News

Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber

News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard

News

‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative

News

Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter

News

LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard

HARVARD TO TAKE IMPORTANT PART IN TERCENTENARY

First Sitting of General Court, Body Which Founded Harvard College, is to be Conducted

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

Plans for celebration of the Tercentenary of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony next year in which Harvard College will play an important part were made public last night by Herbert Parker '78, chairman of the State Commission, in a report filed yesterday with the clerk of the Legislature.

Highlights of the tremendous program which is planned for the Bay State Tercentenary in 1930 include a permanent memorial to commemorate the Founders of the colony, a musical festival, commemorative observances especially related to the development of the law of the Commonwealth in which the Harvard Law School will probably participate, and, as a climax, a magnificent celebration on July 15 which is planned to be the most splendid and stately occasion ever seen in this country.

It is hoped that the American Bar Association will hold some of its sessions at the Harvard Law School in the fall, bringing with it, as guests of the Commonwealth, representatives of the Bar Associations of Great Britain, Canada, and, it is hoped of France.

Parker is Chairman

The entire program is planned to commemorate the establishment in this country of constitutional government, a form imported from England by the Puritan fathers when they first settled in America. In order to present the most striking program possible, a committee appointed by the Governor has been working many months preparing the report which last night was filed with the Clerk of the Legislature. In addition to Mr. Parker, who is chairman of the commission, Harvard men who have been assisting on the committee are Allan Forbes '97, Wellington Wells '90, and F. B. Winthrop '91. Dr. Henry Colt, also on the commission, received his M. D. degree from Harvard in '81.

Harvard College will assuredly be represented in the Memorial Hall which is recommended by the commission in its report. This building will be erected as a permanent memorial to commemorate the founders of the colony; in its chief hall a statue of Governor John Winthrop and portraits and statues of other founders, of magistrates of the colony, may be placed.

Court Founded Harvard

The commission, under the direction and with the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives, plans to conduct in the State House commemorative observances of the first sitting of the General Court. This celebration will be of particular interest to members of the University, who will remember that Harvard College was founded in 1636 by a vote of the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who voted 400 pounds to the establishment of a college. Consequently any celebration of the inauguration of parliamentary administration, centered as it was in the General Court, is definitely related to the early history of the College.

Climax of Program

The chief occasion, however, of the tercentennial celebration will be the magnificent spectacle planned for July 15. At that time the Right Honorable William Laurens Fisher. Warden of New College, Oxford, will deliver an oration befitting the day. Mr. Fisher is not unknown to Boston and Cambridge audiences, since he has been a lecturer at the Lowell Institute here twice in past years. His address will come at the height of the tercentennial celebration, after a procession of dignitaries from all over the world has marched to a special pavilion which will, it is planned, be erected on the terrace in front of the State House. This pavilion will seat about 4000 people, all of whom will be guests invited by the Commonwealth, including the President of the United States, the governors of all the states of the Union, and prominent college and university officials from all over the country. The proceedings, however, will be visible to all who wish to view them from the Common

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags