From collection Creating Acadia National Park: The George B. Dorr Research Archive of Ronald H. Epp

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Harvard University-Emerson Hall 1901-1902
Harvard University :
Emerson Hall id 1901-1902
may 30 - Dictafler
Philasophy
We returned from Europe in the fall of 1878,
after a stay of four years.
That autumn we came
down to Bar Harbor and chose the sito for our Oldfarm
Home upon land my father had already purchased and
planned upon our return to build upon. A new life
began for us all, centering round this home out of
which sprang the National Park and much besides.
Living for four years abroad in the midst of historio
scenes and reading much with my father about the human
interests connected with them, I came back with a
mind full of questions as to the whys and wherefores
and bent toward the study of philosophy. But my aim
was practical; not the study of dialectics and past
systems of thought leading nowhere but to got light
on human hature and the problems of existance.
Reading
along these lines, I became a member of the Harvard
Alumni Visiting Committee on the department of
touch
philosophy which brought me into/with the work that
was being done there and the men who were doing it.
William James's father had been an old family friend
and W1111am and Henry had been familiar figures at
our house while I was growing up; John Fisko I know
through my aunt, my-father's sister, who had sent
abroad when I was a boy to get a first hand knowledge
of Herbert Spencer and the new philosophy; and Josiah
Royce was giving lectures on Spinoza and I arranged
to read with him privately and talk Spinoza system
over which had raised many questions in my mind and
led me far baok into the Middle Ages for its origin.
The Visiting Committee on philosophy at the time
I went an it WK8 an interesting one, no less than the
Faculty. Brooks Adams, younger brother of Charles
Frances and Henry, was its chairman and its members
all were really interesting both in the subject and
the work. I stayed on the Visiting Committee for
years and presently became its Chairman, taking part
as such in the raising a fund for experimental sp
psychology, a new subject then, and ultimately in the
building of a hall for philosophy, which
hitherto had been housed about the yard as space could
be found for it and lecture hours fitted in with
lectures upon other subjects.
Education, a new subject then in Academic circles,
***/ was given place by President Elliot
till independent standing could be gigen it, in the
department of philosophy. And this brought me into
contact with the work that was being done to raise
Hall
3.
its standard and with its teacher, Prof. Hanus, who
had many troubles.
One evening in
, Prof.
Royce came in to see me at our home in Boston to toll
me of difficulties he had got into over the building
of a new house on land he had purchased alongside of
William James on Irving place, part of the old Norton
property at Shady Hill which had been recently opened
for
development. The building of the house then
well under way was coating much more than he anticipated
and he had no funds to meet the additional expense.
What X66 was he to do about it. I took it under
consideration and told my mother, who offered a very
practical solution; sek she would organisw some lectures
for him on the history of philosophy, its men and problems,
to be given in different private houses in Boston, the
sponsoring by whose owners of them would give them
standing and command attention.
It was an admirable
sohome providing means if it succeeded for Prof. Royoe
to meet its obligations without borrowing and the burden
of an idebtedness hanging over him.
For a brief
moment he questioned; could he give such a course of
lectures and make them popular without lowering the
dignity of his subject.- Philosophy.
The houses
The houses were obtained, the tickets sold, Royce
wrote his lectures and the whole went off with much
ocal.
Another course was organized for the
following autumn, followed by yet another in New York.
The lectures were put into book form and published,
and the book was dedicated gratefully to my mother,
she had solved his problem.
After that he used
to come down and stay with us at Oldfarm with other
friends each summer that he could get away, having
long talks with my mother and widening his horizon.
Professor Royce, a born philosopher, was a
remarkable man. Born in a mining town among the
mountains of California, he worked his way along
through the University of California, were Prof.
LaConto befriended him and thence went out to
Germany to study philosophy, getting a place as
instructor at Harvard on his retunn, had a quaint
and homely personality.
He had a head like Socrates,
a slow, drawling speech, and a gift of humor all his
own. His memory was remarkable. I remember
one night when we were returning home after dining
out, in my little open buckboard and were passing
a meadow lit by a misty, waning moon, he started
in his slow drawling utterance quoting what I had
5.
what I had never ohanced to have read or heard before,
Edgar Allen Poe's poom
Walname
which
just fitted the hour and the scene and which he quoted
from beginning to end without the loss of a word ---
(find the poom) Mr. Dorr make quotation.
J
I rember his once telling me speaking of the
limitation to the imagination to things one has seen
or experienced, that born as he was in the little
mining town among the mountains of California and
knowing no other scene he had road of the ocean
and longed to see it. Ho dreamed of it but never
in his dreams could he picture it as other than a
big miner's pond.
Big he could make it but it
had to be no other than what he knew.
He loved
musio of the symphonic type, understanding how it
was built up, and he loved Browning who combined
poetry with religion and philosophic speculation.
One morning, when our house was full at Oldfarm,
he came down to breakfast from the cottage on the
hill where we kept rooms open always to overflow
into, complained bitterly that Dr. Hodgdon, in a
boisterous and
mood, and
had made themselves so disagreeable about - I forget
precisely what now - some favorite poem of poet of
his that he was going home.
He would not stand
it! But breakfast over he was feeling better and by
noon had forgotten it - which shows philosophers
too are but human after all.
No had a very interesting group of younger people
- friends of my own - who came to stay with us every
summer in those days, climbing the mountains and going
off on all-day tramps, with older people mingled and
ever enchanging group, bringing now thought and interests.
And we. kept open house without formality//
no
dinner parties,but teas and suppers only and no dress
suit, no tolophone as yet, nor electric lights, my mother
still the center of it all until the last, interested
in the younger generation, interested in people.
her face was turned always to the sunrise, hot to the
setting.
My father had passed on the winter following
our return from Egypt, along with Bishop Brooks, the
greatest preacher I have over heard who left all
dootrine behind to ? to the heart of things, And
our friend and neighbor, Col. John Markoo of Philadelphia,
18ap
a very gallent gentleman and soldier of the Civil
Wtr. Those were the closing years of a period
that went back with little outward change to the
end of the Civil
Max,
the
water
was
flowing
fast the while beneath the bridge and a new world
was in the making.
In 1897 or thereabouts I got a pamphlet from
a younger friend of mine at Harvard, Thoodore William
Richards, a chemist of the now school which mingled
experimental
higher
px1 older/chemistry with/mathematics, outlining a
new idea of his, a continuously pulsating Atom which
I read, so far as I could follow%ve/ it with interest
and went to talk it over with him.
It had won him
famo, I learned, and the offer of a chair one of the
Bamous old Universities of Germany which he was at
that time considering the acceptance of though Harvard
hold him, but the offer of a full professorship the
atom of the older schoolof ohomists had always been
a mystery to me and I was interested.
His atom
I Bound was a certain portion of space defined by the
possesssion of certain characteristic energy -- for
this was still the time when men conceived the world
as made op of distinot, indestructible elements.
What makes your atom expand?, I said,
'The self-
repulsion of the space within it', he answered.
"And what makes it contract?", I asked. 'The
kick-back of external space, he answered, resisting
the expansion.
Then somewhere in space, I said,
there must be a point of resistance equal to the force
of expansion
'Yes, I he said, 'but that
you can place as far off as you will. "It
means
however, that a stream of energy, incaluably straight,
is always going out into space and never returning. "
It does, I he said, I but that dows not enter into my
calculation.
For them all I need is mathematical
space, space that I can deal with after the method
of
geometry
S
Frankly, I have no use
for matter. 1 I cannot imagine it in itself but
only by its action upon other similar source-points
of energy.
Give me a point to work from, lines
for measurement and an
equation and I
have all I want.'
This, cradely stated, was the
substance of his theody and it was a theory that
worked so well that it brought him honor and advancement
but it was not long afterward that the new roantgen rays
were discovered and stop by step the old atomic theory
gave way before now theories of matter, equally incom-
prehensible reducced all to motion but cannot tell what
it is that moves, or why or how.
