The Harvard Alumni Bulletin: Since 1898

In 1898, the same year that Galsworthy wrote his first book, and Harvard shut out Yale 17 to 0 in football, and Gertrude Lawrence and Stephen Vincent Benet were born, and Gladstone and Bismark died, the first issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin came off the presses.

It was a very modest start; a group of graduates, including Clarence C. Mann '99, Fred W. Moore '93, Augustus P. Gardner '86, and Jerome D. Greene '96, gathered around a Boston dinner table and decided that something must be done to let graduates know about University affairs and athletic teams.

Previously, the Athletic Department had sporadically published a few small bulletins, and a periodical, the Harvard Graduates' Magazine, was issued quarterly by another group of alumni; but these publications were not issued often enough to keep up with news as it happened.

The group appointed Greene as editor of the new magazine, which was to be called the Harvard Bulletin. Since most of the founders were extremely interested in athletics, the group decided to call itself the Athletic Association of Harvard Graduates.

Greene stated the new weekly's objectives on the front cover of the first issue, of November 7, 1898: "first, to give selected and summarized Harvard news to graduates who want it, secondly to serve as a medium for publishing promptly all notices and announcements of interest to graduates, thirdly to unite graduate and undergraduate interest in all the athletic sports. The Bulletin will not be an athletic paper, however, in any exclusive sense."

The first year was a lucky one for the members of the Bulletin. Harvard made sweeping victories over Yale in almost every sport and contest, including bridge and debate, and there was a fuming battle to determine where a dam should be constructed across the Charles River. Reader interest was high, and people were active in voicing their opinions.

Even at this time, when it was still in its infancy, the Bulletin remained formally apart from the University. It was created as an independent corporation by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the editors wished it to remain that way.

The Administration did try to publish a quarterly magazine, the University Bulletin, in 1881. The University Librarian, Justin Windsor 1853, was appointed editor, and perhaps this was its main trouble; the magazine was too much like a library journal.

The first issue included a formal printed record of the proceedings of the Corporation and the Board of Overseers; a list of Russian sources on nihilism; and some topics for senior forensic themes. Its contribution to science was a paper on the incidence of dizziness in deaf-mutes. The remainder was given over to announcing new library acquisitions and listing bibliographies.

Partially because of its contents, the magazine lasted a relatively short time, folding in 1897, the year its editor died. These were the final efforts by the University in that direction.

The new Harvard Bulletin and its eventual successor, the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, were to remain apart from the University through the years ahead, although many members of the administration were to spend time working on their editorial boards.

In fact, in some instances, the magazine worked against the administration. In the spring of 1916, for example, Louis D. Brandeis was nominated for the United States Supreme Court. President Lowell was against the appointment, and signed a Suffolk County Bar Association petition demanding that it not be confirmed. Harvard law professors, however, were overwhelmingly for Brandeis.

The Bulletin chose to support the professors, and, in a strong editorial, criticized the President for trying to represent the whole University. Lowell remained unruffled, and answered the charges in the next issue.

A more recent split between the University and the Bulletin occurred in the spring of 1950, when the University proposed the construction of a new Varsity Club with part of the funds left by Allston Burr '89. The May 27 issue of the periodical contained a sharp editorial against the plan: "Should the University build a new Varsity Club with part of the unrestricted legacy of the late Allston Burr? The Bulletin feels it should not. There are few matters which the Bulletin takes issue with the administration, but this is one of them. The project should be abondoned."

Opposition grew too strong against building the new Club, and the University was forced to discontinue the project, even though the design had already been chosen. Instead the money went into the organization of the Allston Burr Senior Tutor plan now existing in the Houses.

No Editorial Page

Several years have passed since the Bulletin last included an editorial page; today most controversies are waged through a "Letters" column. The present editor, Norman A. Hall '22, is not interested in making the Bulletin an opinionated periodical. He feels that the main purpose of the magazine is to "bring the news of the University and its alumni to the alumni as objectively as possible."

Today, Bulletin policy decisions are partially decided at an editorial luncheon held just after each bi-weekly issue is published.

At these luncheons, the editorial committee and the seven directors, the editor and the business manager, discuss the previous Bulletin and possibilities for coming ones.

Any policy decisions are extremely general; members of the group might suggest "have you heard about" or "what are you going to do about" a University, national, or past event. Bulletin editor Hall then goes back to his office and starts considering possibilities for the next issue.

Several groups of people participate in the activities of the Bulletin. The periodical is headed by a self-perpetuating board of twelve Incorporators, whose main function is to appoint a Board of Directors. The directors tend to take a much more active part in the Bulletin's activities; they choose the editor and the business manager, and regularly attend the editorial luncheons.

Editorial Committee

The magazine's Editorial Committee, which constitutes one of the main groups attending the bi-weekly luncheons, now includes two former editors of the Bulletin and the Secretary of the Corporation. The group is appointed by the president of the magazine.

Editor Hall, the assistant to the editor, Jane E. Howard, and the assistant's assistant, do most of the actual written work on the publication. The three plan the magazine's design, layout, articles, and columns. They spend hours before each publication date reading each line of print to correct all errors in the forty-eight page periodical.

The Bulletin's business staff, working under Business Manager Henry M. Mahon '23, spends the most of its time procuring advertisements. Hall says that they have little trouble filling the magazine's ad quota, even though a full-page advertisement can cost as much as $265. Revenue from the ads and subscription fees keep the organization self-supporting, and pay the salaries for the eight permanent staff members.

Wadsworth House

All eight people on the staff work in the L-shaped wing of Wadsworth House, a small, yellow, wooden building across from Lehman Hall in the Yard. Originally, the editorial staff was housed in the front of the Crimson building at 14 Plympton Street, and the business staff had an office at the Coop in the Square. (Women on the editorial staff have not forgotten the time members of the Lampoon let 300 mice loose in the Crimson and Bulletin offices. It took quite a while to clear them from the place.)

Later, the Coop asked the business staff to move out, since it needed more space, and the University, recognizing the Bulletin's plight, offered to house both staffs at 54 Dunster Street, now the site of the Student Activities Center. The periodical moved into its present location in 1954, when the University decided to establish the Activities Center.

Since the editors rebuilt the Bulletin in 1939-41, changing the format, design, and the color of its cover, the subscription list has risen rapidly. In October 1940, 6,700 copies were printed for each issue. At present, 16,500 of Harvard's 44,000 living alumni subscribe to the Bulletin, an average circulation increase of ten percent each year. Editor Hall adds that reader samplings indicate that each magazine is read by at least two graduates, and there is a good chance it is read by their wives.

The Alumni Bulletin is one of the few existing college alumni magazines that is published more than once each month and is still able to maintain a degree of excellence high enough to have won several prizes over the years