Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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THE YEAR 327

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scandal since Mrs. Eaton left goat's dung in the hasty pudding. Charles William Eliot, a thirty-five-year-old chemist, was elected President in 1869 to begin the longest and in many ways most important administration in the history of the University. He presided over the most radical changes Harvard had yet experienced, watched it make the final transition from a simple college to a major university. He re-organized the Law, Medical, and Divinity Schools, established the Graduate School, and helped institute Radcliffe College. He improved the elective system and in turn the curriculum, vastly liberalized the rules governing undergraduates, abol- ished compulsory prayers, and tripled enrollment. The life of a student became a rather pleasant thing in the Eliot years. Self-discipline was now the general order and for the hrst time students roamed freely about the countrysideg Artemus Ward suggested that Harvard College is situated in the Parker House Bar. Undergraduates could choose their own living space with accommodations offered them in the plush new dormitories along the Gold Coast row or in the older buildings of the Yard. There were great men to teach them-James, San- tayana, Palmer, Royce, Kittredge, Taussig, and Dun- bar-and there was great independence in which to learn. Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles and later Charles Townsend Copeland held forth from their rooms in the Yard. Besides being distinguished schol- ars and great teachers they were also perpetual sources of amusement: though Copey never exercised his right as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory to graze a cow on the lawns of the Yard, Sophocles was said to have kept chickens in his room, naming them after the wives of faculty members and conversing with them at great length. The increasing numbers of students provided a new diversity for the student body but at the same time diminished the storied class spirit. The intimacy of the smaller classes all but disappeared and revered customs, like the awarding of a jack knife to the ugliest member of the graduating class, had to be abandoned. The College observed its 250th anniversary in 1885 but the festivities of the occasion proved less festive than planned. Grover Cleveland declined an honorary degree, explaining that his education was inadequate for such an honor, and the President of Princeton stalked away after taking offence at a poem delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Eliot retired from office in 1909 and Abbott Law- rence Lowell succeeded him. Lowell had previously been a Professor of Govern- ment and a few days after his election to the Presi- dency, he lectured his Government 1 class on some of the principles which would be applied in his adminis- tration. When I was a student here in College, he said, 1 had very definite opinions as to how some things should be conducted, which 1 thought were Well worth listening to though they never were listened to. I still believe those opinions were worth something. Now I hope you will feel free to make your opinions known for 1 believe in the undergraduate View of things. The interest of the student body is of the greatest importance to me. And 1 hope you will feel perfect confidence in me for we must work together in building up the noblest institution in the land. That continued to be Lowell's overwhelming attitude throughout his stay in oHice. He sought out construc- tive opinion wherever he could find it and acted upon it whenever he could. The innovations of the Lowell times included the House Plan, general examinations, reading period, the tutorial system, and the fields of concentration program. The major constructions during his adminis- tration, besides the Houses, were Widener Library, the Fogg Art Museum, the Business School, labora- tories for chemical, physical, and biological research, Memorial Church, and additions to the Law School. The endowment of the University under Lowell, rose from slightly more than twenty million dollars to roughly one hundred and twenty million. James Bryant Conant, a research chemist, became President in -1933 with the retirement of President Lowell. Throughout his term in office, Conant was constantly embroiled in political questions. He early became a figure of national prominence, serving on governmental advisory boards and speaking out on controversial issues. He was a supporter of Roosevelt and the New Deal, urged intervention in World War ll, and advised the government to develop the atomic bomb. The chief internal accomplishments of the Conant administration were the institution of General Educa- tion, the establishment of the University Professor- ships, and the development of the National Scholar- ships program. The Harvard Tercentenary was celebrated in 1936. Secretary of State George C. Marshall first out- lined the Marshall Plan speaking at the commence- ment of 1948. Conant resigned in 1953 to become High Commissioner to Germany and Nathan Marsh Pusey was elected the twenty-fourth President. With the settling of 327 years of history, Harvard comes now from the age that is past to the age that is waiting before. -s-- 'kim-:X--, .,,.-- ,-,: ,'..- - -,-. . . Q..-..-HN, ,-.1 . . .,. -V ,.... .. . ... ,. . .. , , s .f., -- ,'.. w ff siisfliasiip l-. -. rflrzafgggfs.5-2655-fsgs, x ' sq .pst-5.16 iw- Qi 23,55 ' Y N. 539' 5 3 arg!-'fl ' mama 3 Ili ff?-W WM: Q . f if 1 l . 1 1. 1 .9 ill ' ll ie... I W - f - . 1 if ..... :xi im. .V . . C ,., , . L.. .... . .1 . ,- - .. . ,.

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Thefreshman quickQf learns that Harvard is impersonal unsentimental. Hisfirst Week in Cambridge is a time af herd movements-a time afnever-ending name signing.