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Creator: Olsen, Donald, Campbell, Mildred, Clark, Evalyn, Havelock, Christine, Marquez, Antonio
Date: [After 1976]
Text: dl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in...
Show moredl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in Westboro, Massachusetts. Charles attended Harvard, receiving his B.A. in 1922. Then, seeking horizons beyond the academic, he was off to South America for seven years, two in Argentina and five in Uruguay,'in the employ of the National Cement Company. He returned home with an interest in Hispanic American culture and a knowledge of the Spanish language that were to last him the rest of his life. Beginning graduate work at Columbia, he also served as an instructor in Spanish there in 1930. His next venture the following year was as a Research Associate of the Library of Congress, to go to Madrid, where, enrolling at the Centro de Es- tudios Hist6ricos~~at that time perhaps the most significant concentration of liberal intellectuals in the Republic—-he supervised the transcription of historical documents in the Archives of Seville and Valladolid. The next year he was again at Columbia where in 1933 he was awarded the M.A. Nineteen thirty- four brought two important personal events: marriage to Jessica Frances Jones, a graduate of Reed College, and the acceptance of an instructorship in history at Vassar. The early forties brought a period of great concern in the United States for closer relations with Latin America. Men who knew the field were in demand, and Charles Griffin was ready to supply the need. In 1940 he went as exchange professor to the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela, the first United States citizen to serve under the program set up by the Buenos Aires Convention for International Cultural Relations. A letter written later by the Director of the university to our ambassador pointed out that "Dr. Griffin's lectures W€re the first ever given in a school of higher learning in Venezuela . . . regarding the discovery, the conquest and the colonization of North America.” An article in a Venezuelan magazine in 1941 characterized him not as the typical "fat, red—faced North American", but as an aristocratic Castilian: until one heard his "slight Anglo—Saxon accent", one might have mistaken the tall, slender professor for a resident of Burgos or Segovia in a play by Lope de Vega or Calderbn. It might have added, "or a portrait by El Greco." Charles came back to Vassar in 1941, as associate professor; but was off again in February 1943 to the State Department in Washington, where he served as Assistant Chief of the Division of Liaison and Research in the Office of American Republics Affairs. He returned to Vassar in 1944, this time to a full- professorship. Charles served as visiting professor at many places including Columbia, Oé» _, r. I. C, -2- Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Wisconsin, and at the Universidad de Chile. But happily for Vassar he always returned here where his own course in South American history had entered the curriculum, a break—through in the tradition that most history offerings should deal with our European background and the United States. For years it was traditional that every member of the department should teach the one introductory course offered, a survey of European civilization. Charles later regaled his younger colleagues with accountsci'his struggles to cope with "all those popes and emperors." Although most of his teaching at Vassar was in United States political and diplomatic history, his scholarly work lay entirely in Latin America. At in- tervals he represented the United States as forwarder of pan-American affairs, in Chile in 1950 and in Ecuador in 1959, in l962 at the Salzburg Seminar on American Civilization, and as delegate to the Conference on Contemporary Latin American History at Bordeaux. He published four books on Latin American history (one with a Spanish translation, one written in Spanish and published in Ca- racas), and was contributing author to five others. (A selective bibliography is appended to this Minute.) In addition he contributed articles to practical- ly all the scholarly periodicals in his field, and also to the more general historical journals. His last major scholarly achievement was as editor-in- chief of Latin America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971), the first inclusive bibliography in that field. His place as leader among Latin American historians was recognized first by appointment to the Board of Editors of the Hispanig American Historical Review, and as Managing Editor from 1950 to 1954. In 1970 the Conference on Latin American History gave Charles its "Distinguished Service Award", in the form of a handsome plaque which, characteristically, he kept trying to hide from view. Few of his colleagues or students at Vassar were aware of the extent of his scholarly activities or of his international reputation. "Charles is such a modest chap," wrote his chairman on one occasion, "that it is only when one digs it out of him that it becomes evident" how extensive his achievements and honors were. Self—doubt, humility, and an awareness of his own frailties made him wonderfully understanding of the anxieties of others, and