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

Yesterday’s News

A co-ed experiment that changed dorm life forever

A Forgotten Harvard Anthem

Published the year the Titanic sank, “Harvard’s Best” is a quizzical ode to the University.

Wadsworth House Nears 300

The building is a microcosm of Harvard’s history—and the history of the United States.

Most popular

Teen "Grind" Culture and Mental Health

Teens need better strategies to cope with lives lived partly online.

How Our Planet’s Trees Use Carbon

From the Amazon rainforest to shrubs planted around city streets, trees influence the earth’s temperature.

Harvard Faculty Group Proposes Limits on A Grades

The grade inflation measure requires a full faculty vote, expected in the spring.

Explore More From Current Issue

Black and white photo of a large mushroom cloud rising above the horizon.

Open Book: A New Nuclear Age

Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy’s latest book looks at the rising danger of a new arms race.

Evolutionary progression from primates to humans in a colorful illustration.

Why Humans Walk on Two Legs

Research highlights our evolutionary ancestors’ unique pelvis.

Four young people sitting around a table playing a card game, with a chalkboard in the background.

On Weekends, These Harvard Math Professors Teach the Smaller Set

At Cambridge Math Circle, faculty and alumni share puzzles, riddles, and joy.