1.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world
4.
Harvard Square
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Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street, near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term Harvard Square is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection and these residents use the Harvard station, a major MBTA Red Line subway and bus transportation hub. In an extended sense, the name Harvard Square can also refer to the neighborhood surrounding this intersection for several blocks in each direction. The nearby Cambridge Common has become an area with a playground, baseball field. The heart of Harvard Square is the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street merge from the southwest, joining Massachusetts Avenue at Ninis Corner, where another newsstand is located. The Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society main building forms the western streetwall at the intersection, along with a bank, the high pedestrian traffic makes Harvard Square a gathering place for street musicians and buskers, who must obtain a permit from the Cambridge Arts Council. Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who attended nearby Tufts University, is known to have played here during her college years, Amanda Palmer, of The Dresden Dolls, regularly performed here as a living statue. Another frequent performer over the years has been indie rock guitarist Mary Lou Lord, a small bronze statue of Doo Doo sits at the corner of Brattle and Eliot streets, in honor of Fokin and all the street performers. Until 1984, the Harvard Square stop was the terminus of the Red Line. Automobile traffic can be heavy, and parking is difficult, most of the bus lines serving the area from the north and west run through a tunnel adjacent to the subway tunnel. The tunnel also allows safer and covered access between the subway and the buses, at the center of the Square is the old Harvard Square Subway Kiosk, now a newsstand, Out of Town News, stocking newspapers and magazines from around the world. A video of it appears in clips used on CNN. A public motion art installation, Lumen Eclipse, has introduced at the Tourist Information Booth showing monthly exhibitions of local, national and international artists. The office of NPRs Car Talk radio show faces the square, with a stencil in the window that reads Dewey, Cheetham & Howe, the fictional law firm often referenced on the show. The popular show has referenced this by asking its viewers to send in answers to the Puzzler to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge, the sunken region next to the newsstand and the subway entrance is called The Pit. The overall scene was later recalled by singer songwriter Amanda Palmer as a hangout for Cool People. In the southwest area of the Square neighborhood, on Mount Auburn St, a number of other public squares dot the surrounding streets, notably Brattle Square and Winthrop Square, with a wide variety of street performers throughout the year. Brattle Street itself is home to the Brattle Theater and the American Repertory Theater, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, one block further down JFK Street, is on the bank of the Charles River
5.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
6.
Walter Benjamin
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Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School, and also maintained formative friendships with such as playwright Bertolt Brecht. He was also related by law to German political theorist Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to his cousin, Günther Anders. Among Benjamins best known works are the essays The Task of the Translator, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and Theses on the Philosophy of History. His major work as a literary critic included essays on Baudelaire, Goethe, Kafka, Kraus, Leskov, Proust, Walser, and translation theory. He also made translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaires Les Fleurs du mal. In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin committed suicide in Portbou at the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from invading Nazi forces, though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown. Benjamin and his siblings, Georg and Dora, were born to a wealthy business family of assimilated Ashkenazi Jews in the Berlin of the German Empire. He owned a number of investments in Berlin, including ice skating rinks, in 1902, ten-year-old Walter was enrolled to the Kaiser Friedrich School in Charlottenburg, he completed his secondary school studies ten years later. Here Benjamin had his first exposure to the ideas of Zionism and this exposure gave him occasion to formulate his own ideas about the meaning of Judaism. In Benjamins formulation his Jewishness meant a commitment to the furtherance of European culture, Benjamin expressed My life experience led me to this insight, the Jews represent an elite in the ranks of the spiritually active. For Judaism is to me in no sense an end in itself and this was a position that Benjamin largely held lifelong. Elected president of the Freie Studentenschaft, Benjamin wrote essays arguing for educational and general cultural change, in 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Benjamin began faithfully translating the works of the 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire. The next year,1915, he moved to Munich, and continued his schooling at the University of Munich, where he met Rainer Maria Rilke and Gershom Scholem, in that year, Benjamin wrote about the 18th-century Romantic German poet Friedrich Hölderlin. In 1917 he transferred to the University of Bern, there, he met Ernst Bloch and they had a son, Stefan Rafael. In 1919 Benjamin earned his Ph. D. cum laude with the dissertation Begriff der Kunstkritik in der Deutschen Romantik, later, unable to support himself and family, he returned to Berlin and resided with his parents. In 1921 he published the essay Kritik der Gewalt, at this time Benjamin first became socially acquainted with Leo Strauss, and Benjamin would remain an admirer of Strauss and of his work throughout his life. In 1923, when the Institut für Sozialforschung was founded, later to become home to the Frankfurt School, Benjamin published Charles Baudelaire, at that time he became acquainted with Theodor Adorno and befriended Georg Lukács, whose The Theory of the Novel much influenced him
7.
