MUNRO TAKES NEW GOVERNMENT CHAIR

Professor W. B. Munro has been appointed to fill the new chair created by the founding of the Jonathan Trumbull Professorship of American history and Government at the University.

The endowment of the new chair has been raised by a committee of prominent Connecticut citizens, several of whom are not Harvard graduates. A number of liberal contributors are Yale men. Various patriotic societies, including the D. A. R. and the Sons of the Revolution, assisted in the work of raising the funds needed for this memorial to the great Connecticut patriot of Revolutionary times.

Long Prominent Here

Professor Munro has been a member of the faculty since 1904. During the past 13 years he has been Professor of Municipal Government, and since 1920 has served as Chairman of the Division of History, Government and Economics. He is the author of various books on history and government which are used as texts in universities and colleges throughout the country, and was chairman of the committee appointed by Governor McCall to prepare information and data for the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917-1918.

Professor Munro is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vice-president of the National Municipal League, a trustee of the Cambridge Savings Bank, a director of the Cambridge Trust Company, and a director of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.

An Exchange of Courtesies

The Massachusetts Historical Society, of which Professor Munro is a member was indirectly responsible for the founding of the new professorship. Four years ago the Society generously offered to give the State of Connecticut a large collection of Trumbull papers which had been in its archives for more than 125 years. This act, inspired by a group of Harvard men in Massachusetts, prompted Connecticut citizens to reciprocate in the same spirit of goodwill, and the Jonathan Trumbull Professorship at the University, is the result.

Jonathan Trumbull graduated from Harvard in 1727, and rose to the governorship of Connecticut in 1769. He held this post for 14 years, throughout the Revolutionary period. Washington leaned heavily on Trumbull for both assistance and advice in the long series of emergencies and during these critical years Trumbull never failed to respond when calls were made for men or money.

Two of Jonathan Trumbull's sons came to Harvard, graduating in 1756 and 1758 respectively. One of them ranked second in his class and the other attained "the giddy height of first." In those days, however, Harvard undergraduates were not ranked according to scholarship, but in accordance with the prominence of their families.