Harvard & Titanic Connection

#Harvard_Titanic_Connection

Living in Halifax i have been fascinated with the doomed liner story as my city played a role in the final acts of this saga.
So i went to Cambridge Massachusetts to follow up on this chapter, which is on the Wideners

 

The Wideners were based in Philadelphia who made their wealth (in the beginnings) with lucrative Civil War contracts and later into street railways, utilities, steel plus tobacco

 The family matriarch / philanthropist Eleanor survived the sinking after escaping on lifeboat No.4, while husband (George) and son (Harry) perished in the disaster
With the family in grief, it led to the construction of the Memorial Library for the rare book collection that Harvard graduate Harry had accumulated

Campus Myths
A) The Swim Test; rumor claimed that Eleanor Widener stipulated in her donation that all students must pass a swimming test before graduating, her logic was if her son had known how
 he might of survived

Not True
The actual reason; it was a real undergraduate requirement (back in the day) but nothing to do with the endowment as it was to protect crew members of the rowing team who were on the Charles River training and competing  (started in the 1880s) plus later it was formalized when the US Navy had a presence on the grounds

B) Ice Cream Clause; another story was that Mrs. Widener left additional funds to ensure that the dining halls served ice cream daily, as it was her sons favorite dessert
Not True

C) No Architectural Alterations; if a single brick is touched or the facade is changed, the ownership of the building reverts back to the Family Estate or the City of Boston.
 When the university eventually needed more room for books (as its now the largest academic library in the world) they could not build up or out because of the provisions of the contract, so they dug multiple levels of subterranean floors which created a labyrinth beneath the campus yard
So in total its ten levels ( four underground) and 92 kilometers / 57 miles of bookshelves

Not True
While the family did want the exterior structure to be maintained for its integrity of a monument, common sense said the building would / has undergone massive modern renovations to upgrade the security, technology and to safeguard the collection
So now the university maintains the classic aesthetic out of historic preservation plus respect, not because of any legal forfeiture

True
D) Fresh Flowers; the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room must perfectly replicate his home study with his 3,300 rare books (which cannot be moved) and also have fresh cut blooms that must be placed
on his desk every week 

Since i am here lets discover more history;
 First i find out the famous crimson hue associated with Harvard happened by accident, as the university did not have an official color.

It was "adopted" during the Boston City Regatta in 1858 when a student handed out red Chinese silk bandanas for the crew to wear to distinguish themselves from other teams on the river during the race
The squad won the event and the color stuck, which later it was fully recognized by
 the Harvard Corporation in 1910 

As i walk the campus i was told the main area is over 200 acres with the total being 22 sq kms
 (8.5 sq miles) that goes all the way to the Charles River
And so with this large landmass there is what they call Harvard Time; a long standing tradition to give students seven minutes extra after their scheduled time to reach their destination

This is the most visited museum on the campus with over 250,000 annually to explore the artifacts
 It was established in 1998 with three university research collections;
Comparative Zoology, Herbaria and Mineralogical / Geological 

Memorial Church
Sitting across from the Widener Library it was designed in the Georgian Revival style.
It was dedicated to the 373 Harvard men and women who died in World War 1, plus now has plaques inside to commemorate those lost in WW11, the Korean and Vietnam Wars

The university has a student body of between 21,000 to 25,000 enrolled with only 4% acceptance rate. But it does provide financial aid for undergraduates whos family earns less than $100,000
with free tuition, housing and food

Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States with 400,000 living alumni
Some of which includes 161 Nobel Laureates, 132 Pulitzer Price winners and 23 Heads of State

There is a history of US Presidents who have attended Harvard University for either their undergraduate or graduate studies

A) John Adams 1755
B) John Quincy Adams 1787
C) Rutherford B. Hayes 1869
D) Theodore Roosevelt 1880
E) Franklin D. Roosevelt 1903
F) John F. Kennedy 1940
G) George W. Bush 1975
H) Barrack Obama 1991

Helen Keller
She attended Radcliffe College (as Harvard was an all-male institution at this time, so its 'sister" place of learning) 
She was the first deaf / blind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
How this was achieved, her teacher Anne Sullivan accompanied her to classes and finger-spelled the lectures into her hand 
Then Helen typed her notes into braille plus used raised letter geometry figures to study

Harvard Finally Paid Her Recognition
In 1955 they awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, being the first they ever gave
 to a woman 

Other Firsts for Women
A) Credentialed Student; in 1917 Linda Frances James became the first woman to earn a credential when she graduated from the Harvard - MIT School for Health Officers
B) Medical School Student; Filipino pediatrician Dr. Fe del Mundo was the first to study at Harvard Medical even though the program did not officially admit women to the program until 1945
 She started in 1936 and was famously housed in a mens dormitory
C) Faculty Member; Dr. Alice Hamilton was appointed to the faculty rank in 1919 serving as an Assistant Professor of Industrial Medicine
D) Tenured; Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin became a full time professor in 1956

Some other famous female alumni;
 Margaret Atwood, Michelle Obama,
 Mary Robinson and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Old Cambridge Baptist Church
The sign of the times; the church has a 40 year lease agreement with / as a Theatre which has raised $2.5 million to help preserve the historic structure

Odd Facts
A) In 1889 a massive fire gutted one side of the building, the first person who spotted the smoke was the President of Harvard Charles Eliot who showed up with a single bucket of water
B) Post Fire rebuild included a massive and rare Tiffany stained glass window
that was installed in the facade
C) Early congregation members were runaway slaves which quickly grew into a major hub for Abolitionist, Civil Rights movements and up to present day with LGBTQ

As we leave and since this trip was about uncovering the truths,
here are a few more

A) Since there were no portraits that existed of John Harvard when it was made in 1884,
 the sculptor just used a random student as a model
B) Also he was not the founder of the University, just the first major benefactor with donating half of his estate and 400 books.
The university beginnings was formed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony
C) The statue says the first year of Harvard was in 1638, but its actually founded in 1636