made him the best of all people to turn to for sympathetic advice. Countless colleagues, friends, and students could say, with Sarah Gibson Blanding, ". . . when things got really tough I could always talk with Charles and knew without any doubt I was getting the best and most unbiased opinion possible. Of all my colleagues I counted on him the most." At Vassar Charles served four terms as chairman of the history department. For the last two years before his retirement in 1967 he was first Acting Dean of Faculty and then Dean of Faculty. He felt a deep commitment to the local community outside the college, and took an active part in politics. Among other activities he served on the Dutchess County Committee of the Democratic Party and as Director of the Dutchess County Council on world Affairs. In 1968 he became the first Executive Director of the Associated Colleges of the Mid-Hudson Area, and from 1968 to 1970 served on the Board of Trustees of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Marist College, and in 1969 became secretary of the Board. But it was as a member of this faculty that we knew Charles best. For him, loyalty to Vassar was no mere catch—phrase, but involved him in genuine financial, ///“ / /:>8 I3? and perhaps even professional sacrifice. He turned a deaf ear to offers to return to the State Department at a salary far above anything Vassar could give him. He did the same to other attractive offers from the Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford, U.C.L.A., and Cornell because, to quote a letter from his chairman to President Blanding, "of his interest in working at an institu- tion in which he believed as heartily as he does believe in what we try to do at Vassar." In February 1950 Miss Blanding wrote him while he was Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, enclosing a new contract, saying, "I hope like fury you are going to feel like signing. We have missed you and . . . have kept our fingers crossed wondering if Wisconsin was going to wean you away from us. As you can see, we have jumped your salary . . . which I am sure is not as much as Wisconsin could pay you [in fact, Vassar's new offer was only two-thirds what Wisconsin was paying him], but is all we can stretch at the moment." Charles happily accepted the economic sacrifice and returned to Vassar. He, of course, would not have called it a sacrifice. He had abundant ex- perience of great universities, and none of them gave him the intense intellectual and emotional satisfactions that Vassar did: students who delighted in and responded to his broad-ranging intellect and provocative, questioning teaching; colleagues who could be waylaid for speculative discussion or riotous argument; department, comittee, and faculty meetings in which he could observe the wit and cantankerousness, wisdom and perversity, mental agility and abnormal psy- chology of his colleagues. He took affectionate delight in displays of insti- tutional absurdity and human folly, which Vassar offered in prodigal abundance. Charles never forgot what it had been like to be a young, inexperienced instructor, ”. . . Newer and younger [faculty] members . . . instinctively feel him to be their friend,” his chairman once wrote. One of them later recalled: "I first knew Charles at a crucial time in my life—-at the beginning of my career. He quickly became for me a kind of mentor, such as I had never in graduate school . . . By watching him in action in faculty meetings . . . talking to him at faculty tea, or simply chatting with him on an evening . . . I got some idea of what it meant to be a scholar, a teacher, and a man of integrity. Charles and I had our differences--we really were not very much alike——but his example for me was central to my life." Charles came to Vassar at a time when, as he recalled three decades later, "the college . . . was more self—contained than it is today." The Vassar comunity dominated the social as well as the professional lives of a large proportion of the faculty. Depending on their tastes, they used it as a vast salon in which to hammer out their ideas in friendly yet critical company, as a stage on which to develop and display their eccentricities, or a kind of en- counter group in which to express their inner hostilities and aggressions. Charles did his best to maintain the notion of the faculty as an intellectual community even into the fifties and sixties, when outside at“factions, whether professional or personal, were drawing the attention of both zaculty and student body away from the college. It was a mystery how Charles managed to produce the extraordinary bulk of his publications and pursue his professional activities on top of a heavy teach- ing load. For he always seemed to be found in the back parlor of Swift, in the Retreat, or at faculty tea, engaging in anecdote or argument, covering every -4- subject under the sun. ". . . His intellectual curiosity was insatiable, as his fund of knowledge was almost fathomless," one colleague recalls. ". . . What I think of most in connection with him was not just his helpfulness and companionability," writes another, "but those glorious, continuous, shimmering days and nights we all had at Raymond Avenue. That for me was the Golden Age . . . we all belonged to Charles's