This is now nearly
forty years ago and the mystory only deepons. More
9.
than ever it is wise xp not to
dognutiye
Our
knowledge is founded on our senses and our senses
tell us only about things that have been useful to
man, his preservation and development to the point
he has now obtained. We are in the presence of
forces that we cannot estimate, and of others
which
doubtless we are yet unconscious of / Nonetheless
make part of ourselves and our environment.
Faith, the evidence of things unseen, tolla us
nothing surely about facts; about principals I
feel it does toll pt us of eternal truth and that
on it we can surely build.
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Author : Harvard University.
Title : Subscriptions records: subscription for Emerson Hall, 1901-1905 (inclusive).
Locations/Orders : Availability
Location : Harvard Archives
i UAI15.1380 Holdings Availability
Description : 1 container
Summary : Consists of letters to George B Dorr relating to the subscription for Emerson Hall.
Notes : Access may be restricted. Details available at the repository.
Subject : Dorr, George B. (George Bucknam), 1853-1944.
Subject : Harvard University.
Emerson Hall (Cambridge, Mass.)
Keyword Subject : Harvard University -- Fund raising.
HOLLIS Number : 001724477
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Copyright c 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College
CT285PK9E3MJV9M9TB3NXDYABDMJE5E913BHIMG6SM1VASH6HX-00357?func=fil/2/20
Amer. Landscape and Arch. Design: Harvard Bldgs
Page 1 of 7
American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920
Harvard University Buildings
Introduction
Chronology
University Life
Bibliography
Introduction (-TOP-)
Harvard University comprises a unique and diverse collection of historic buildings representing three
hundred years of architectural styles. Additionally, the University often employed prominent American
architects, including Ware & Van Brunt, Henry Hobson Richardson, Richard Morris Hunt and McKim
Mead & White. As members of Harvard, the students at the Graduate School of Design had the
benefit of the campus buildings for study and inspiration. For these reasons, the environment of
Harvard comprises a large portion of the teaching collection of the GSD. Through the lantern slide
medium, we can view the architectural history of the University as well as the past environment of the
students and faculty who lived and worked there.
Harvard Yard
They presently reached the irregular group of heterogeneous
buildings-chapels, dormitories, libraries, halls-which, scattered
among the slender trees, over a space reserved by means of a low
rustic fence, rather than enclosed (for Harvard knows nothing either
of jealousy or the dignity of high walls and guarded gateways),
constitutes the great university of Massachusetts. The yard, or
college-precinct is traversed by a number of straight little paths over
Harvard Yard
which at certain hours of the day, a thousand undergraduates with
books under their arm and youth in their step, flit from one school to another.
-Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886 (1. James, p.229)
In 1636, The Great and General Court of Massachusetts passed legislation establishing the first
university in the North American colonies. Within the next two years, the overseers of the college
bought a house and nine acres of land from among the cow yards of Cambridge (then called
Newetowne). Although Harvard University continued to grow throughout the next two hundred
years, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, most of this land originally purchased by the college
still remained unused. The entire area east of University Hall only contained a brew house, a wood
yard and outhouses. John Thorton Kirkland, president of the University from 1810-1828, was
dismayed by the state of the yard. He initiated a program to improve the area, planting lawns, laying
out paths, and adding elms and a pine grove. Despite these improvements, by the late nineteenth
century, the yard had lost favor as a place to live. Freshmen were still required to live on campus but
upperclassmen moved to private dormitories, mainly on Mt. Auburn Street. The College Yard
remained unpopular until a movement to improve the student housing in the early part of the twentieth
century. At about this time, the college also began closing itself off from Harvard Square and the
Cambridge Common. The cloistering of the Yard began with the construction of buildings all along
the perimeter of the college precinct. The segregation became most profound in 1902 when the
architectural firm, McKim, Mead and White, designed the Memorial fence to connect entrance gates
to the college and enclose the campus. (2. Morrison)
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Amer. Landscape and Arch. Design: Harvard Bldgs
Page 2 of 7
Chronology of Harvard Buildings, 1850-1920 (-TOP-)
1830/40s
1850s
1860s
1870s
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1830s/1840s
Gore Hall,1838-1841, Richard Bond (metal stacks 1878 Ware and Van Brunt)
This edifice, a diminished copy of the chapel of King's
College, at the greater Cambridge is a rich and impressive
institution; and as he stood there in the bright heated stillness,
which seemed infused with the odor of old print and old
bindings, and looked up into the high, light vaults that hung
over quiet book laden galleries, alcoves and tables, and glazed
Gore Hall
cases where rarer treasures gleamed more vaguely, over busts
of benefactors and portraits of worthies, bowed heads of working students and the
gentle creek of passing messengers
-Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886 (3. James, p.230)
Gore Hall, the college library from 1838-1913, was for years the symbol of Harvard University,
and remains on the seal of the city of Cambridge. It was modeled on the fifteenth century King's
College Chapel in Cambridge, England and was the first building at Harvard to be used solely as
a library. In 1764, a fire had destroyed 5,000 of Harvard's books, almost the entire collection of
the University. For this reason, the designers were greatly concerned with minimizing the threat
of fire. Only one furnace heated the entire structure and no artificial light was used in the library
until the invention of the electric lamp. Due to the problems of illumination and heat, the Library
closed each day as soon as night fell. As a further measure against fire, Gore Hall was the first
library to contain metal stacks, which were housed in an addition designed by Ware and Van
Brunt in 1874. Despite the added wing, the college collections outgrew the building by 1913,
when Gore Hall was demolished to make room for Widener Library.
1850s
The two most notable buildings from this decade are both the work of the German architect
Paul Shulze. They were unusual as Harvard buildings for that time because of their use of stone
rather than the traditional brick. They also deviated stylistically from the eighteenth century
Georgian buildings.
Built in 1856 in a combination of Romanesque and Colonial styles,
Appleton Chapel stood out in the yard as the only sandstone
building. It was funded by a donation from Samuel Appleton of
Boston and served for the college religious services until it was
demolished and replaced by Memorial Chapel in 1931.
Appleton Chapel, 1856,
Paul Schulze
Constructed one year after Appleton Chapel, Boylston was also
made of stone rather than brick, although in this case the designers
used granite. The building was financed with a bequest from Ward
Nicholas Boylston of Boston and was the first building at Harvard
built expressly for the sciences. It served as a chemistry and physics
laboratory, and as a museum of anatomy, anthropology and
mineralogy. In 1871 it was altered with the addition of a third story
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Amer. Landscape and Arch. Design: Harvard Bldgs
Page 3 of 7
Boylston Hall, 1857, Paul
housed within a mansard roof.
Schulze
1860s
The 1860s saw great changes at Harvard, both architecturally and educationally. Charles Eliot,
University President from 1869-1909, not only liberalized the curriculum, but also encouraged
funding for new university facilities and buildings. His era left the most visible stamp upon the
architecture of the college.
He thought there was rather too much brick about it, but it was buttressed,
cloistered, turreted, dedicated, superscribed, as he had never seen anything; though
it didn't look old, it looked significant; it covered a large area, and it sprang
majestic into the winter air. It was detached from the rest of the collegiate group,
and it stood in a grassy triangle of its own. They went up the low steps and
passed into the tall doors. The Memorial Hall of Harvard consists of three main
divisions: one of them a theater, for academic ceremonies; another a vast refectory,
covered with a timbered roof, hung about with portraits and lighted by stained
windows, like the halls of the colleges of Oxford; and the third, the most
interesting, a chamber high, dim and severe, consecrated to the sons of the
university who fell in the long Civil War.
Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886 (4. James, p.231-2)
Memorial Hall(view 1,vie2,vie 3)
During the late 1860s, the architectural firm, Ware & Van Brunt, designed two important
additions to the campus. Their most impressive work is Memorial Hall, built to commemorate
the students of Harvard who lost their lives during the American Civil War. Sitting on the Delta
north of the Yard, the monumental edifice was built in the Ruskonian Gothic style. It was
restored in the 1970s and remains much like it was originally intended, although without the
clock tower that was destroyed by fire in 1956.
