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Meeting outside of Massachusetts for he first time in over 300 years, the Board of Overseers of the University received the cordial salutations and hospitality of the Board of Governors of William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Virginia last Saturday.
After formal greetings had been exchanged between Charles Francis Adams '88 president of the Overseers and Rector J. Gordon Bohannan of William and Mary, the Overseers held their first meeting in the Blue Room of the historic Christopher Wren Chapel. Later in the day the group again assembled in the restored House of Burgesses of Virginia's colonial capital.
Speaking for the Harvard group, Adams said, "Together on this one hundred and sixty-sixth anniversary of the 'shot heard 'round the world' we recall with pride the historic past. We do so most happily in surroundings which commemorate the zeal and piety of your forebears, and also the munificence of one who in our time has restored to their pristine beauty in this neighborhood many of the loveliest monuments of a bygone day."
Replying for William and Mary, Rector Bohannan said, "The records of both colleges emphasize the truth that as freedom of movement conquered the continent, so freedom of thought civilized it. Harvard and William and Mary, in contemplating their past achievements and their future hopes, recognize that they are indissolubly bound now, as then, to the preservation and extension of the sanctity of individual freedom. In that bond of spiritual union the voice of cloistered learning becomes the trumpet of heroic conflict."
After the meetings, William and Mary entertained with a luncheon in the Great Hall of the College. In the evening the group dined as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. at Raleigh Tavern. A harpsichord concert followed the dinner and completed the day's activities.
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