extensive, amusing, and beautifully domestic- ated world." Charles played an active role in Vassar politics, serving on most major committees, and as president of the local chapter of the A.A.U.P.; in the 1930's he was much involved with the Teachers‘ Union. He firmly believed in maintain- ing the authority of the faculty as a corporate body, and in seeing that the body exercised its powers wisely and responsibly. when Alan Simpson was inau- gurated as President, Charles spoke in the name of the faculty. "The Faculty of Vassar College has never been a placid, harmonious body," he warned the new president. "Because of our nature as questioners, our training as critics, and our diverse associations and interests we are likely to provide opposition as well as support to your endeavours." Charles spoke often in faculty meetings, and one never could be sure in advance what stand he was going to take on an issue. while his commitment to basic principles—-academic freedom, faculty power, individual liberties--never faltered, he embodied the definition of an intellectual as one who is continual- ly and systematically questioning his own opinions. He belonged to no camp, and voted and acted as his conscience and intellect directed. Impressive as he was in faculty meeting, Charles was at his best in a small group, late at night. He delighted in the varieties of human nature, the in- tricacies of thought, and the techniques of politics. But above all he loved conversation. For him, as for Dr. Johnson, conversation offered the best alle- viation for the pain of existence. It was his chief joy, a means of adding to his stock of knowledge, of encountering new ideas--the more subversive and he- terodox the better--and of savouring the pleasures of articulate sociability. Of colleagues in other disciplines he could ask a simple, sincere, and yet so basic a question that one found oneself rethinking ideas long taken for granted. Charles was a moderate historical relativist, for whom the conviction that absolute certainty was an imposible ideal was.not a depressing, but an ex- hilarating belief. For he enjoyed the process of debate more than he cared about the outcome. But while pragmatic and flexible in his approach both to questions of historical truth and educational policy, he never abandoned his moral convictions for the sake of expediency. Intensely sensitive to personal attaﬁksv he 8¢ted a¢¢0rdin9 to his conscience as chairman, as dean, and as individual, never swerving from what he was convinced was his duty for the sake of popularity or a quiet life. President Simpson has summed up the qualities for which we loved Charles: "A dearer man we never knew--gentleman, scholar, wit. I never saw him without thinking of the motto of New College, Oxford——‘Manners makyth man‘. He was . . . a model of good sense, good-heartedness, and fidelity. when I asked him for help he always replied that he would do anything for Vassar—-and did so." -5- Respectfully submitted, ,\ ..1 . _ Donald Olsen, Chairman Q ’ ), ~c , / _.' / ¢ , ‘ _,, 1',‘ /{/,» . .' / \ , , / I '/’-»»1,‘(-"// ~ ,.“/ ~" rt 4, , j M " .>~'L, ( J‘.-1, Mildred Cani'pbe 11 .'/ I 22,,/;j£, J Evalyn Clark ..-/c’. " - - ‘" ,-‘W. V \ A/~" ' - ~ / Christine Havelock A 1./1. ‘:1/1 4 Antonio Marquez / /0 /// _6_ ¢v'¢~€¥¢z»/>1 C-_C, > Bibliographical Note His publications include The United States and the Disruption of the §panish Empire, 1810-1822 (1937), Latin America T1944); The National Period in the History of the New World (1961, with Spanish translation in 1962), and Los Temaspsociales y Economicos de la Epoca de la Independencia (published in Caracas in 1961). He edited and contributed to Concerning Latin American Cu1tur§_(l940), and contributed chapters to Ensayos sobre la Historia del Nuevo Mundo (Mexico, 1951), a commemorative volume in honor of Emeterio Santovenia (Habana, 1958), Conocimento z_desconocimento en las Americas (1958), to vol. XI of the new edition of the Cambridge Modern History on Latin America, 1870-1900 (1961), and to A.P. Whitaker, ed., Latin America and the Enlightenment (1961). In addition he contri- buted articles to the Hispanic American Historical Review, the Haryland Historical Magazine, the IntereAmerican Quarterly, Revista de Historia de America, Boletin de la Academia de Historia (Caracas), Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, and the Vene- zuelan RevistafNaciona1 de Cultura. His last major scholarly achievement was to edit the bibliographical volume, commissioned by the Library of Congress, Latin ‘ America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971). 17 I W ' 7 " 'J—.
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Creator: Griffin, Charles, Miller, John, Campbell, Mildred
Date: [After 1950]
Text: JAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN 1871 - 1950 James Fosdick Baldwin was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1871. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thurs- day, Qctober the fifth, 1950. During forty-four of the seventy-nine intervening years, he was a member of the Vassar College faculty in the department of history. Hence it is to a fellow gildsman of long service that we now pay respect and honor. As Mr. Baldwin, setting about his most recent task of writing a history of the college in its modern era...
