HARVARD 1800-1900

The beginning of the year 1900 has suggested a comparison of the present Harvard with the Harvard of one hundred years ago. This comparison has brought to light a number of interesting facts especially with regard to student life.

Joseph Willard was president in 1800 with a salary of $1400 a year, in addition to fees for degrees and grants of land; Ebenezer Storer was treasurer; and Doctors J. Lathrop, S. Howard, E. Pearson, and Judges J. Lowell and O. Wendell were serving on the Corporation. The College was under the control of the State, its Overseers being composed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, council and senate of the commonwealth, and the ministers of Congregational churches in Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Watertown, Roxbury and Dorchester.

Of the thirty five endowed professorships of today eight existed then. There were six tutors and an instructor. There are now one hundred and thirty-five instructors and one tutor. Under the wise administration of President Willard and Mr. Storer the College was beginning to depend on itself, but did not have its last subsidy voted it by the legislature until 1814. A few years previous to 1800 the personal estate of Harvard was $182,000. The University property is now valued above $5,000,000.

Of the forty-six buildings now built or building, there were five in existence in 1800: -- Massachusetts and Hollis, the chief dormitories; Wadsworth house, the residence of the presidents; Harvard Hall, in which was a chapel, library, and dining room; and Holden Chapel. The library in Harvard Hall contained over 12,000 volumes; there are now over 530,000 in Gore Hall. The first Stoughton was in front of what is now the Johnston Gate.

The first catalogue of Harvard University was published in 1803 on one sheet of paper, and, although Harvard was called a University, its catalogue made no distinction between the students of the two departments, academic and medical, which then existed. There were 65 men in the Senior, 61 in the Junior, 50 in the Sophomore, and 57 in the Freshman class. Twenty-five men were from Boston. St. John, N. B., Virginia, and South Carolina were the most distant localities represented.

The religion, beliefs and practices of the College in 1800 were in a chaotic state. Among the students religious feeling was weak and compulsory chapel was enforced by lines. Among the authorities there was a radical movement toward Unitarianism.

Student societies were just then becoming very popular. The most prosperous were the Institute of 1770, the Phi Beta Kappa, and the Speaking Club which were literary societies, the Adelphi which was a religious union, and the Percellian and Hasty Pudding Clubs. There was not much intercourse between classes, although a strong class spirit existed. The students did not, moreover, have the friendly relations with their instructors which exist today, owing to the extreme system of discipline which then existed. The most minute rules governed the every day life of a student. To denote his class he was obliged to wear a uniform which was of a certain color and style with different numbers of frogs on the cuffs. In addition, he could not go through the Yard with his hat on. The results were rebellions, when brickbats were thrown, windows broken, and proctors' lives endangered. A Yard police force was thereupon established which the students put to confusion by building fires in the Yard.

As Boston could be reached only by a long walk, students rarely attended social parties, and then did not mingle with Cambridge people. The principle intellectual interest was the study of Shakespeare, and one of the strongest influences in College life was school teaching. Systematic exercise of any kind was not instituted until twenty-five years later.

About this time (1803) the authorities raised the standard of admission, and required examinations in Dalzel's "Collectanea Graeca Minora," the Greek Testament, Virgil, Sallust and Cicero, with a knowledge of Greek and Latin grammars. The candidates had to be well versed in geography and arithmetic.