Emily Dickinson
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Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence, Dickinson was a recluse for the later years of her life. While Dickinson was a private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional rules of the time. Dickinsons poems are unique for the era in which she wrote, they contain short lines, typically lack titles, many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, a complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born at the homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10,1830, into a prominent. Her father, Edward Dickinson was a prominent lawyer in Amherst, two hundred years earlier, her patrilineal ancestors had arrived in the New World—in the Puritan Great Migration—where they prospered. Emily Dickinsons paternal grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, had almost single-handedly founded Amherst College, in 1813, he built the homestead, a large mansion on the towns Main Street, that became the focus of Dickinson family life for the better part of a century. On May 6,1828, he married Emily Norcross from Monson and they had three children, William Austin, known as Austin, Aust or Awe Emily Elizabeth Lavinia Norcross, known as Lavinia or Vinnie By all accounts, young Emily was a well-behaved girl. On an extended visit to Monson when she was two, Emilys Aunt Lavinia described Emily as perfectly well & contented—She is a good child &. Emilys aunt also noted the affinity for music and her particular talent for the piano. Dickinson attended primary school in a building on Pleasant Street. Her education was ambitiously classical for a Victorian girl and her father wanted his children well-educated and he followed their progress even while away on business. When Emily was seven, he wrote home, reminding his children to school, and learn, so as to tell me. While Emily consistently described her father in a manner, her correspondence suggests that her mother was regularly cold
8.
Stephen Jay Gould
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Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of science of his generation. Gould spent most of his teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996 Gould was also appointed as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, Goulds most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is characterized by periods of evolutionary stability. The theory was contrasted against phyletic gradualism, the idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth. Most of Goulds empirical research was based on the land snail genera Poecilozonites and he also contributed to evolutionary developmental biology, and received wide praise for his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans and he campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields whose authorities do not overlap. Gould was known by the public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine Natural History. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a Living Legend, Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a stenographer and a World War II veteran in the United States Navy. His mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the citys Garment District, when Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck, Gould once recalled and it was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist. Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion, when asked directly if he was an agnostic in Skeptic magazine, he responded, If you absolutely forced me to bet on the existence of a conventional anthropomorphic deity, of course Id bet no. But, basically, Huxley was right when he said that agnosticism is the honorable position because we really cannot know. Id be real surprised if there turned out to be a conventional God, though he had been brought up by a Marxist father, he stated that his fathers politics were very different from his own. In describing his own views, he has said they tend to the left of center. According to Gould the most influential political books he read were C. Wright Mills The Power Elite, while attending Antioch College in the early 1960s, Gould was active in the civil rights movement and often campaigned for social justice
9.
History of Harvard University
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Harvard College, around which Harvard University eventually grew, was founded 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Historically influential in national roles are the schools of medicine, law and business as well as the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Since the late 19th century Harvard has been one of the most prestigious schools in the world, its library system and financial endowment larger than those of any other. With some 17,000 Puritans migrating to New England by 1636, Harvard was founded in anticipation of the need for training clergy for the new commonwealth, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was initially called New College or the college at New Towne, in 1638 the school received a printing press—the only press in North America until Harvard acquired a second in 1659. In 1639, the college was renamed Harvard College after clergyman John Harvard, the colony charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 at the beginning of the English Interregnum. Thus, he represented a threat to the stability of society, dunster exiled himself in 1654 and moved to nearby Plymouth Colony, where he died in 1658. Because it had been illegal for the colony to establish a college Charles II rescinded the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684 by writ of scire facias, in 1692, the leading Puritan divine Increase Mather became president of Harvard. One of his acts was replacing pagan classics with books by Christian authors in ethics classes, the Harvard Lawes of 1642 and the Harvard College Laws of 1700 testify to its original high level of discipline. Harvards leadership and alumni played a role in the Salem Witch Trials 1692–93. The early motto of Harvard was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, meaning Truth for Christ, in the early classes half the graduates became ministers and ten of Harvards first twelve presidents were ministers. Systematic theological instruction was inaugurated in 1721 and by 1827 Harvard became a nucleus of theological teaching in New England, the end of Mathers presidency in 1701 marked the start of a long struggle between orthodoxy and liberalism. Harvards first secular president was John Leverett, who began his term in 1708, Leverett left the curriculum largely intact and sought to keep the College independent of the overwhelming influence of any single sect. During the American Revolution, Loyalist alumni were outnumbered seven to one by Patriots—seven alumni died in the fighting. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on his campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that one can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Between 1830 and 1870 Harvard became privatized, during this period, Harvard experienced unparalleled growth that securely placed it financially in a league of its own among American colleges
10.