Weld Hall, 1870, Ware & Van Brunt
The second Ware & Van Brunt building on the Harvard Campus is a
dormitory built in 1870. It was a gift of William Fletcher Weld in
memory of his brother Stephen Minot Weld. Weld Hall represents a
new trend toward picturesque silhouettes that became important to
American domestic architecture of the later nineteenth century, and
can be seen in the Queen Anne style, which was popular during the
Weld Hall
same period. (5. Bunting)
1870s
Sever Hall, 1878, H.H. Richardson
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4/18/2003
Amer. Landscape and Arch. Design: Harvard Bldgs
Page 4 of 7
Henry Hobson Richardson graduated from Harvard in 1859. He
studied at the Ecole Beaux Arts before returning to New England as
an architect. He designed two buildings for his undergraduate
college during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Sever Hall, begun in
833
1878, was built to house new classrooms.
Sever Hall
1880s
Austin Hall, 1881-1884, H.H. Richardson
Austin Hall, a Richardsonian Romanesque building replaced Dane
Hall as the building for Harvard's Law School. It was funded with a
gift from Edward Austin and given in memory of his brother, Samuel
Austin.
Austin Hall
1890s
Hunt Hall, 1893, R.M. Hunt
The old Fogg Museum was the first building to house and display
Harvard's art collections. It's name was changed to that of its
architect, Richard Morris Hunt, when the University's collections
were moved to new buildings in 1926. Hunt Hall housed the
Graduate School of Design from 1928-1969. It was demolished in
1973 to make space for a new dormitory.
Hunt Hall
1900s
Gates/Memorial Fence, 1901-1930, McKim, Mead & White
The architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White designed a number
of important structures at Harvard during the first years of the
twentieth century. Beginning in 1901, they designed the Memorial
Fence that encloses and defines Harvard Yard. The fence connected
pre-existing gateways and included new ones. The cost of the
structure was covered by alumni donations, the class years of which
Gates/Memorial Fence
decorate sections of the fence. Johnson Gate, also designed by
McKim, Mead & White in 1890, was the most elaborate of these
gates. Leading between Harvard and Massachusetts Halls, it serves as the main entrance to the
college.
Stadium, 1902, McKim, Mead & White
The Harvard Stadium, designed by Charles McKim and George
Bruno de Gersdorff, was erected in 1902-03, across the Charles
River on Soldier's Field Road. It was notable as the largest
reinforced concrete structure of its time. The stadium's appearance
was meant to evoke the ideal of classical amphitheaters and Stadia.
The Harvard Classics department capitalized upon this connection in
Harvard Stadium
1906 when they used the stadium for their production of Aeschylus'
Agamemnon. (6. Bunting)
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Record 1 out of 1
Author : Harvard University.
Title : Subscriptions records: subscription for Emerson Hall, 1901-1905 (inclusive).
Locations/Orders : Availability
Location : Harvard Archives
i
UAI15.1380 Holdings Availability
Description : 1 container
Summary : Consists of letters to George B. Dorr relating to the subscription for Emerson Hall.
Notes : Access may be restricted. Details available at the repository.
Subject : Dorr, George B. (George Bucknam), 1853-1944.
Subject : Harvard University.
Emerson Hall (Cambridge, Mass.)
Keyword Subject : Harvard University -- Fund raising.
HOLLIS Number : 001724477
SEARCH: FULL CATALOG
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Copyright © 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College
/ET285PK9E3MJV9M9TB3NXDYABDMJE5E913BHIMG6SM1VASH6HX-00357?func=ful/2/2004
2 Berkeley St. Cambridge:
Fer. 14, 6902 .
Dear th. Dorr:
/ queatly fear that
I shall be wath to attend the meet
in in behalf of Hall this
afternoon
That this community and th which a
will all to it that
fitting Country, mammal is nased Lamer
Ca's freahest seen, post and uplifte,
there can be no doubt. No other
Country has produced in one century
a Emerson and a Luicolus.
Very try gums,
S.B.Dorn Ey
[ww. Thayer]
5/10/2020
Learned Hand - Wikipedia
WIKIPEDIA
See also: The Tercentenary of Harvard
Learned Hand
College, Halp., 1937. Pp. 233-238
Billings Learned Hand (/'l3:rnid/; January 27, 1872 - August 18, 1961)
Learned Hand
was an American judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the United
States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Hand has been quoted
more often by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States
than any other lower-court judge. [1]
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Hand majored in philosophy at
Harvard College and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. After
a short career as a lawyer in Albany and New York City, he was appointed at
the age of 37 as a Federal District Judge in Manhattan in 1909. The profession
suited his detached and open-minded temperament, and his decisions soon
won him a reputation for craftsmanship and authority. Between 1909 and
1914, under the influence of Herbert Croly's social theories, Hand supported
New Nationalism. He ran unsuccessfully as the Progressive Party's candidate
for Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1913, but withdrew from
active politics shortly afterwards. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge
promoted Hand to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which he went
Senior Judge of the United States
on to lead as the Senior Circuit Judge (later retitled Chief Judge) from 1939
Court of Appeals for the Second
until his semi-retirement in 1951. Scholars have recognized the Second Circuit
Circuit
under Hand as one of the finest appeals courts in the country's history.
In office
Friends and admirers often lobbied for Hand's promotion to the Supreme
June 1, 1951 - August 18, 1961
Court, but circumstances and his political past conspired against his
Chief Judge of the United States
appointment.
Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit
Hand possessed a gift for the English language, and his writings are admired
as legal literature. [2] He rose to fame outside the legal profession in 1944
In office
during World War II after giving a short address in Central Park that struck a
September 1, 1948 - June 1, 1951
popular chord in its appeal for tolerance. During a period when a hysterical
Preceded by Office established
fear of subversion divided the nation, Hand was viewed as a liberal defender
Succeeded by Thomas Walter
of civil liberties. A collection of Hand's papers and addresses, published in
Swan
1952 as The Spirit of Liberty, sold well and won him new admirers. Even after
he criticized the civil-rights activism of the 1950s Warren Court, Hand
Judge of the United States Court
retained his popularity.
of Appeals for the Second Circuit
In office
Hand is also remembered as a pioneer of modern approaches to statutory
December 20, 1924 - June 1, 1951
interpretation. His decisions in specialist fields, such as patents, torts,
Appointed by
Calvin Coolidge
admiralty law, and antitrust law, set lasting standards for craftsmanship and
clarity. On constitutional matters, he was both a political progressive and an
Preceded by
Julius Marshuetz
advocate of judicial restraint. He believed in the protection of free speech and
Mayer
in bold legislation to address social and economic problems. He argued that
Succeeded by Harold Medina
the United States Constitution does not empower courts to overrule the
Judge of the United States District
legislation of elected bodies, except in extreme circumstances. Instead, he
Court for the Southern District of
advocated the "combination of toleration and imagination that to me is the
New York
epitome of all good government". [3]
In office
April 26, 1909 - December 29, 1924
Appointed by
William Howard
Contents
Taft
Early life
Preceded by
Seat established by
35 Stat. 685
Harvard
Albany legal practice
Succeeded by Thomas D.
Thacher
Marriage and New York
LEARNED HAND,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
25 NORTH PEARL STREET.
Albany, New
Yeayr 93. Don esq
Dear sir
I am very glad that Haffruid to better
first subscriber to the proposed building for
more substantial It is a project which
sorry that my contribution could nother
Philosophy in Cambridger and Iam only
much, as I take it, to Haward and the
is very in part ant to me and would to mean
whole community which Howard
committee may be success ful in getting
influences. Vean only wish that the
Enough money to build a suitable building is
coufi dunt of being able to gro the every
Professor min studing writes one that he whole
4150000; suffose he has omer means of
knowing With his many prosprets. thanks for your mind letter of
Very sincerely yours,
breamed # and
HUA. Harvard University. Subscription Records
for Emerson Hall.
