Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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' By the end of the seventeenth century when Mather was removed, Harvard had become a prosperous and fairly renowned institution. The College had been granted several new plots of land, was receiving gener- ousgrants from the education-minded of Europe as we-ll as the colonies, and was still expanding. The College owned a press now, the hrst in America, and two good-sized buildings. The student body remained under a hundred in number but, like the faculty, con- tinued to grow. After Mather the College's vice-president, the Rev. Samuel VVillard, presided over the school until his death in 1707. John Leverett of the Class of 1680 Ca lawyer and grandson of former colonial governor Sir John Leverettj succeeded Willa1'd, becoming the first layman President. Throughout these times, the Mathers and their doctrinaire followers waged inces- sant attacks on the more liberal college oflicers, ac- cused them of conniving with the Devil, and urged their dismissal. Cotton Mather tried on frequent oc- casions to have himself appointed President, staging several intrigues against Leverett, but the conserva- tives were always resisted: it was for this that the school was first called 'fGodless Harvard. During Leverett's Presidency, Massachusetts Hall was constructed and in the term of his successor, the Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, VVadsworth House was built to serve as the first Presidential residence. The Rev. Edward Holyoke, a minister from Marble- head, succeeded Wadsworth in 1773 to begin a term of thirty-two years duration. Fundamentalists con- tinued to harrangue the College for lack of religious stamina and the College continued to resist their on- slaught. Jonathan Edwards took up the old Godless Harvard routine in a sermon before the student body and visiting English clerics joined in the general denunciation. Holyoke hnally decided that what Harvard really needed was a College Chapel. The funds for such a building were obtained from the estate of Samuel Holden, a London merchant who had created a bulky trust fund for philanthropic purposes Hsuch as promot- ing true Religion, l mean Sobriety, Righteousness, and Godlinessf, Holden Chapel was completed in 1744 and began to play a thoroughly unique role in the history of the College. lt remained a place of worship only a little more than twenty years. ln 1769, when British troops occupied Boston, the Massachusetts legislature complained to the Royal Governor that they could not effectively deliberate under military rule and asked that the army be removed from the city. The Gover- nor removed the legislature instead, installing the lower house in Holden Chapel and the upper chamber 'Q-in another College building. During the Revolution, Holden Hrst became an army courthouse, then a barracks for American troops. After the war, a lumber storage room occupied the building and later the College's new fire engine. It was then also the seat of the Engine Society, an under- graduate volunteer fire company which the College finally banned because of the extensive damage it Increase Mather caused everytime a fire started in Cambridge. ln 1783, Holden was converted into the first quarters for the new Medical School and had added to its fixtures a storage room for cadavers, skeletons and the like, which became the frequent prey of undergraduate prankery. Holden was subsequently transformed into a chemical lecture room, a dormitory, a clubhouse, a musical theatre, a museum, a recitation hall, a labora- tory, and, finally, a general purposes auditorium. Hollis Hall was also erected in Holyoke's time and so was the second Harvard Hall. The first Harvard had been completely demolished by the fire of 1764, which also claimed all but one volume of John Har- vard's original library. The first student riots, the Great Butter Rebellion, raged for a month in 1766 when the College refused to desist in serving what undergraduates referred to as butter that stinkethf' Two years later, disturbed by the oppression of their tutors, the students rioted again, breaking windows and supposedly endangering the lives of College officers. But pre-Revolutionary politics almost wholly con- sumed the atmosphere of the College during this time. The spirit of the student body became firmly patriotic: when several young Tories brought tea into the Col- lege dining hall, they barely escaped alive. The Great and General Court of Massachusetts convened in Holden Chapel and Harvard Hall now, and students frequently cut classes to listen to the orations of James Otis and Samuel Adams. ln emulation of these

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which authority Harvard still functions, and the estab- lishment of the first Board of Overseers, then includ- ing Governor John Winthrop, other colonial officials, and the ministers of near-by communities. But the distinction of Dunsterls performance as President, the Puritan community quickly forgot when he became involved in a rather intense religious contro- versy prompted by his opposition to the baptism of infants. His opinions were declared heretical by the General Court, he was publicly admonished and forced to resign from the Presidency. He left oflice in 1654 and died soon after. The Rev. Charles Chauncey, once a Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Trinity College, Cambridge, succeeded Dunster. He was elected only after agree- ing not to propagate or even express certain of his religious beliefs which were considered unorthodox and, though his term as President lasted eighteen years, he did little to develop the institution. He spent ten years erecting an Indian College which succeeded in graduating only one student and was finally torn down. The bricks from that building were later used in the construction of Stoughton Hall with the pro- vision that should an American Indian ever again apply to Harvard he Would be allowed to live there rent free. After failing in several attempts to have his salary raised, Chauncey died in 1672 and was replaced by the Rev. Leonard Hoar of the Class of 1650, the first Harvard