The Crimson Made Fun of the Lampoon Before the Lampoon Existed

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

March 27, 1874: Humorous Articles

In reading over with care our college papers we find, as a general rule, that the various themes which meet our eyes apply directly or indirectly to college rules, college customs. This certainly ought to be expected, from the nature of these papers. I do not wish even to argue that this is not perfectly right; but I should like to call attention to the fact that a certain class of articles are not as a general rule popular, although their character might at first lead one to expect otherwise. I refer to humorous productions.

In the first place, a humorous article to be popular must of course have reference to some circumstances interesting to its readers. Now the leading newspapers of the present day are full of such articles to a greater or less extent. The writers of these articles, having greater experience than the contributors to college papers, are more capable of writing so as to please their readers; further, they have a greater field of operation, since they are not confined to productions which have their application in any one direction. Besides, newspaper contributors have a much less cultivated class of readers to address; as a general rule but few of the humorous writings of the daily papers are pleasing to the more cultivated classes of society. It is true such writing pleases the majority of people, but in college the greater number of the students make some pretension to culture, while outside it is the cultured who are in the minority. A humorous article to be worthy of the name must be well carried out, and unless those who attempt to write them have considerable experience they cannot expect to succeed.

March 31, 1911: How Harvard Men Serve

Believing that a resume of the number of Harvard men (graduates or former students) employed in important positions as public servants would be of general interest, The Crimson has compiled statistics dealing with this subject, which are given below. The phases of work investigated are: the Supreme Court, Congress, the Cabinet, the State Executives, and the consular and diplomatic service. The figures were taken from various sources, the main ones being the "World's Almanac" and the "Harvard University Directory."

In the Supreme Court, we find a Harvard graduate, Oliver Wendell Holmes '61. He was appointed in 1902. In the 61st Congress there are thirteen Harvard men: three of these are in the Senate. They are H. C. Lodge '71 of Massachusetts, J. Bourne ex-'77 of Oregon, and B. Penrose '81 of Pennsylvania. Of these, Mr. Lodge is perhaps the best known; he has served in the Senate since 1893 and has been on many important committees. Of the ten Harvard men in the House, the oldest is A. Douglas '74, and the most recent one is A. J. Peters '98. Four of these ten are from Massachusetts, three from Ohio, two from Illinois, and one from Wisconsin. It is worthy of note that over half of these men are not from the East, although Harvard is sometimes accused of being a strictly eastern college.

March 30, 1971: Eerie Echoless Room Torn Down with Lab

The only place at Harvard where you could hear yourself think has been destroyed. The acoustical laboratory and its ancchoic chamber, housed in its own building on Oxford St., were torn down last Thursday and Friday.

An anechoic chamber is a completely echoless room, acoustically isolated from the outside world. A person inside the room can hear his own heartbeat because there are no distracting outside noises or internal echoes.

The rare properties of the anechoic chamber are achieved with foot-thick concrete walls and special sound-absorbing wedges protruding into the chamber from the ceiling, walls and floor. A metal grate is suspended in the center of the chamber from which measurements and observations can be made.

Harvard's chamber was built by the Office of Naval Research in the late 1940's in connection with research by Frederick V. Hunt, then a professor of Physics. The ONR has supported numerous research projects at American universities since World War II. Hunt has now retired from Harvard and no longer needs the anechoic chamber.

March 25, 1977: First Adam, Then Eve

A quick look down the roster of some of the Radcliffe sports teams will tell you that something unusual is happening to women's sports at Harvard. Radcliffe basketball—only two upperclasswomen, senior Sue Williams and junior captain Katherine Fulton; swimming—a 21-woman team of which only two were upperclasswomen, senior captain Jane Hendricks and junior Sue Schwartz; field hockey—only three upper class members, senior captain Ann Dupuis, senior Karen Lindsley and junior captain-elect Lucy Wood; squash—three of the first seven squashers were freshwomen.

Where have all the older players gone? Does junior year bring arthritis or a bad back or varicose veins? It seems almost as if the player that survives through sheer endurance is made captain by virtue of her perserverance.

Well, maybe these "older" women can sense they aren't needed—or wanted. In the past couple of years, due to greatly increased funding, the efficient administration of 60 Boylston, and, perhaps most importantly, an active campaign by the admissions office to recruit and admit talented women athletes, the country club swimmer or girl's school hockey player has given way to the achievement oriented athlete—the female jock.

—Compiled by Julie M. Zauzmer