Show moreJAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN 1871 - 1950 James Fosdick Baldwin was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1871. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thurs- day, Qctober the fifth, 1950. During forty-four of the seventy-nine intervening years, he was a member of the Vassar College faculty in the department of history. Hence it is to a fellow gildsman of long service that we now pay respect and honor. As Mr. Baldwin, setting about his most recent task of writing a history of the college in its modern era, sifted with trained eye and hand the boxes and volumes that constitute the college archives, - Presidents' cor- respondence, faculty minutes, committee reports, reports of departmental chairmen, and old files of the Miscellan News that recounted gala skits of Founder's Day, Ee must often have run across his own name and his own handwriting, for he had a zest for life and was ever an active partic- ipant in all that was going on about him. His courses in English history introduced him to large numbers of stu- dents and his circle of friends and acquaintances among alumnae was wide. His interest in every part of the col- lege was marked, - one could mention for instance certain of our library treasures, rare for a college of this size that are here because of his scholarly discernment and his initiative. Engrossing as was the campus to him, however, Mr. Baldwin did not forget that there were pleasures and obligations outside of it, that he was a resident of the town of Poughkeepsie, a citizen of Dutchess County and of his state and nation. He took a lively interest in public affairs to which his approach was that of a humanitarian and a liberal. Better also than some of us, he was able to transfer the field of his specialized interests to the scene at hand. Hence the student of constitutional origins in a distant age and place found ways of making Dutchess County origins exciting to his friends and fel- low townsmen. He held office repeatedly in the Dutchess C t Hi t ri i t ° l f i oun y s o cal Soc e y, and in 9h2 was o fic ally honored with the title, Dutchess Count Historian. Other community activities enlisted His support. His lifelong interest in music, found expression in his work as an organist in one of Poughkeepsie's churches, a post which he filled for years. After his retirement many of these interests were continued. Indeed, there was true gallantry in the way Jmnes Baldwin set about to explore Q 28 JAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN (Continued) the resources within himself in order to make his retirement a period both useful and happy. And it was a source of pleasure to his friends that neither old_ age nor adversity dulled his salty wit nor dimmed the twinkle in his eye. But beyond these memories left with friends and assoc- iates, James Fosdick Baldwin in his early manhood created a more lasting memorial through his contribu- tion to historical scholarship in a highly selective field, that of the Ehglish Medieval Constitution. His book on the Kin 's Council in En land Durin the Middle A es published §n Uxford In I§I§ was Hailed By scholarly journals on both sides of the Atlantic as charting new ground and superseding previous treatments of the sub- ject. It led to his election at once to membership in the Royal Historical Society, and gave him a place among the best scholars in the field in his own country. Even now after almost forty years it still remains a recognized authority. Hence, as Poughkeepsie notes the passing ofia good citizen and neighbor, and Vassar Col- lege a friend and colleague, medieval historians in both Europe and America record the passing of a respected member of their fraternity, the author of The King's Council. Charles Griffin John Miller Mildred Campbell XIII - 1&3
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Creator: Campbell, Mildred, Linner, Edward, Sague, Mary, Asprey, Winifred
Date: [After 1965]
Text: 3i MARY EVELYN WELLS 1881 - 1965 Most of you present today never heard of Mary Evelyn Wells. Few of you knew her personally. Some of you remember her as a distin- guished senior colleague, for you were but young instructors when she became Professor Emeritus of Mathematics in 1948. Yet Vassar College owes much of its present distinction to women such as Miss Wells. Miss Wells was first and foremost a mathematician, "Euclidean in her approach to life," as one friend characterized her...
