Headlines from Harvard’s history

The Carpenter Center celebrated

Illustration of Carpenter Center

1919 

Alice Hamilton is appointed assistant professor of industrial medicine, becoming the first woman to hold a professorial position at the University.

1939 

A negotiated agreement on raises ends the threat of a strike by dining hall workers, and the American Federation of Labor is recognized as their sole bargaining agent.

1944 

Between matinees at the RKO Theatre in Boston, Duke Ellington visits Harvard to discuss “Negro Music in America” before a crowd in Paine Hall, and then treats the audience to a medley that includes “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Mood Indigo.”

1959 

Radcliffe’s weekly paper, Percussion, has sponsored a fashion contest to pick the best-dressed Radcliffe girl, who will enter a national contest sponsored by a fashion magazine. Barnard and Moors Halls voted not to participate, calling the contest “against Radcliffe’s principles.”

1964 

Sixteen predominantly Negro colleges have been invited to send one student each (preferably a junior contemplating graduate study) to Harvard’s summer school on scholarships “to [enable] the students to attend a cosmopolitan, integrated university to test their ability for…and interest in” graduate work.

1974 

A $200 increase in tuition and a $125 increase in room-and-board rates raise the cost of a Harvard-Radcliffe education to $5,350.

1979 

Sixteen-year-old Carpenter Center, the only building in North America designed by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, has won a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. (The Center celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2023.)

1984 

The Business School has announced that M.B.A. students will be required to use portable IBM personal computers as part of regular class preparation, and the Expository Writing program is offering an experimental section in which the papers are written and critiqued on computers on loan from IBM.

You might also like

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

A theatrical reenactment explores a 1976 clash between science and democracy.

Until the 1950s, professionals cleaned up after students in the dorms.

Most popular

Social Media Use and Adult Depression

A survey reveals suprising links between social media use and depression in adults.

The Franklin Stove—A Historical Climate Change Adaptation

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.

Explore More From Current Issue

A vibrant illustration of a red car parked, surrounded by cheerful people and historic buildings.

Derek Bok donated his car for a good cause.

Two laboratory researchers, one seated and one standing, in a scientific lab with equipment.

The stakes are high for this husband and wife: one of them will die if they don’t find a cure.

Three hands hold smartphones displaying social media profiles with likes and hearts.

Tell us about how social media impacts your daily life.