1901-1905.2
1/14/04
Harvard University Archives (HUA)
4UA
[Pusey Library]
July 14,2004
Notes.
UA I 15.1.380
Subscription Papers
Emeisn Hall - letter to G-B Dora
1901-05.
- letter of 4/28/01 -
"President Eliot is deleted c our Emecom
plan - ready to bring tup at
Conseverent:
- Wm.Jam of 5/1/03 "Dea George "is
Solicitations "My other frictives don't
bleed well." # I of 3 letters I WJ.
- Undaes Newstalig letter is scheduling
Speakers 1st the Pages, Janest
Palmer
- Oliver W. Hills 4/6/02 decides not to fork
out for th phonosoph department" nor well
he ash other to contribute to what his
not days neurous - it would lash "a
little queer."
Several letter in eay Febuu 1902 declar
attend "an merty in basely of
Ensure Hall" # schedule ta H
afternoon of Feb 1902. See
Request f William R. Theyer, 81,
Ed to of Harvard graduate
Magazum (4/25/02) to GRD
for a "report in Even Have
throughout
Chall Eliot seat check I May 103 to 6BD
"for Emerson Hall."
From gA. Peobody H. wife give $100, (5/8/03)
Paulive Show Perkins St, Janaice Plain
develop on "lla Day" $ 1,000,
letter st suppat
Photocopied letter plea 18 others in file.
HUG 300 Dorr, george B. (1874) file
has record ( my copy tad) of
4 year x understand t and
1883-89, 1889-90, 1870-91 year
of graduate work.
Also indicates S.M. (Hon.) u of Maine,
1924.
4/25/02 See originals for addition
Royce corresp. c MGWD to 6BD.
IMSU
Note: No commission
Bowder Coly Notes
in Uol 3 (1894-95)
of
6/13/05
Huward Graduates' Magazue
1896: DorriBizelno, + Dava
1897 KISTE
r. 9. p.603 (Five 10001
1898, 1900+1901
V.10 pa.649 (Few 1902)
18971599
Board of Overseers Reports
in tax,
Visiting Converttees for 1902.
W.S. Bigela
Dana, +
OA Depts.
J.B worner
For the Courses of Instructor
join Dorr.
Photosophy
G.B Dorr, R.C. Cabot,
In 1904
Same for
R.C.
1903
Joseph Lee, T.W. ward, R.H.Dana
Robbns
added.
C.
Note:-
P. Bowditch on on
Divinig School Unitz Camete-and
Peaboof Museum
596
vol. 2 1 Pg. 590- Pransel Eliot Twhilee, learch 20, 70th b-dg.
Jone, 1904.
Tab images 1853 /1869.
Committee
Note: Boesseur of.Uisitor
In 1905 Photogy ha W.R. Warren up law
T.W.Ward. Sam comn. for 1906. Sam in 1907.
vol.14 RfDec. 1905 : Facy Inge "Emersing Hell"
opposite The Solad Satisfaction nf Life,
address by c.w.slit et stoward Union,
10/3/05.
Visitors Committee: 1896-1907.
Dorn clenof 91.
X
No reports theafth
First Year reported in H.C u. Beginny of Committee?
no enderce in Dec. 97 good Seology gropyy
Report 5 W.M.Dair] '69 of GBD going
Davis, Shaler, to Smyth Forsettes, to Boutwell
in Rock mtingion
Vit 4 (1895-96) : Rg. 378. Hitty later of
Hasty Polding C. lub's Centernal,"
RP 378 - -399 Wat rel.
long on Philosoph (246-247)
is metra it facility need
llargaret Hienslerberg.
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG histure
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
Harvard University
voted work, of the gradual creation of Emerson Hall, ac-
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
count shall be given in the following chapter.
Nov. 15, 1901
My DEAR PROFESSOR MÜNSTERBERG:
Although psychology was housed in too narrow quarters,
I regret to say that I have a long standing arrange-
it was nevertheless expanding rapidly. Münsterberg, as
ment to go away this evening at seven o'clock to spend Sunday,
Director, was assisted by two especially gifted and devoted
and must miss the meeting of our Department. I need not assure
young scholars, Dr. Holt and Dr. Yerkes. Both were
you of my eager sympathy with your hopes. It is a daily in-
convenience and regret to me that I am obliged to lecture under
more than assistants: they were young friends, not only in
conditions unsuggestive of my subject and its ideals; and quite
the laboratory, but in the psychologist's house. Dr. Yerkes
beyond any personal concern I appreciate the significance for
became an expert in animal psychology and later super-
the study of Philosophy which such a building as you propose
vised the laboratory for animal psychology in Emerson
would give. Pray count on me for any possible cooperation in
Hall.
the undertaking.
Cordially yours,
That the Harvard Psychological laboratory was con-
FRANCIS G. PEABODY
sidered one of the first in the land was proved by the
frequency with which Münsterberg's advice was solicited
The plan found favor with Harvard's President and Cor-
both here and abroad. Professor Cattell, the psychologist
poration, and as early as December, 1901, President Eliot
of Columbia, asked Münsterberg's cooperation when he
wrote to Münsterberg that he might ask an architect if he
started the Journal of Psychology in 1898.
:would like to make sketches for Emerson Hall, "on the
From England, William McDougall, who became one
chance of the Department's finding money to build it."
of the greatest psychologists at Oxford and is at the time
Münsterberg spared no effort to insure this necessary
of the present writing Münsterberg's successor at Har-
condition of the enterprise. In the fall of 1901 he made a
vard, wrote to ask his "advice as to the course of study
speech in Boston in behalf of Emerson Hall and this speech
that I should follow in order to prepare myself to be a
fell on good ground. At the Harvard Commencement he
worker and teacher in experimental psychology. You are,
addressed the Alumni with a plea for his darling project.
of course, aware that in this country experimental psychol-
Professor Palmer, in the summer of 1902, made a speech in
ogy is in a very backward state, that we have but very few
the interest of Emerson Hall at the dinner of the Phi Beta
workers and very inferior laboratories. I am anxious to
Kappa, and this, too, promised to bear good fruit. In 1902
do something to remove this reproach from us and mean
a committee with George R. Dorr as Chairman and Richard
to devote myself to the advancement of this branch of
H. Dana, Dr. Richard Cabot, Joseph Lee, D. Ward and
science.
With the French psychologist Janet, Mün-
Reginald C. Robbins undertook active work in stimulating
sterberg had pleasant relations, as will be shown in con-
and gathering subscriptions. With Mr. Dorr, Münster-
nection with the Congress at Paris. But, above all, Mün-
berg was in constant communication; he himself composed
sterberg enjoyed the friendship of his colleagues at home.
a circular setting forth the needs of and plans for Emer-
In the work of the young psychologist, Arthur Pierce, and
son Hall, which was sent to the Harvard Alumni.
of the philosopher, H. Norman Gardiner, both at Smith
Of the response to these circulars, of the committee's de-
College, he took a warm interest, and especially in the ca-
74
75
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
reer of the distinguished psychologist, Mary Whiton Calkins.
and Palmer, the old cordial spirit prevailed. Here is a
Miss Calkins, it will be remembered, was anxious to study
letter from James, exiled on account of his poor health,
with Münsterberg in the Harvard laboratory. Since women
from the academic life at home.
at that time were not admitted to any department of Har-
vard, according to the decision of the President and Fel-\
OUCHY, June 18, 1900.
lows, she had been invited to work in the laboratory as a
DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
guest of the University, where she proved herself a guest
I continue to be greatly flattered at the notion of your
of distinction. When Miss Calkins had brilliantly passed
dedicating your new volume to me. My "reputation" needs
the examinations and met the requirements, the Harvard
all the contributions it can get from benevolent well-wishers,
in the present state of decay of my organism. I feel a certain
department recommended her for the degree of Doctor of
compunction, however, on the score of imperfect sympathy with
Philosophy, and Münsterberg, as her champion, tried to
some of your theoretic conclusions. The rule in dedications is
secure for her this degree which was denied to her because
that they should express either intellectual indebtedness or in-
she was a woman. His efforts failed, however, for the Cor-
dicate Geistesverwandtschaft; yet, as it turns out, there is hardly
a distinction made in your psychology and life, of which I
poration decided in the negative. There remained only the
wouldn't make a different systematic use from the what you do.
possibility that Radcliffe College, as the women's college
If, as I suppose, this book is a more technical statement of the
equivalent to Harvard, with only Harvard instructors on
theses of that one, it may find in me one of its worst enemies
its faculty, should confer the degree of philosophy on her
And how will that comport with the dedication? Can I then
criticize it openly, if the devil tempts me so to doi And if I
who had won it within the Harvard walls. Not until May,
do, won't you feel as if you had thrown a good dedication away ?
