EARLY UNIVERSITY RULES SHOW PURITANICAL BENT

"No scholar shall go into any tavern or victualling house in Cambridge to eat and drink there, unless in the presence of his parent or guardian, without leave from the President, a professor, or a tutor ..." under pain of a 50 cent fine, thus spake the Harvard Laws of 1816, which are now being shown with other examples of student life and the regulation thereof in the basement display room of Widener.

Either the College was puritanical in those days or the local cafeterias were a far cry from the genteel Georgian and Hayes-Bick. Earlier College laws would indicate the former to be the case. For example, in 1655 students were required to"... weare modest and sober habit without strange, ruffian-like, or new-angled fashions, without lavish dresse for any excesses of aparal whatever," and they could not ".... weare long haire, locks or foretopps ..." nor indulge in the "... curling, crisping, parting or powdering their haire."

Harvard Uninspiring

The University wasn't always the imposing place it is now. In 1680 two Dutchmen stopping in Boston came out to Cambridge to see what they could see. They recorded that the College building was the salient feature of the landscape and when they approached they heard a great deal of noise. Entering it and going up stairs they found a blue haze of smoke through which could be dimly seen eight or ten students "smoking tobacco" as they put it. None of them knew any Latin, French, or Dutch, and the Dutchmen knew no English, so communication was difficult. However, they did learn that the students had no professor, there being no money to support one.

The display presents accounts of two disturbances, one in 1776 because of bad food, called the Bad Butter Rebellion and another in 1807 during which a majority of the students resigned.

Hazing Regulated in 1725

In 1725 the first regulation against the hazing of Freshmen was published. However, it did not forbid the Sophomores to acquaint the newcomers with "useful and innocent customs" of the student body.

Student vice here has remained basically unchanged during 300 years as a survey of the College regulations presented in this exhibit show. But nowadays punishments are lighter and the system of fines has nearly been abolished.