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

250 Years Ago, Harvard Was Home to a Revolution

A look at the sights, sounds, and characters that put the University on the frontlines of history

The Framer Who Refused to Sign the Constitution

Harvard’s Elbridge Gerry helped draft the U.S. Constitution, but worried it might create a new monarch.

How the American Revolution Freed a Future Abolitionist

Darby Vassall, an enslaved child freed after the Battle of Bunker Hill, dedicated his life to fighting for liberty.

Most popular

AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows

Researchers say the technology could help physicians with triage, diagnosis.

Harvard Alumni and Faculty Win Six Pulitzer Prizes

Winners include Jill Lepore, Bess Wohl, Pablo Torre, and Hannah Natanson.

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files.

Explore More From Current Issue

Alene Anello smiling surrounded by four chickens in a natural outdoor setting.

This Harvard-Trained Lawyer Fights for the Rights of Chickens

Alene Anello wants to apply animal cruelty laws to birds raised for meat.

A glowing orange sun with a star and a trailing gas cloud in space.

A Harvard Astrophysicist Explains the Bizarre Behavior of a Supergiant Star

The dimming and rapid rotation of Betelgeuse may be caused by a hidden companion.

Bronze statues of three historical figures under a stylized tree in a softly lit space.

The Costly Choice Native Americans Faced

How the Revolution reshaped indigenous New England