1902, when three other women had also passed their Doc-
-pearls before swine, etc. I state this frankly, because now
tor's examinations, was it decided that the Radcliffe PH.D.
is the time to make sure there shall be no misunderstandings.
was actually the form of the Harvard degree for women,
For my own part, dear M., I am as much pleased by your desire
and Münsterberg did his best to persuade Miss Calkins,
to dedicate the book to me, as I should be by the dedication-
for the most precious thing about it is the manifestation of per-
who was at that time traveling abroad, to accept her well
sonal regard. Whether the more intellectual aspect of the mat-
earned honor in this form. He wrote: "We are all very
ter ought not, however, to prevail, is a thing which I think you
anxious that you do so, as just by the cooperation of you"
ought now at the last moment to reconsider, and possibly to con-
four prominent women with you as acknowledged leader,
clude not to carry out a plan made many years ago in a less
evolved state of the cosmos, merely in order that you may remain
the new degree would command at once highest respect in
unerschutterlich consequent. You see my main object is to set
the whole academic world, certainly superior to the
you entirely free from the past, and to have you act in the light
degree or similar degrees. It will be the Harvard degree.
of purely present conditions. If then, as a new-born resolve,
Of course it is too late for correspondence. You
you still think me to be the worthiest being now living on the
must cable a word to Radcliffe; be sure and cable: "Yes!"
surface of the globe for the honor of such a dedication, in spite
of the unaccountable hardening of my heart toward many of your
Miss Calkins, however, remained firm and answered "No";
beliefs, Heaven knows I shall be gratified enough. But I shall
she would have the Harvard degree or none at all!
not be in any way made miserable, or accuse you of being a
With Münsterberg's Harvard colleagues James, Royce,
promise-breaker, if on opening the volume, I see no dedication,
76
or else some entirely unknown name! Don't write anything about
77
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
this now, but let me wait to see what I shall see!-when the
volume comes out. It will be a riddle and communicate a zest to
how natural kindness is to you and how much refreshment you
life. In any case I hope that you will succeed in getting the
always seem to derive from it I should condemn Mrs. Palmer's
proofs corrected this summer, though it will doubtless be hard
exposure of my advancing years as a cruel mistake. But I have
work. Shall you go to the Paris Congress?
no heart for condemnation after 80 much enjoyment. I can only
I much enjoyed reading the Atlantic article. I think it is
feel a tightening of ties that always have been dear and a desire to
the cleverest thing you have written 80 far, and the English
be more like the person my friends generously imagined me to be.
absolutely idiomatic. It will doubtless have a great effect. It
"You flatter me. But please continue" said the French lady.
is possible to interpret it as a document in favor of the elective
So I will say.
system: If a curriculum which so many persons condemn, can
Sincerely and gratefully yours,
produce such good results merely because it is well taught, why
G. H. PALMER
attribute such importance to the curriculum? Anything will
suffice, if only the teaching be in good hands-I must say that is
It was less than a year later that news came from Pro-
largely my own opinion.
fessor Palmer at Paris, which cast a shadow not only on
the social life at Cambridge, but on a wide circle outside-
With best regards from both of us, and wishes for a happy
German summer to you all, especially to the girls,
news of the death of Alice Freeman Palmer. As enthusi-
I am as ever
astic educator and pioneer in the field of women's collegiate
Affectionately yours,
education, as the wise and youthful President of Wellesley
WM. JAMES
College, and finally as the devoted companion of the Har-
Address: Brown, Shipley & Co., London, S. are un-
vard philosopher, she had been greatly beloved and was
certain for the next fortnight.
now mourned profoundly. To Münsterberg and his wife
A letter from Professor Palmer, as a response to a sur-
who were warm friends and admirers of Mrs. Palmer her
prise on his birthday, is characteristic.
passing meant a keen loss.
11 Quincy St.
Intimately bound up as Münsterberg was with the life
March 20
of Harvard, he was nevertheless not a "Harvard man" in
the technical sense, as he had spent his student days else-
DEAR DR. MUNSTERBERG :
I was so overwhelmed last night with what you brought
where. To remedy this circumstance, the Corporation
me that I am sure I did not adequately express my sense of
resolved to bestow upon him an honorary degree of Master
gratitude for the thought and labor that brought it all about. It
of Arts, to make him a "son of the house." So at Com-
must have been an enormous task to communicate so suddenly
mencement in June, 1901, he received this courtesy which
with all my graduate students, to arrange for obtaining their
set upon him the stamp of a "Harvard man."
photographs, and to present the results in such exquisite form.
Nothing could please me more. And I am especially thankful
Although the interests of scholarship and the affairs of
that no gift from you, my colleagues, was attempted. And yet
Harvard in particular absorbed the greater part of Müns-
it makes me sore to think that this work should have fallen on
terberg's day, his sympathies extended beyond the aca-
you, just when you should have been resting yourself after the
demic pale. One friendship he valued especially at this
toils undertaken in another public interest. If I did not know
78
time and drew from it great inspiration-friendship with
79
7/17/2017
In the early years of this century, Harvard
Yard boasted probably as distinguished a
Harvard Yard in the Golden Age
group of great teachers and renowned
thinkers as have ever been seen at any
university before or since. In a series of
sharp, incisive portraits which recapture
the nostalgic flavor of that golden era at
Harvard, Rollo Walter Brown tells the
story of these famous educators.
Here are President Eliot, first to intro-
ducc "electives" to the college curriculum;
ROLLO WALTER BROWN
William James, profound thinker and
popular toucher; "Copey," beloved by all
Harvard men for his famous readings;
George Santayana, noted for his elegance
and grace of both thought and expression;
George P. Baker and his renowned "47
Workshop"; George Lyman Kittredge,
one of the world's leading Shakespearean
scholars and a character of awe-inspiring
neademic dignity and reputation. Dean
Briggs, Josiah Royce, Hugo Munsterberg,
Charles Eliot Norton, George Herbert
Palmer, and Professor Nathaniel Shaler
are other outstanding figures to come
alive in the pages of HARVARD YARD IN THE
GOLDEN AGE.
To these men we owe much of our eul-
tural heritage. Rollo Walter Brown, who
knew this galaxy of brilliant men person-
ally, has written a mellow and rewarding
CURRENT BOOKS, INC.
A. A. WYN, PUBLISHER
book.
NEW YORK
1948
the
Mersonal
Shop
THE RISE OF
AMERICAN
PHILOSOPHY
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
1860-1930
Bruce Kuklick
rvard philosophers about 1908. Left to right: Josiah Royce, Hugo Münsterberg,
I lerbert Palmer, William James. This photograph was made by Winifred Rieber
ration for a portrait she was to do of the four men. The portrait-of three
hers-is now on display in Emerson Hall. There is no truth to the legend that
berg was "painted out" of the portrait. When the artist would not put him
ter, as Münsterberg desired for "aesthetic reasons," the painting was done without
: the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, vol. 58, no. 9 (18 February 1950), p. 384.