Show more3i MARY EVELYN WELLS 1881 - 1965 Most of you present today never heard of Mary Evelyn Wells. Few of you knew her personally. Some of you remember her as a distin- guished senior colleague, for you were but young instructors when she became Professor Emeritus of Mathematics in 1948. Yet Vassar College owes much of its present distinction to women such as Miss Wells. Miss Wells was first and foremost a mathematician, "Euclidean in her approach to life," as one friend characterized her. Her pre- sentation of mathematics had depth and was sound, with that nice blend of scholarliness and integrity that students are so quick to recognize. But it was something more; for in its own way it was a work of art -- the work of a master-teacher. How many of us, like Mary Wells, can so enthrall students that they do not hear the sound of the bell at the end of the class hour? Her gift of humor, fairmindedness and inexhaustible energy, her discretion, loyalty to colleagues, selflessness, sense of the "wholeness" of the Vassar com- munity and what it worked for are the qualities that gained for her the respect and confidence of her colleagues and inevitably led to service on committee after committee. As a long-time member of the Committee on Admission, Miss Wells was adamant in her rejection of candidates unfortunate enough to have acquired even one low score, whatever the field. To quote her: "Vassar College is able to get students who can; why take those who can't?" President MacCracken comments that perhaps this was one of the times in which numbers really got in Miss Wells‘ way. Though a person of strong convictions, she was a firm believer in democratic processes. vShe fought for her beliefs, but when defeated, worked with equal vigor to uphold the decision of the majority. Miss Wells came to Vassar College in l9l5, the year in which President MacCracken was inaugurated. A graduate of Mount Holyoke, she held both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago where she had worked under Professor E. H. Moore, a rare distinction for any young mathematician, especially a woman. She had already taught for five years at Mount Holyoke, and, as acting Associate Professor, for another year at Oberlin. She was, however, appointed to and accepted an instructorship at Vassar, a rank which she held for five years. At this time mathematics was a required course for freshmen, and Miss Wells was assigned to teach six of these sections. Later promotions came rapidly for that era; at the age of forty-seven she became a full professor and served the college in this capacity for twenty more years. <32 MARY EVELYN WELLS (Continued) Along with her dedication to mathematics and to teaching, Miss Wells had interests beyond the confines of the campus. Perhaps her greatest enthusiasm outside Vassar was centered on India. In 1926, she was invited to the University of Madras as Head of the Department of Mathematics. This experience gave her a last- ing love for that country and an awareness of its problems. She returned to Madras in 1936-37 and continued to serve actively as a trustee of the University long after her retirement from Vassar College. Almost certainly, it was only love for her family and sensitivity to their needs that kept her from going back to India. Indeed, her devotion to her family was marked throughout her life. A younger sister and lively nephews enjoyed many a summer at her home in Maine. This, then, is the woman to whom we pause to pay tribute: a woman whose stern sense of devotion to her profession led her to great distinction as a mathematician and teacher; a person committed to the highest ideal of a Vassar education; and one whose dynamic influence still remains with many associates and students. Mildred Campbell Edward Linner Mary Sague Winifred Asprey, Chairman xv: 323
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Creator: Campbell, Mildred, Olsen, Donald, Rappaport, Rhoda
Date: [After 1968]
Text: ,/ 61/ VIOLET BARBOUR 1884 — 1968 Violet Barbour was a member of the department of history at Vassar from 1914 until her retirement in 1950. Those who knew her best remember her for her combination of intellectual toughness and personal delicacy. One of her students has described her as "just slightly Jane Austen, though at the same time New Yorker chic." To her friends she was warmhearted, witty, and stimulating. To everyone she was kind, though her charity towards a person did not...
Show more,/ 61/ VIOLET BARBOUR 1884 — 1968 Violet Barbour was a member of the department of history at Vassar from 1914 until her retirement in 1950. Those who knew her best remember her for her combination of intellectual toughness and personal delicacy. One of her students has described her as "just slightly Jane Austen, though at the same time New Yorker chic." To her friends she was warmhearted, witty, and stimulating. To everyone she was kind, though her charity towards a person did not necessarily extend to his opinions. She had wide interests, ranging from civic matters to sport. To the end of her life she was an ardent baseball fan and would regularly journey with friends to Brooklyn to watch and cheer the Dodgers; reluctantly, she transferred her devotion to the Mets when the