live in has come less from mechanical instruments and skills than from the efforts of some men to understand others and to find a basis for a decent society through such understanding. These men have worked to guarantee the freedom that comes only when men are able to strive to realize all their potentialities as thinking and feeling beings and able to recognize their duty to safeguard for others the opportunities they enjoy themselves. Professor Matthiessen at a tutorial conference. An authority on Henry james and T. S. Eliot, he is a militant Crusader for WILHEI.M KOEHLER GEORGE T. LeBOUTIl.I.IER l'1'ol'1-ssorof l1'im-Arts Assislnlil. l'rol1-ssor ol' IJ:-sign CLARENCE LEWIS FREDERICK W. LIEDER l'it-rr-0 l'rof4-ssor of Pliilosoplxy Assoc. Prof. of fil'l'Illllll, l'lllll'l'llllS democratic socialism. He was one of the founders of the Harvard Teachers Union. P ' ,.'! sv- I E