New Haven and London
Yale University Press
1977
CONTENTS
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
X
PART 1: SCOTTISH REALISM AND THE EVOLUTIONARY
CONTROVERSY
1. Currents of Thought in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge
2. Francis Bowen and Unitarian Orthodoxy
2
3. Amateur Philosophizing
4
4. Chauncey Wright: Defender of Science and of Religion
6
5. Fiske and Abbot: Professorial Failures
8
6. Charles Sanders Peirce
10
PART 2: THE GOLDEN AGE AT HARVARD (I)
12
7. Philosophy Rejuvenated, 1869-1889
12
8. Royce and the Argument for the Absolute, 1875-1892
14
9. William James: The Psychologist as Philosopher, 1869-1889 15
10. Psychology at Harvard, 1890-1900
18
11. Hugo Münsterberg
19
12. George Herbert Palmer and Self-Realization Ethics at
Harvard
21
PART 3: THE GOLDEN AGE AT HARVARD (II)
22
13. Building a Graduate School, 1890-1912
23
14. James, Royce, and Pragmatism, 1898-1907
25
15. The Battle of the Absolute, 1899-1910
27
16. James and Royce: Public Philosophy, 1902-1912
29
1x
N
3
Contents
THE RISE OF AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
17. Jamesean Metaphysics, 1904-1910
315
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 1860-1930
18. Ralph Perry and Nco-Realism
338
BRUCE KUKLICK
19, George Santayana
351
20, Royce's Later Work: Logic, Pluralism, and The Problem
The 1978 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award for studies of the intellectual
of Christianity
370
and cultural condition of man was given to Bruce Kuklick for The Rise of
American Philosophy. Of it the Award Committee stated: "This splendid
PART 4: HARVARD PHILOSOPHY AT MID-CAREER
403
book analyzes, in a clear and graceful manner, the changing conceptions
21. The Crisis of 1912-1920
of American philosophy during a period in which academic philosophy in
405
the United States came almost to be equated with Harvard. It is a superb
22. Edwin Bissell Holt and Philosophical Behaviorism
417
piece of intellectual history in which basic philosophic ideas are spelled
23. Philosophers at War
435
out and analyzed. Furthermore, the book goes beyond a concern with
ideas to an inquiry into the societal, and particularly the academic, con-
PART 5: PHILOSOPHY AS A PROFESSION
text from which they emerged."
449
24. The Professional Mentality, 1920-1930
"Kuklick has inquired into the files of private correspondence of Har-
451
vard's philosophers and traced their enthusiasms, animosities, and
25. Ernest Hocking
481
philosophical careers from the post-Civil War years through the post-
26. Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1875-1926
496
World War I era. His book is probably the most thorough history of an
27. Alfred North Whitehead
American academic department that has ever been written."-Lewis S.
516
28. Clarence Lewis
Feuer, The Chronicle of Higher Education
533
"Absolutely first class.
It is a fascinating book, for the ideas them-
Conclusion: The Triumph of Professionalism
565
selves, for its extraordinary figures (Peirce, James, Royce, Whitehead,
C.I. Lewis), but most of all for the story it tells."-The New Republic
Appendixes
573
"One of the more analytically rigorous, historically sensitive, and well-
1. The Separation of History and Philosophy
integrated books ever addressed to American philosophy."~-Journal - of
575
American History
2. Harvard Philosophy after Lewis
577
Bruce Kuklick is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania
3. Harvard Doctorates in Philosophy
581
and editor of the American Quarterly.
4. Women Philosophers at Harvard
590
Notes
595
Key to Citations and Abbreviations
596
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
ammay on Sources
639
ndex
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
653
Front cover: The Harvard Department of Philosophy in 1929. Front row, left to right:
Ralph Perry, Alfred North Whitehead, James Houghton Woods, James W. Miller
(instructor), John Wild (instructor), Henry Sheffer. Back row, left to right: Clarence
Lewis, Kerby Sinclair Miller (instructor), Ralph M. Blake (visitor), Ralph Eaton, Ernest
Hocking.
ISBN 0-300-02413-4
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
as the tide receded and where the great surf thundered and
little white caps tumbled in sport. Of this walk he never
tired and he came to be a familiar figure against the de-
CHAPTER VII
serted stretch of beach, pacing slowly, in deep thought.
Though he preferred solitude during his walks, peopled as
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
it was with a throng of ideas, he was nevertheless a gay
(October, 1899-1902)
companion to his family. The landscape painting of his
wife he followed with critical judgment and took a whole-
MÜNSTERBERG was made Chairman of the Philosophical
souled interest in his children's work and play. While
Department at Harvard. This office exacted many labor-
they were not yet in their teens, he read to them history,
ious administrative duties, but he discharged them with
poetry, and plays. Many quiet summer evenings especially
energy and enthusiasm, for he had the life and growth of
were given over to thrilling historical dramas.
the Department much at heart. The work of the Psycho-
It was in the summer, in this happy seclusion, that his
logical Laboratory went on under his direction in the rather
imagination once more peopled the sea with mermaids and
inadequate quarters of the little building called Dane Hall,
the shore with legendary folk, such as he had known in his
now no longer in existence. Lectures on philosophy and
childhood. In the summer of 1898 he wrote a play in verse,
psychology were given in halls in the Harvard yard that
wrote it actually on the beach, to the rhythm of the surf.
harbored lectures on all subjects. More and more the
The setting of the play is mediaval and fantastic, a fairy-
need arose for philosophy and its kindred studies to have
tale, but the theme, symbolical rather than allegorical, be-
a house of their own. No one was more eager to see this
trays the philosopher behind the poet.
desire fulfilled than Münsterberg, who together with the
To those who think of the psychologist as one who
other members of the Philosophical Department began in
habitually dissects the souls of his fellow men, it may be
the academic year 1900-1901 to arouse interest among pos-
said that in his private life Munsterberg, though always
sible donors for the erection of a house devoted to philoso-
the philosopher, was far more poet than scientist. In
phy. This building, to his mind, was to be not merely a
friendly intercourse he left psychology behind, and his in-
convenient shelter for various professors of philosophy and
terpretation of human motives often bordered on the ro-
their classes, it should be more-nothing less than an out-
mantic.¹
ward symbol of the inner unity of all philosophical studies.
1 For literature written during the period covered by this chap-
Gathered under one roof, the logician and metaphysician;
ter see Appendix, pages 308-316.
the teachers of ethics and of asthetics should have their
quiet, secluded studies as well as lecture rooms, the psy-
chologist should have his laboratory, the scholar in Christ-
ian ethics and sociology the facilities that suited his needs;
and each and all should feel that, however diversified their
separate pursuits, they were nevertheless all servants of
Philosophy. Professor George Herbert Palmer suggested
69
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
that this house commemorate some tradition peculiar to
Harvard and New England. Who other than the Sage of
Concord, whose hundredth birthday was near, could aptly
characterize the New England tradition and give an appro-
priate name to the home of philosophy at Harvard! So he
proposed to name the desired building Ralph Waldo Emer-
son Hall.
The need of such a hall was expressed in a letter from
Münsterberg as Chairman of the Philosophical Depart-
ment to the Visiting Committee. This was in part:
To the Visiting Committee of the Philosophical
Division in Harvard University
GENTLEMEN
The philosophical work in Harvard has in the last twenty years
gone through an inner development which has met with a hearty
response alike on the part of the University and of the students.
The students have attended the courses in constantly growing
numbers, the Governing Boards have provided the Division amply
with new teachers, steadily increasing the number of professors,
instructors, and assistants. The outer growth of the Division has
corresponded thus most fortunately to the internal development,
by an harmonious cooperation of the administration, the teachers,
and the students of the University. And yet there remains one
other factor as an essential condition for the healthy life of the
department, a factor which cannot be provided by the University
itself and for which the help must come from without. Our
work needs a dignified home where under one roof all the varied
philosophical work now carried on. at Harvard may be united.
