A Harvard Reunion for Civil War Vets

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

June 18, 1914: Class of 1864 Holds Reunion

The 50th anniversary of their graduation has brought back to the reunion in Phillips Brooks House today nearly all of the 36 living members of the Class of 1864.

There were 99 men in '64 who completed their four years and 44 who were associated with the class for a part of that time. The large number of men who did not graduate is accounted for by the fact that many of them went to war. Forty-one members of the class, either graduate or associate, took part in the Rebellion—35 in the Union Army and six in the Confederate Army. Of the 99 graduates, almost every one took a further degree than the A.B., and more than a third studied medicine or law.

June 21, 1937: Commencement Is 286th, Not 301st, As Might Be Thought

As Harvard is in its 301st year, one might assume that the coming Commencement would be the 301st, but such is not the fact.

The first Commencement was in 1642. No Commencement was held in 1644, and, owing to war, pestilence, disorder, and other causes, three were none in 1752, 1757, 1764, or from 1774 to 1780, inclusive. Since 1781 there has been one every year. Apparently, therefore, the 1937 exercises are the 286th.

June 20, 1950: College's Graduates Low in Birth Derby

There is one field in which the College's graduates are not leaders. In fact, they don't even come close. According to a recent survey by the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, the College's alumni have an average of only 1.13 children apiece. That makes the College 11th in a field of 16 schools surveyed in New England.

June 17, 1971: How (Not) To Build a Science Center

It's a testament to the past, a monument to the future. As for the present, well, it's a mess.

The Undergraduate Science Center, that rising mass of prefab concrete just north of the Yard, is due to be completed in September 1972. But it is presently uncertain what, if anything, will be inside it once it opens. For the original plans to use the Center for multidisciplinary general science undergraduate education have been sacrificed in a haze of financial and political confusion. The director of the Center has resigned, effective the end of this month, while a special task force set up to advise Dean Dunlop is weighing pressures from various departmental interests and preparing to recommend ways to improve use of the Center.

—Compiled by Julie M. Zauzmer