Dodgers moved west. But Miss Barbour's overwhelming passion was scholarship. As an undergraduate at Cornell University, her interest centered in history, enriched by the social sciences and literature. Cornell, where she continued through the Ph.D., acknowledged her intellectual prowess with both undergraduate and graduate fellowships. Recognition of this kind was to continue through many years in the form of prizes, awards, and other honors. Her first book, Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams prize by the American Historical Association in 1913, and remains the standard authority on the subject. She was the first woman ever to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, in 1925. B She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in England, and later, when her interest in the seventeenth century broadened to include Dutch history, was given honor- ary membership in the Historische Genootschap, a distinction B rarely granted to foreign scholars. Her Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century, published in 1950, has since, as Miss Barbour herself once put it, acquired "the dignity of paperbackery"; more significantly, it is used to introduce students at the University of Amsterdam to their own economic history. Her many articles in professional journals in America, England, and The Netherlands have made her as well known abroad as she is in this country. Indeed, one of her Vassar colleagues once had difficulty correcting an English scholar who spoke of Violet Barbour as "one of the most distinguished of our English women historians." 6Y7 VIOLET BARBOUR (Continued) Teaching provided a further arena for Miss Barbour's skills. She delighted in intellectual sparring, in challenging and being challenged by her students. Her original mode of expression, personal warmth, and infectious humor found full play in the classroom. She was shy by nature, but lost her shyness when she found herself, as she once remarked, "facing a group of fresh- men more frightened than I was." She was, however, a teacher not for the many, but for the few, though she tried to help the many if they sought her help. For intellectually gifted students, she was the teacher and they remained her friends for life. One has recently recalled the "discussing, pondering, and questioning" that was continually underway in her classes, the "excite- ment," and the "great good humor." Another student, herself a well-known historian, wrote: "Her style was beautiful, her vocabulary also, but always so underplayed that it took a sharp ear to hear what she was saying . . . she was a mistress of irony, but . . . a kindly irony, not the usual sharp and cutting academic skepticism . . . Tough and delicate. You'd think she must be spared, but . . . she never spared you, to your ultimate improvement and growth. I left Vassar knowing how immeasurably I had been changed by her --in every way." Miss Barbour did not talk a great deal in faculty meetings, but strong convictions on important matters would bring her to her feet. Her concern with educational policy was genuine and based on thoughtful study. In connection with our cur- rent re-examination of the curriculum, it may be of interest that in 1925 Violet Barbour was arguing for: "A realiza- tion of the coherence, the dimly seen unity of knowledge, instead of the isolation by which academic departments guard their autonomy. "Scholars," she wrote, "should always be trespassing upon one another, always making peaceful forays into one another's territory to learn what is afoot there and bring the news to astound the folk at home." She believed that "a general plan of education valid for each and all" would always elude, but "if knowledge is not to fall into complete incoherence and our horizons collapse on our heads, the liaisons between studies must be developed and strengthened." VIOLET BARBOUR (Continued) Miss Barbour's broad interests and sympathies found expression in her scholarly work in a discipline which she found neither narrow nor confining. Referring to a piece of her own research, she once wrote: "the project is not one of earth—shaking importance, but it has a great deal of human nature knocking about in it and I find it quite absorbing." Hers was the kind of scholarship which combined imagination, sympathy, and perspective. Mildred Campbell Donald Olsen Rhoda Rappaport
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Creator: Pearson, Homer, Campbell, Mildred, Swain, Barbara
Date: [After 1960]
Text: ,1 Jcszt 1": Lllrff Psi \ :‘. Q2 Z-1 Q P1 5"‘ CD \ WP? i 1960 $1 *~; :=* O PO *9‘ C3323 4 ('1 LT’ *1! ' ‘I’ ‘<1 Q (1) -w _rce was appointed to the Vassar Kusic Department in ~ Professor George Coleman Sow vtosc initials turn on * shove Skinner Hell. For 32 years, until his écsth on ipril 23, 1960, John Tcirce taught the art of sinqing, the art of understanding song, and the art of group singing. He took pert, with deliberation and with devotion, in the life of the...