The need has been urgently felt for many years, but only with
the recent growth has the situation become intolerable. It is
therefore tbe unanimous opinion of the department that we must
ask the public for the funds to build at Harvard a "School of
Philosophy," in the interest of the students and of the teachers,
in the interest of the department and of the University, in the
interest of culture and of scholarship.
The present work of the Philosophical Division can be indicated
by a few figures. It is easy of course at once to say that the
truth of a metaphysical thought does not depend upon the room
70
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
in which it is taught, and that the philosopher is not like a
physicist or chemist dependent upon outer equipments. But this
is but half true and the half of the statement which is false is
of great importance.
The dependence upon outer conditions is perhaps clearest in
the case of psychology which has been for the last twenty-five
years an objective science with all the paraphernalia of an ex-
perimental study: the psychologist of to-day no less than the
physicist needs a well equipped laboratory. Harvard has given
the fullest acknowledgment to this modern demand and has spent
large sums to provide the university with the instruments of an
excellent psychological laboratory; the one thing which we miss
is room, simply elbowroom.
Thus what we need is clear. We need a worthy monumental
building at a quiet central spot of the Harvard yard,
Such a home would give us firstly of course the room and the
external opportunities for work on every plane, it would give us
also the dignity and the repose, the unity and the comradeship of
a philosophical academy. It would give us the inspiration result-
ing from the mutual assistance of the different parts of philos-
ophy, which in spite of their apparent separation are still to-day
parts of one philosophy only. All this would henefit the students
of philosophy themselves, but not less good would come to the
University as a whole. The specialization of our age has brought
it about that in the organization of a university even philosophy,
or rather, each of the philosophical branches, has become an iso-
lated study coordinated with others. The average student looks
to psychology as to physics or botany; he thinks of ethics as he
thinks of economics or history; he hears about logic as coordi-
nated with mathematics and so on. The University has some-
what lost sight of the unity of all philosophical subjects and has
above all forgotten that this united philosophy is more than one
science among other sciences, that it is indeed the central science
which alone has the power to give inner unity to the whole uni-
versity work. Every year our universities reward our most ad-
vanced young scholars of philology and history, of literature and
economics, of physics and chemistry, of mathematics and biology
with the degree of PH.D., that is of Doctor Philosophia, sym-
bolically thus expressing that all the special sciences are ulti-
mately only branches of philosophy, but the truth of this symbol
has faded away from the consciousness of the academic com-
munity. All knowledge appears there as a disconnected mass of
71
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN
A
scattered information and the fact that they all have once been
the world but that they themselves as young Americans ought to
parts of philosophy, till one after the other has been dismissed
help the growth of philosophical thought. It ought to be a Har-
from the mother arms, has been forgotten. A school of phil-
vard man-a man whose memory deserves that his name be daily
osophy as a visible unity in the midst of the yard will renew this
on the lips of our students, and whose character and whose writing
truth and thus give once more to the overwhelming multitude of
will remain a fountain of inspiration. Only one man fulfills
intellectual efforts of our university a real unity and inner con-
all these demands perfectly: Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is our
nection; the external connection of administration will be reen-
wish and hope that the new, dignified, beautiful home of philos-
forced by the inner unity of logical interdependence.
ophy may soon rise as the moral and intellectual center of Har-
vard University and that over its doors we shall see the name:
The beautiful building which we see in our minds should not be
Emerson Hall-School of Philosophy.
devoted to a single system of philosophy. In its hall we hope to
Respectfully yours,
see as greeting for every student the busts of Plato the Idealist
HUGO MUNSTERBERG,
and Aristotle the Realist, of Descartes and Spinoza, of Bacon
Chairman of the Philosophical Division
and Hobbes, of Locke and Hume and Berkeley, of Kant and
Fichte and Hegel, of Comte and Spencer, of Helmholtz and Dar-
Harvard University
win. The School of Philosophy will be wide open to all serious
March 20, 1901.
thought as indeed the members of the department to-day repre-
sent the most various opinions and convictions. This ought never
The reception of this idea may be illustrated by the
to be changed; it is the life-condition of true philosophy. Yet
response of two colleagues. Professor Norton wrote:
there is one keynote in all our work: a serious, critical, lofty
idealismi which forms the background of the whole department
and colors our teaching from the elementary introductions to the
SHADY HILL, 20 April, 1901
researches of our candidates for the doctor's degree. All the
My DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
public utterances which have come from the department in recent
I am greatly obliged to you for sending me a copy of the
years are filled with this idealism, in spite of the greatest possible
letter of the Philosophical Department to the Visiting Com-
variety of special subjects and special modes of treatment. Here
mittee. The importance of the Department in the University,
belong The Will to Believe and the Talks to Teachers by William
its present strength and success, and the pressing need of proper
James, the Noble Lectures and the Glory of the Imperfect by
accomodation for it, are set forth in the letter with convincing
George Palmer, Poetry and Religion by George Santayana, The
force and ability.
Principles of Psychology and Psychology and Life by Hugo
I trust that the desire of the Department will speedily be ful-
Münsterberg, Jesus Christ and the Social Question by Francis
filled, and that an Emerson Hall may soon be added to the great
Peabody, Educational Aims and Educational Values by Paul
Halls of instruction of the University, and be dedicated as you so
Hanus, Shaftesbury by Benjamin Rand, the Conception of God
excellently suggest on the one hundredth anniversary of Emerson's
and The World and the Individual by Josiah Royce.
birthday.
We have sought whose name might give symbolic expression
Quam venerationem illis praeceptoribus generis humani debe-
to this underlying sentiment of idealism and might thus properly
mus, a quibus tanti boni initia fluxerent.
be connected with the whole building. It cannot be a technical
These words of Seneca's which I happened to be reading to-day
philosopher. Such a name would indicate a prejudice for a
came to my mind as I read your paper.
special system of philosophy while we want above all freedom of
Very sincerely yours,
thought. It ought to be an American, to remind the young genera-
C. E. NORTON
tion that they do not live up to the hopes of the School of Phil-
osophy if they simply learn thoughts imported from other parts of
73
72
WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
5
was laid for Emerson Hall. An Emerson Memorial,
spread over the week before the anniversary, was held at
the university in the form of lectures, readings, and a ser-
CHAPTER VIII
mon. On Monday, May 18, Münsterberg spoke to a large
audience on "Emerson as a Philosopher," on the follow-
THE WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
ing Wednesday Mr. C. J. Copeland, so beloved by the stu-
dents for his eccentricities, his humor, his excellent reading
(October, 1902-October, 1905)
and his extraordinary gift for inspiring others, read from
Emerson's poetry and prose. On Friday Professor San-
THE years between October, 1902, and October, 1905,
tayana, himself a poet-philosopher, spoke on "Emerson as
which are to be chronicled in this chapter, were rich in
a Poet." On Sunday, Professor Francis Peabody preached
events, fruitful and, it may well be said, characteristic
in Appleton Chapel on "Emerson as a Religious Teacher"
years-years characteristic of Münsterberg's varied yet
and on Monday, the day of the anniversay, Dickinson Mil-
harmonious, fields of activity.
ler lectured on "Emerson as an American."
