Retrospection
Theses That Foreshadowed Influence
“Who here wrote a thesis?” Conan C. O'Brien ’85 asked the Class of 2000 during his Class Day address. “A lot of hard work, a lot of your blood went into that thesis,” he said. “And no one is ever going to care.”
FM Imagines: Ye Olde Yardefeste, 1873
It’s a semester and a half into your freshman year at Harvard: You’ve given up on three start-ups, stopped going to the gym, and come to the realization that this school has enough sausage to stimulate Upton Sinclair’s journalistic appetite. But Upton Sinclair hasn’t been born yet and the absence of females in your life isn’t the product of spitting bad game or being denied into the Fly.
Retro Romance: A Harvard-Radcliffe Affair
Elizabeth A. Beverly-Whittemore ’70 considers her relationship with Dr. Robert D. Whittemore II ’69 an anomaly. When Beverly-Whittemore and Whittemore studied in Cambridge, Harvard men normally looked outside the Yard for potential love interests.
Retrospection: The First Snowpocalypse
The roads are plowed, the students have stopped hibernating and started shuffling back to class, and so our latest “Snowpocalypse” is officially behind us. As dire as that name might sound, last Tuesday, Jan. 27, was in fact Harvard’s third closure due to inclement weather in three consecutive years. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and winter storm Nemo in 2013, it’s easy to imagine this becoming another of the College’s many traditions. But before 2012, it required nothing less than an actual apocalypse—“an act of God, such as the end of the world,” former Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III declared in 1977—for the University to close.
Campus Speech, Interrupted
FM investigates past events at which speakers on campus have been given a less-than-warm welcome.
This is Primary Source
Before he published two books or starred in The Office as Ryan Howard, B.J. Novak ’01 reviewed an imaginary band for FM.
Their Fair City: “Car Talk” and Cambridge
Looking back at Tom and Ray Magliozzi’s “Car Talk” and its Harvard Square home.
The History of Comp
Comp, a uniquely Harvard undertaking, fills a series of different roles for undergraduates seeking to join student groups on campus. It ensures that new members fit into the organization, indoctrinates them in the functions of the club, and teaches them new skills. Whether it’s over in a couple of weeks or fills up the entire semester, whether it’s a straightforward checklist or a highly challenging competition, comping is an investment of time, energy, and effort to demonstrate one’s willingness and ability to actively commit.
Concentration Timeline
Last week, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced that the College likely offer a concentration in Theater, Design, and Media next fall. Though the addition of a new concentration is exciting, it’s not the first time it has happened—Harvard was not created with all 48 concentrations, but rather added them throughout the years. With the declaration date for sophomores looming on the metaphorical horizon (lookin’ at you, prospective English concentrators), FM has thoughtfully compiled a chronology of the addition of concentrations through the ages.
In The School of Tyrannus
If you haven’t heard of Nathaniel Eaton, Harvard’s first head of school, it’s not because he’s one of the University’s buried treasures. Described by one student as “fitter to have been an officer in the inquisition, or master of an house of correction, than an instructer (sic) of Christian Youth,” Eaton’s disastrous year-and-a-half-long tenure, from 1638 to 1639, ended in a court case in which he was ordered to step down and pay a fine. The school closed down for the subsequent academic year. The affair was such a scandal that in 1940, some students argued that 1640 should be seen as the real founding year of Harvard College. Here are just a few things that made Nathaniel Eaton and his regime, well, shitty.
The Mather Witch Project
In 1692, there was a tide in the affairs of the Mathers. Increase Mather, the family patriarch, had just reluctantly accepted his appointment as Harvard’s seventh president. His son, Cotton, was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young minister who fully immersed himself in all things Protestant. Neither had much to do with the other’s business, until something wicked came their way.
The Other John
John the Orange Man began selling fruit in Harvard Square in 1858, about a decade after he immigrated to Cambridge to escape the Irish potato famine. He worked in the Square until his death following an operation in 1906, and during that period, saw the erection of 26 university buildings, and made the acquaintance of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Theodore Roosevelt. In 1891, the Boston Daily Globe dubbed him “the most popular man at Harvard.”
Diary of a Mad Librarian
SCENE: THE LIBRARY. (Curious Freshman removes a catalogue-card from its proper place). NOAH. Look here, sir! Don't you know it's against the rule to take those cards from the drawer? CURIOUS FRESH. But I suppose it's no matter, as I did it insensibly. NOAH (excited). Yes, but it is! You will incense Sibley, if you are not careful!
The Tell-Tale Heart
The oldest college periodical is essentially a gossip rag. Plus a dream journal. And an exposé of the "Spy Club."
B.F. Skinner at Harvard
Long before there were grab and go lunches and weekly pub trivia nights, slot machines and pianos filled the basement of Memorial Hall. The lucky gamblers and musicians were not students or faculty, but pigeons.
Timeline: Beer at Harvard
1637: John Harvard moves from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony. He dies later that year, leaving money to New College, which is later renamed for its greatest benefactor. Harvard develops plans to build a brewery on its campus. Legend has it that Harvard learned the art of beer brewing from family friend William Shakespeare. One could say that the College’s on-campus brewery used recipes directly from the “First Folio.”
Retrospective: Faculty in Hot Water
In light of the Venezuelan President's recent threat of legal action against a Harvard professor, here's a trip down the Harvard Faculty's extensive memory lane of lawsuits, threats, and accusations.
Services, Cadavers, and Collegium: The History of Holden Chapel
A young Holyoke of the Class of 1746 chronicled the happenings at Harvard College before his admission: “1742, June 2. Foundation of the Chapel Laid Some part of ye begin’g of this month. [sic]” Thus he recorded the beginning of a symbolic change in the Harvard Yard: the construction of its first chapel. Despite the many religious commitments of Harvard men, who read the Scriptures multiple times in a day and practiced the teachings of the Bible, a century went by until Holden was built.
The Legend of the Z-List
The Z-list inhabits an especially remote cranny in the cave of Harvard lore. The core of the Z-list intrigue is exclusivity. As admission rates have plummeted, mystery has increased.
The Class of 1918
It was easy to get in then. No personal essays required, just a series of entrance examinations. 73 percent of applicants were admitted. Admittedly, there are lots of reasons to discount these numbers. The exams required special preparation available only at a few elite prep schools. There was no Common App, no female students, and only 937 people applied.
In And Around Language: "Midterm"
Please sit down. We’re passing out booklets now. You should have a question sheet and two booklets. Raise your hand if you—sorry about that James, there you go. You’ll have 53 minutes; there are four sections. We’ve included a suggested time for each section. I’ll also keep track of how much time is left on the board. And...begin.