Headlines from Harvard history

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Illustration by Mark Steele

1921

Thirteen female students from the Graduate School of Education apply for tickets to the Yale Game. The Bulletin reports that three ticket clerks “whose temperaments are especially nervous have followed the advice of their physicians by resigning.”

1931

The Corporation decides that Harvard will not participate in a fundraising postseason football game for unemployment relief, to avoid setting a potentially troublesome precedent and further commercializing college football by playing only to raise money. Collections at the Dartmouth, Holy Cross, and Yale games, however, raise more than $20,000 for the same purpose.

1941

Two freshmen enliven hour-exam period with their Crimson classified: “Wanted—Information where one may obtain a human corpse in reasonable condition.” The 42 phone calls in response range from students wishing to be embalmed after hourlies to several funeral directors, the police department, and the morgue. The Yardlings plead simple curiosity as the impetus for the ad.

1961

Among alterations proposed for the Harvard School of Business Administration after a two-year study initiated by its dean is a change of name. The Bulletin reports a “widespread feeling” that the present name “does not imply an institution of professional stature, and that there should be…a Harvard Business School.”

1981

The Harvard-Radcliffe Conservative Club publishes the first issue of The Harvard Salient. Its editors all “commend free enterprise, limited government, a redoubtable national defense, the integrity of community, and the sustaining prescriptions of tradition,” and promise not to practice the incendiary journalism of the year-old Dartmouth Review.

2001

A new plaque installed in Memorial Church honors three Radcliffe alumnae—Lucy Nettie Fletcher ’10, Ruth Holden ’11, and special student Helen Homans —who died in World War I while serving as nurses.

Related topics

You might also like

At Harvard’s Beck-Warren House, Ghosts Speak Many Languages

The quirky 1833 home now hosts Celtic scholars.

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.

Yesterday’s News

A co-ed experiment that changed dorm life forever

Most popular

The Health Benefits of Owning a Pet

Animal companions help their owners live longer, happier lives.

The 1884 Cannibalism-at-Sea Case That Still Has Harvard Talking

The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens changed the course of legal history. Here’s why it’s been fodder for countless classroom debates.

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files

Explore More From Current Issue

A diverse group of individuals standing on stage, wearing matching shirts and smiling.

How a Harvard and Lesley Group Broke Choir Singing Wide Open

Cambridge Common Voices draws on principles of universal design. 

A lively street scene at night with people in colorful costumes dancing joyfully.

Rabbi, Drag Queen, Film Star

Sabbath Queen, a new documentary, follows one man’s quest to make Judaism more expansive.

Older man in a green sweater holds a postcard in a warmly decorated office.

How a Harvard Hockey Legend Became a Needlepoint Artist

Joe Bertagna’s retirement project recreates figures from Boston sports history.