First; the interest nearest home, that is, the plan for a fit
On that day Munsterberg spoke in Concord, Massa-
habitation for his daily work and that of his colleagues
chusetts, the hallowed ground of the noblest New England
and students was growing encouragingly. By the time
tradition. The occasion was a banquet given by the his-
of the celebration of Emerson's hundredth birthday, on
toric Social Circle of Concord, about which Ralph Waldo
May 25, 1903, enough donations had been collected to
Emerson had written to a friend in December 17, 1844:
make possible the building of Emerson Hall. The gifts
ranged from Alfred J. White's $50,000 and Andrew Carne-
"Much the best society I have ever known is a club in Concord
gie's $12,000 to one and two dollars from "Lover of
called the Social Circle, consisting always of twenty-five of our
Emerson" and other enthusiasts. It was natural, of
citizens, doctor, lawyer, farmer, trader, miller, mechanic, etc.,
course, that Bostonians should be prominent on the list
solidest of men, who yield the solidest of gossip. Harvard Uni-
of contributors toward the memorial to the Sage of Con-
versity is a wafer compared to the solid land which my friends
represent."
cord. Special provision was made by Mr. White for the
equipment of the Department of Social Ethics under
Münsterberg was susceptible to the charm of Concord,
Professor Francis Peabody. Two years later, when Emer-
that gentle stronghold of idealism and veneration for the
son Hall was already built, the important gift of the
thought treasures of the past. The Colonial houses with
Robbins Library was made by Reginald C. Robbins, that
their simple dignity, the drowsy gardens, the beautiful
is, of a fund by which Emerson Hall was provided with
graveyard "Sleepy Hollow" with many honored graves,
a philosophical library, containing chiefly books on meta-
the historic houses, "The Old Manse," the "Grape Vine
physics.
Cottage" where the Alcotts used to live, the "Wayside"
On Monday, May 25, 1903, the hundredth anniversary
with the garret where Hawthorne wrote looking down on
of the Concord philosopher's birthday, the corner-stone
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90
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
a restful grove of pines-all this had an aroma quite of
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Clark, and the University of
its own.
Pennsylvania, Münsterberg was in frequent communica-
With the son of the Concord philosopher, Dr. Edward
tion. With Professor Cattell of Columbia, for whom he
Emerson, Münsterberg had a very pleasant acquaintance,
always had a high regard, his relations were most cordial.
as will be shown in the following chapter, and it was
There were various joint enterprises at that time which,
natural, of course, that Dr. Emerson should take the keen-
though they have lost their immediate importance when
est interest in the growth of Emerson Hall.
looked back upon years later, were nevertheless valuable
That the larger educated public of New England might
factors in the promotion of specialized intercourse among
understand the deeper inner relation between the new
scientific minds-intercourse that by its stimulus must
Harvard home for philosophy and the teachings of the
ultimately be fruitful of new ideas. Thus, in the spring
Concord sage, the address that Münsterberg delivered at
and summer of 1904 there was lively correspondence be-
the Harvard celebration appeared a few days later in
tween Münsterberg and colleagues from Yale and Colum-
the Boston Transcript, and was called "Emerson the Phi-
bia in regard to the best way of publishing the reports,
losopher-a Plea for a, Revival of Idealism."
hitherto too scattered, of the research work done in the
While plans were growing for the new habitation of
different American psychological laboratories, as a series
philosophy, daily work was going on in the old, narrow
of monographs under one editorship, possibly under the
quarters. Psychological problems, moreover, were often
supervision of the American Psychological Association.
carried beyond the frontiers of the University. Indeed,
Half a year earlier, in the winter of 1903-04, the Journal
the years from the winter of 1902 to the winter of 1905
of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Method was called
may well be called years of scientific congresses for Mün-
into being, of which Professor Cattell, who was widely
sterberg. Not only did the great international Congress,
experienced in the managment of scientific priodicals,
which shall be given chief attention in this chapter, ab-
was editor. In December, 1903, Professor Cattell wrote
sorb a large part of his time, energy, and enthusiasm, but
to Münsterberg:
he found it worth while also to attend the meetings of the
I am much indebted to you for your letter and for the en-
Psychological Association for several consecutive years.
couragement that you gave.
It will be a great privilege to
In December, 1902, the psychologists met at Washington;
begin the new journal with an article by you. Woodbridge and
in 1903, just before the opening of the World's Fair, at St.
I discussed your suggestion of the title "The Journal of Phi-
Louis; and in 1904, at Philadelphia. There Münsterberg
losophy and Science" and nearly adopted it. It, however, seemed
rather too inclusive, promising more than could be given. It is
delivered two lectures very different from each other, one
intended to be a trade journal for students of philosophy, psy-
of interest to specialists, on the acoustic theory, the other
chology, and the principles of science, and this is indicated by
with a broad, philosophic significance on the "System of
the title proposed.
Values" own system of philosophy, which he was con-
In the second half of the college year 1903-04 Münster-
stantly perfecting.
berg did not confine even his academic teaching to his own
With the psychologists of Yale, Columbia, Princeton,
University, but, in response to an invitation from Profes-
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of
HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
sor Cattell, gave a course of lectures on experimental psy-
representative scholars that was to take place a few months
chology at Columbia University.
later. The "Washington University Alumni Day" was
Not only the eastern universities claimed Münsterberg's
kept as part of the World's Fair festivities. The addresses
services and interest; those of the Middle West invited him,
on that afternoon were "by Hugo Münsterberg, PH.D.,
and he was eager to grow acquainted with their lives and
Professor of Psychology in Harvard University; Hon.
problems. With President James of the University of
D. R. Francis, A.B., class of '70; W. S. Chaplin, LL.D.,
Illinois he had very pleasant relations and enjoyed his
Chancellor of the University; C. M. Woodward, PH.D.,
hospitality during visits to the typical middle western col-
Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture."
lege town Champaign-Urbana, where Münsterberg also
At the commencement ceremonies in the morning, Dean
knew members of the faculty. In February, 1905, he
Woodward spoke thus:
delivered lectures at the Illinois State University and car-
ried home with him a more thorough understanding of the
MR. CHANCELLOR:
special vocation of the Western state universities with
I have the honor in behalf of my associates to present for the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, Professor Hugo Münster-
their coeducation, the prominence given to practical arts
berg of Harvard University. I do this with the greater pleasure
and studies, the limitations imposed by the state legisla-
inasmuch as he represents not only a great Nation across the sea,
tures and the advantages of vigorous, ambitious student
but a great University across our own land.
Professor Münsterberg received the degree of Doctor of Phi-
material.
losophy at Leipzie, the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Heidel-
It was in June, 1904, that Münsterberg responded to an
berg. He is thus familiar with the best that Germany has to
invitation from the University of Kansas in Lawrence,
give.
Kansas, to give the commencement address at the graduat-
For twelve years he has filled with distinguished honor the chair
ing exercises. A visit to the great prairie state attracted
of Psychology at Harvard University. As a writer he has served
the Harvard philosopher and he found it a most congenial
both continents. He has given us a truer insight and a more in-
timate knowledge of Germans and of Germany. In turn the
task to address the graduating class and the assembled
Germans and Germany are indebted to him for a better knowl-
alumni of the Western seat of learning, to join in its
edge of America and Americans. He has won an international
festivities, and to receive its hearty hospitality.
reputation as a teacher and expounder of philosophy. American
It was in the same June at St. Louis, at the animated
education and American scholarship are indebted to him for emi-
nent service.
time of the great World's Fair, that Washington Univer-
We welcome him to St. Louis to-day. This University will
sity bestowed upon Münsterberg the honorary degree of
honor itself in conferring upon him its highest title, the degree of
Doctor of Laws. That this distinction should be offered
Doctor of Laws.
him by Washington University, in the midst of the Louisi-
In order to understand the importance of Münsterberg's
ana Purchase Exposition, had for him a most gratifying
relation to the St. Louis Exposition, it is necessary to
significance, because it harmonized with and, in a certain
measure, crowned his devoted work for the supplementing
trace completely the history of the great international con-
gress of scholars in September, 1904.
and perfecting of the Exposition through the concourse of
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Emerson Hall .
West facade ( 6 Lawell, 1900)
HUA : HUV 51 (1-4).
B Bunting Harvard HUP, 1985
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Harvard University-Emerson Hall 1901-1902
Details
1901 - 1902