Show more,1 Jcszt 1": Lllrff Psi \ :‘. Q2 Z-1 Q P1 5"‘ CD \ WP? i 1960 $1 *~; :=* O PO *9‘ C3323 4 ('1 LT’ *1! ' ‘I’ ‘<1 Q (1) -w _rce was appointed to the Vassar Kusic Department in ~ Professor George Coleman Sow vtosc initials turn on * shove Skinner Hell. For 32 years, until his écsth on ipril 23, 1960, John Tcirce taught the art of sinqing, the art of understanding song, and the art of group singing. He took pert, with deliberation and with devotion, in the life of the college and the community, His kindlinoss and his in- tegrity, the open hospitality of his home, came to be community assets, depended on and taken for granted. His work produced substantial results, opening professicssl careers in music to e score of young women, providing private resources of éeliqhh for hundreds of others. Two unpretentious books, The ﬁrt of ’ frggren ﬁekipg, l9§l, its grt cg gipfigg, 1956, record some of tie seistisies behind his still cs‘s teécber of voice, sod tie wide koowledqe of tie literature of song, tie taste that renged discriminstingly from folk song to lieder, from opera to con- temporary cantata. Ttc devotion cf sevorel thousand Glee Club mewbcrs beers witness to his personal success as a choral director. ’~ V % ‘Q U) \£) <3 -fl" (IQ *0 1»-II C) E-’° $1 I3 He was born in test Eosbury, ﬁasssckusetts. Qﬂe re- ceived his early m ~l education through private instruction in and moor Boston, perticulerly in voice work with Stephen Sumner Townsend, a tcecter well known in 1910, end later in work on cretorio under Fmll Yollonheuor, the director of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. The accounts of his early years ere full of ectivities connected with church music, es quartet member, soloist or musical oircctor in Unitarian, Baptist, Universelist, Presbyterian or Confregctionel churches in eastern Yasseckusctts. The roster of his recitels§begins - in 19lh,’with an appearance st tke Second Gongreéetionel Church in test Heebury, and includes e debut recital at Steincrt Hell in Boston, later recitals in larger Boston hells, appearances with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Chorel_¥usic Society, and many concerts ttroughout Hes England and Tove Sootia.§ In these years he was e member of the_friendly circle of Boston musicians which included such well known artists snd\tcschers es Arthur Foote, Charles Loeffler and Thomas thitney‘Suretto; 3 L V‘ . :1 ‘ ' \ ; : In 192h he was appointed by Ernest Bloch es heed of tﬁc voice . ¢ department st the Cleveland Institute of Music, where to remained for ttrce years. In 1927 he wont to Europe for e year of con- centrated study, of phonetics, tkoory, conducting and voice, working for many months in Peris with the greet French tenor Edmond Clement, and leter in London with Sir GoorQe,§enschel. He came to Vassar upon his return from Paris, and soon began to take pert in the musical life of the Hueson Valley as he . _ \ . . 1 1 ; ; 1 l 1 F , \ I I '\ 1 ~" -- \ ‘:2 _*' ,' ‘\\ /i. .' “ I ~ 93 JOHN WILL . (Continued) i I-1 {Zr c "Y1 I111 F-1 fl.) Q .11 bod token part in that of the Horrimac as s younger man. Us become director of music st tho First Presbyterian Church in Poughkcopsio; for eleven years ho supervised c public school music festival hold at the college; he served as president of the Dutctess County Husicsl Association from l9c2-l9h9. Ho took port with gusto in faculty productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, Trial by Jury and Qﬁomfripccss Ida. During vsrious sumnors he~3i¥€Et5€“EForal sees; tsG§Et"€5i§o and Advanced Choral Conducting at the University of Vermont, and once, in 1933, st the University of Ksshington. He spent l936~37 in iunich, again working concentrstedly on phonetics, voice, opera end, this time, on German style. In 19h? he suffered s severe tccrt attack. Thoresftor, his activities were restricted to winters of work and summers of rest, but the ton years which to was granted to live were yosrs of con~ tinuco growth sci fresh achievement in musical understanding, and in self realization. John Peirce was s “er Englsndcr ingrsin.* As the oldost son of a widely known village ooctor in s region where the town moot- ing soc the church arc still living institutions, ho cams natur- slly by his sense of personal responsibility, his conccrn with inoivicusls, with tieir toelthy qrorth and tkoir participation in satisfying social cotivity. ?ecorstions of students will reocnbcr tis patient pcrsistccco in soekinq for tteir iniividual quality of vocal csprossivouoss, in guiding ttom ttrougﬁ”tE3*' literature of music towards tte dcvelopmeut of tioir own taste. Generations of Gloo Club members will recall tho pissstre of discovering the existenoo of lontoverdi, Rsmosu, Gluck and Ecydn, through singing in tho choral productions of Orfoo, or Iohioenio in Tsuris of Castor and Pollux or The Creﬁtfoﬁ — : _.A,__’ _A_,,_.-... ii _ 3 -_,_..,_i. _, -.,- ,-._ ,, _._._,_,,,,_.,- ____,,_ E€SitiEu§?§s5§s5ts“cs;¢c"Lc”U§scsi65c”s€th his G153 in the bolief that to boar a small modest port in a lcrio beautiful work was good for mind soc body. Join Peirce was not on ottentuctod csttcte; hi§*Tomilisr slouch and the hunch of his shouldor romccﬁcd tkoco wio know, that in his youth he was a semi~profoscioosl pitckor, that his passion for bssoboll and. his devotion to t Boston Rod Sex kept him by the radio for hours during tte _ zyirc season. ‘Tennis, too, woo so ovocsticn, at which to raised sis trroc sons, one by one, to boot him. He was happy to bo sociable. lit? unaffected cordislity he and ﬁrs. Peirco opened ttoir doors, put their house st otters‘ disposal, offered simple moat and drink, comfort and leushtcr. The grcstcst contribution of his tcoching is probably to have soot out into the comsunity scores of woman able to be lcscers and shorors in musical enterprises in tteir towns and cities; his greatest contribution to Poughkeepsie is pertsps the range of his local friendships. ¢ -0 U :2‘ F-4 O " ."