Defacement and Dedication in Libraries

Every Friday, The Crimson publishes a selection of articles that were printed in our pages in years past.

Feb. 27, 1904: College Library Broken Into

On Thursday night the College Library was broken into. All but one of the busts in the Reading Room were defaced with brown paint, some of the chairs were daubed with white paint, and the Superintendent's chair and lamp and the face of the clock also received a coat of paint. Broken eggs were left on the Superintendent's desk, and paint was spilled liberally about the floor. On one of the tables and on the window the words "Med. Fac." were scrawled in paint. Most of the damage was repaired before the Library opened in the morning.

Feb. 28, 1942: Houghton Library, First New Yard Edifice in Last Ten Years, Will Be Dedicated Tonight

Dedication of the Houghton Library for the housing of Harvard's rare books is scheduled for tonight and tomorrow, climaxing 17 months of building and recurrent delays in opening.

The only addition to the Yard in the last decade, the new library fulfills the University's need for a suitable location for its treasure items. The six-story Georgian building in the east corner of the Yard has been widely acclaimed as the nearest perfect existing structure for its purpose, even surpassing the National Archives in Washington.

Originally scheduled for completion last July, the Library was delayed by defense and war priority rulings and the opening ceremonies planned for January 10 had to be postponed. The building is now finally completed and half the 260,000 volumes which will ultimately be shelved in it have been placed in the stacks.

Tonight's ceremonies will highlight the two-day dedication procedure with addresses to an invited audience of 300 by President Conant and donor Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. '29 in the new reading room. Earlier a small dinner will be held at the President's house and tomorrow from 2:30 to 6 o'clock a reception will be held for members of the Faculty, friends of the Library, and their wives. Roy E. Larsen '21, president of Time, and Sir Ronald Campbell, British Minister to the United States, will attend.

Feb. 27, 1948: Band Seeks Funds for Trips

"For services rendered," Band officers yesterday asked the University to finance all future football trips.

The request was the "definite proposal" Associate Dean Watson requested early this month when the group indicated its need for money. If accepted, it will be the first time the University has ever given money to a student organization.

Train fare to away football games is the only kind of aid the Band is seeking. Manager Joseph J. Borgatti Jr. '45 has asked that these allocations be made an annual item on the University budget.

Ebbing alumni aid has forced the Band to other sources for its finances. Unless the musicians get money from the University, the Cornell and Army trips may be omitted next year, Borgatti said. The Athletic Association will probably pay for the Princeton trek

March 2, 1971: Proposed Deferment Halt May Jeopardize Freshmen

If the current Administration-backed Selective Service bill is passed this spring—and Washington sources have indicated the chances are quite good—large numbers of college underclassmen will suddenly be exposed to the draft.

The bill presently before the House Armed Services Committee (Senate Committee hearings ended yesterday), recommends the abolition of virtually all student deferments as President Nixon urged last April 23. If it becomes law, Nixon will be free to change the deferment system.

Nixon has said repeatedly that only those eligible for a II-S deferment on April 23, 1970, will continue to be eligible for the classification. Under this plan, a large majority of currently enrolled freshmen and some sophomores will lose their student deferments.

Divinity School deferments (IV-D) are also scheduled to be abolished, although students enrolled prior to January 29, 1971, will not be affected.

Last January 28, President Nixon asked Congress for a two-year extension of his power to induct men into the armed forces. (This would be the first two-year extension since General Custer's time-all previous extensions have been for four years.)

March 2, 1973: Harvard Religion: Gone Are the Halcyon Days

As a student at the Divinity School in 1965, Peter J. Gomes's first encounter with a Memorial Church service was hardly auspicious. "I knew I had arrived at Harvard," he said. "I didn't understand a word of what was going on." Now as acting minister to the University, he is in charge of this institution whose rationale has since come under close scrutiny.

Attendance at Memorial Church has dropped from the halcyon days of the fifties, when Sunday services drew crowds of 1000, triple their present attendance. Morning prayers, a tradition as old as the University, today attract 35 to 40 hardy souls—a far cry from the days when student attendance was compulsory.

But more basic to the current dilemna of Memorial Church is the anomaly of an established Protestant church (with strong Unitarian/Congregational leanings) in a community that has become increasingly otherwise. "I don't know what they believe in," Gomes said of the typical undergraduates at Harvard, "but whatever it is they don't do it here."

—Compiled by Kerry M. Flynn, Nikita Kansra, Benjamin M. Scuderi, and Julie M. Zauzmer