John Harvard (clergyman)
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Despite a persistent myth to the contrary, John Harvard is properly considered one of the founders of Harvard College. A statue in his honor is a prominent feature of Harvard Yard, Harvard was baptised in the parish church of St Saviours and attended St Saviours Grammar School, where his father was a member of the governing body and a warden of the Parish Church. In 1625, bubonic plague reduced the family to only John, his brother Thomas. Katherine was soon remarried—firstly in 1626 to John Elletson, who died within a few months and she died in 1635, Thomas in 1637. Left with some property, Harvards mother was able to him to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1636, Harvard married Ann Sadler of Ringmer, sister of his college classmate John Sadlers, at St Michael the Archangel Church, in the parish of South Malling, Lewes, East Sussex. In 1638, a tract of land was deeded to him there and he built his house on Country Road, next to Gravel Lane, a site that is now Harvard Mall. Harvards orchard extended up the hill behind his house, on 14 September 1638, Harvard died of tuberculosis and was buried at Charlestowns Phipps Street Burying Ground. The destruction of myths is a sport, but its only justification is the establishment of truth in place of error. But if the founding is to be regarded as a rather than as a single event is clearly entitled to be considered a founder. Acknowledged the fact by bestowing his name on the College and this was almost two years before the first President took office and four years before the first students were graduated. These are all facts and it is well that they should be understood by the sons of Harvard. There is no myth to be destroyed, a figure representing him also appears in a stained-glass window in the chapel of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. The John Harvard Library in Southwark, London, is named in Harvards honor, John Harvard, St. Saviours, Southwark, and Harvard University, U. S. A. Boston, MA, Little, Brown, and Co, Harvard House The home of Katherine Rogers in Stratford-Upon-Avon Potter, Alfred Claghorn
11.
John Harvard (statue)
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There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French used a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president as inspiration. Tourists often rub the toe of John Harvards left shoe for luck, the New York Times described the work at its unveiling, The young clergyman is represented sitting, holding an open on his knee. The costume is the simple clerical garb of the seventeenth century, low shoes, long, silk hose, loose knee breeches, and a tunic belted at the waist, while a long cloak, thrown back, falls in broad, picturesque folds. I am assured that the same can be in place by June 1,1884, in looking about for a type of the early comers to our shores, he wrote, I chose a lineal descendant of them for my model in the general structure of the face. He has more of what I want than anybody I know. The commission weighed heavily on French even as the figure neared completion, I am sometimes scared by the importance of this work. As a general thing, my model looks pretty well to me, frenchs final model was ready the following May and realized in bronze by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company over the next several months. The cost was more than $20,000. The statue was installed—looking wistfully into the sky, said Harvard president Charles W. Eliot—at the western end of Memorial Hall on the triangular city block then known as the Delta. It was unveiled October 15,1884, Ellis giving a singularly felicitous address, telling the story of the life of John Harvard, who passes so mysteriously across the page of our early history. / I said to his statue. Aye, thats me, said John, / And after youre gone. It is, however, traditional for seniors, as they process to graduation exercises on Commencement Day, to remove their caps as they pass. The statue is depicted on the United States Postal Services 1986 John Harvard stamp, the monuments six-foot granite plinth is by Boston architect C. Howard Walker. The pupil of the one institution was the founder of the other, no likeness of John Harvard having been preserved, the statue. But if the founding is to be regarded as a rather than as a single event is clearly entitled to be considered a founder. Acknowledged the fact by bestowing his name on the College and these are all familiar facts and it is well that they should be understood by the sons of Harvard. They are entirely compatible with the inscription on John Harvards statue, there is no myth to be destroyed. The work became the target of pranks soon after its unveiling, in 1884 The Harvard Crimson reported that, Some ingenious persons covered the John Harvard statue last night with a coat of tar. The next day the Globe further reported that a Harvard student observing graffiti-removal efforts declared that no Harvard man ever daubed the impious phrase and he was of the opinion that a Harvard man would at least soften the profanity by varnishing it with Latin or Greek. One thought they were made by a dogs paws, and as several students kept dogs the suspicion was magnified to the importance of a clue, a student, however, told the detectives that according to his view the impressions were made by barefoot boys walking on tip-toe
12.
E. O. Wilson
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Edward Osborne Wilson, usually cited as E. O. Wilson, is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the leading expert. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. According to his autobiography Naturalist, he grew up mostly around Washington, D. C. and in the countryside around Mobile, from an early age, he was interested in natural history. His parents, Edward and Inez Wilson, divorced when he was seven, the young naturalist grew up in several cities and towns, moving around with his father and his stepmother. In the same year that his parents divorced, Wilson blinded himself in one eye in a fishing accident and he suffered for hours, but he continued fishing. He did not complain because he was anxious to stay outdoors and he did not seek medical treatment. Several months later, his right pupil clouded over with a cataract and he was admitted to Pensacola Hospital to have the lens removed. Wilson writes, in his autobiography, that the surgery was a terrifying century ordeal, Wilson was left with full sight in his left eye, with a vision of 20/10. The 20/10 vision prompted him to focus on things, I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did. Although he had lost his stereoscopy, he could see fine print. His reduced ability to observe mammals and birds led him to concentrate on insects, at nine, Wilson undertook his first expeditions at the Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. He began to collect insects and he gained a passion for butterflies and he would capture them using nets made with brooms, coat hangers, and cheesecloth bags. Going on these led to Wilsons fascination with ants. He describes in his autobiography how one day he pulled the bark of a rotting tree away, the worker ants he found were short, fat, brilliant yellow, and emitted a strong lemony odor. Wilson said the event left a vivid and lasting impression on and he also earned the Eagle Scout award and served as Nature Director of his Boy Scout summer camp. With the encouragement of Marion R. Smith, a myrmecologist from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Wilson began a survey of all the ants of Alabama. This study led him to report the first colony of ants in the US