graduate to be elected President. Within a short time he became extremely unpopular among the students, who eventually deserted en masse, forcing him to resign after serving less than three years. He Was succeeded by the Rev. Urian Oakes, Whose only memo- rable distinction as President was that he died during a total eclipse of the sun. Thereafter the Presidency Was declined by four different people, finally being ac- cepted by the Rev. John Rogers in 1682. He remained only a year, however, and after a short period of vacancy the President's ofhce came to be occupied by the Rev. Increase Nlather. Mather was one of the most prominent and out- spoken members of the Massachusetts colony, he was the pastor of North Church in Boston and one of the strictest and most conservative of the colonial Calvin- ists. Although his name brought prestige to the Col- lege, he spent very little time in Cambridge. More concerned with presiding over the witch hunts in Salem and the affairs of his church in Boston, Mather left the management of Harvard to other College oflicers. He held his post for sixteen years, however, zeal- ously attempting to guard the College against the creeping liberalization of colonial mores. The Over- seers finally dismissed him, his efforts to institute a strong religious test for College admission were re- buked, and he and his son, Cotton Nlather, turned their interests to the founding of Yale College in New Haven. There, presumably, the piety of New England youth would be safe from violation. Paul Revere View-1767

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and other patriotic orators, a group of undergraduates founded the Speaker's Club which shortly became the Institute of 1770 and later the Hasty Pudding. President Holyoke died in 1769 and was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel Locke, who served an uneventful three years. The Rev. Samuel Langdon became Presi- dent in 1774 and remained in office through the Revolution. General Washington took command of the Conti- nental Army on the Cambridge Common in 1775, Wadsworth House became his first headquarters and the other College buildings were used as troop bar- racks. The students, the faculty, the College clock and other paraphernalia were removed to Concord during the seige of Boston, returning to Cambridge in time to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and the eight Harvard men who signed it. John Hancock was elected Treasurer of the College, George Wash- ington received a Doctorate of Laws, and General Burgoyne was held prisoner in Apthorp House. The College was reimbursed for damage done by American troops and the lead taken from the roof of Harvard Hall for making bullets was replaced. After the war, Harvard strolled back to its internal routine. The College had by now abandoned the ancient practice of ranking students by their social status and the undergraduates were, in general, enjoying more independence than in earlier times. ln 1780 they pre- sented President Langdon with a petition suggesting that he was unfit for the office of preacher of the Christian religion, and still more for that of Presi- dent, and demanded his ouster. Two days later, Langdon resigned. Joseph Willard, earlier a coastline sailor, ascended to the Presidency in 1781. Remembering perhaps the circumstances of his predecessor's retirement, he found discipline in the College a bit lax for his liking and set about to remedy things. Through the course of his administration, he made several revisions in the laws governing undergraduates and sought always to pre- vent their minds from wandering into the entrails of frivolous pursuit. All scholars, the rules of 1798 read, shall at sun- set on the evening preceeding the Lord's Day, lay aside all their diversions and retire to their chambers and not unnecessarily leave themg and all disorders on said evening shall be punished in like manner as violations of the Lord's Day. And it is enjoined upon every scholar carefully to apply himself to the duties of re- ligion on said day. Whoever shall profane the day by unnecessary business, or visiting, or walking on the Common, or in the streets or fields of the town of Cambridge, or shall use any diversions, or otherwise behave himself disorderly or unbecoming the season, shall be fined, admonished, suspended, or rusticatedf' Blasphemy, fornication, and forgery were punish- able by expulsion, a student found guilty of singing lewd songs or engaging in filthy conversation could be fined one dollar. The charge for tardiness at pray- ers was eleven cents and for absence, thirty-three. Cards, dice, and games for money were forbidden. An undergraduate could not be an actor in, a spectator at, or in any ways concerned in, any stage plays, inter- ludes, or theatrical entertainments in the town of Cam- bridge. All students were prohibited from associat- ing with any person of dissolute morals g festive occasions were banned from Harvard property. The College laws closely regulated matters of dress -uniform blue-grey coats with class distinguishing cuff buttons were prescribed undergraduate apparel: no part of the garments could be made of silk or lace. The laws encouraged students to wear academic gowns at public events and restrained them from leaving the vicinity of the College without a coat, cloak or gown, and hat. A scholar who wears women's apparel is liable to admonition, degradation, suspension, rustica- tion, or expulsion. West View of Harvard College-1850 , resident wiiiafa died in 1804. with the and of his term and the end of the century, Harvard had IQHSSCC1 168 years-a growing institution but still a very simple one. The college shared the extreme poverty of. all Niew England, Edward Everett Hale wrote of this PC1'1Od. That poverty had this merit, that the people did not know they were poor, but thought they were prosperous. During the first years of the nine- teenth century, there were five professors and six tutors on the faculty, the graduating classes ranged from forty to sixty men. After leaving the President's office empty for two years, the College selected Samuel Webber, a scientist and member of the faculty, to be Willard's successor.