Veteran Head of Notman's Studio Says Snob Was Unknown Once, Now the Rule--Photographed Classes of 1875 and 1876

"Harvard students in those days were well behaved and gentlemen, as they are now, but some of the men from Dartmouth, Yale and Princeton were too bibulous," declared D. B. Bourdon yesterday to a Crimson researcher. Mr. Bourdon has owned and operated the Notman Studios in Boston and Cambridge since his arrival in this country 53 years ago.

"The Class of '74 was the first Harvard class that I photographed," reminisced Mr. Bourdon. "I came from the Notman Studios in Montreal, Canada especially to take Harvard pictures. I took the pictures of the Classes of '74, '75, and '76 myself, and during the last three years, I have taken pictures of each of these on their fifteenth reunion. Also, many grandchildren of these men are now in college, and come in for their photos.

"In those days," continued Mr. Bourdon, the boys were more friendly with each other than they now are. Each classmate knew every other classmate, and at the time of graduation, pictures of every member of the class were purchased by all. I thing those boys were more democratic than this generation is. The snobbish boy was then the exception; now, it seems, his is the rule. Also, when I came to Harvard, there certainly was plenty of liquor. They could let it be seen then, you know, and it was! There were bottles everywhere: most of them empty."

Speaking of the Yard, Mr. Bourdon said. "Only Matthews, Stoughton, Divinity and Memorial Halls, were standing then. Oh yes, one other the Peabody Museum was standing in the middle of a huge lot!"