~v -O His Glee Club work was his greatest pleasure. He particularly on§oyed the preparation of Xonsclssokn's Eliish, for this year's final concert; to tad sun? it in Boston, in his early yccrs of I ‘F s Q ix‘-av A QM; ,, .- . . _. _. ~__._ .__.._..-._...... __.__ /-" k“. _z* . .£ \ I 1 \. 4 .~ _.......... .. 4\ *~ \ \ ; 9;» JOFH TILLIA? PEIZCB (Ccn€lnued) ' _ I concertizing; he heard, t¥cu§h Lo did not dire tho fine production of it in Berton, four da?s before h; ueath. The perfornance of it at Vassar on Kay" wkich was to havé been in his honor upon his retirement, ~~_ belhis appropriate §<~,ﬂ;\_~1 r\_~v-.1 1: 1 .,1k»-.1L..L 1.; Q. S‘ JomJ\' .15 P4 -J’ C3 C1‘ § I Pearson H, dred Campbell Barbara Swain l I"-*4 , ¥-"I .29 O l-' Q v 4 XV - 2143 - 21111
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Creator: Gleason, Josephine, Brown, Emily, Campbell, Mildred
Date: [After 1955]
Text: LOUISE FARGO BROWN 1878 - 1955 Louise Fargo Brown was born in Buffalo, New York of pioneer stock. Early Browns had helped to extend the frontiers along the Mohawk and the Ohio, and Fargos were among the 'h9ers pushing westward to California. These deeds were long since done. But the s irit in which they were done and the qualities leading to their accomplishment, - a lively curiosity, love of the new venture, generosity, a zest for life itself, great good humor and warmth of spirit -...
Show moreLOUISE FARGO BROWN 1878 - 1955 Louise Fargo Brown was born in Buffalo, New York of pioneer stock. Early Browns had helped to extend the frontiers along the Mohawk and the Ohio, and Fargos were among the 'h9ers pushing westward to California. These deeds were long since done. But the s irit in which they were done and the qualities leading to their accomplishment, - a lively curiosity, love of the new venture, generosity, a zest for life itself, great good humor and warmth of spirit - were the rich legacy bequeathed to Louise Fargo Brown. Throughout her life she remained something of the pioneer, with a keen awareness that every generation has its own frontiers to extend, whether of the mind or space. She received her early schooling in the Buffalo schools and her B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1903. In 1905, she entered the graduate school at Cornell and long before Fulbrights and Fords and Guggenheims had made the privilege of foreign study almost a comonplace, Cornell twice awarded Miss Brown its Andrew White Travelling Fellowship. This gave her two wonderful years in Europe, the first at London and Oxford, the second in Basle, Zurich and Geneva. An article based on the research of these years appeared in the En lish Historiggl Review while she was yet a graduate student?‘ §he receTtéd_the Ph.D. from Cornell in 1909, and except for a spring semester at Vassar in 1915, was instructor in history at Wellesley from 1909 to 1915. During this period she completed her first t f th B ti t d book, The Political Activi ies o e a s span Fifth Hhnareh Men in En'land,§prin th5_§nt3rre num, a 500E which received the Herbert'§axter_Adams Prize from the American Historical Association for the best monograph of the year in Modern European History. In 1915 Miss Brown was offered the post of Dean of Women and professor of History at the University of Nevada. She was at this post when America entered World War I in the spring of 1917. Browns, Towers, and Fargos had served their country in earlier wars. Louise Fargo Brown volunteered; and from 1917 to 1919 was detailed to do historical work in Washington. Her pamphlet on The Freedom of the Seas was sent in MS for use at the Paris Peace'Uonference. It delighted her sense of humor that in return for her services as LOUISE mace BROWN (Continued) historian the United States government had conferred upon her the rank of sergeant in the Marines. To the delight of her colleagues on the Vassar bridle path, the sergeant's uniform became the bistorian's riding 0 1 In Miss Brown, during the semester at Vassar in 1915, Lucy Maynard Salmon had seen seething of her own pioneering spirit in history teaching. Hence she was recalled to Vassar in 1919 to begin the years of ser- vice which lasted until her retirement in l9hh. Here she became a lively and spirited member of the college community. She was always a champion of the underdog, and a rugged fighter for the causes in which she be- lieved. At one point she even entered Dutchess County politics and ran for County Court clerk. Some of her colleagues still remember her star role in a Founder's Day program on "Matthew Vassar's Times". During these years she published two additional books, The First Earl of Shaftsbu in 1933, under the auspices 0? tEe Kmerican Historical Association, and A ostle of Democracy, the life of Lucy Maynard Sa§Eon, in l9U3. er wor in England was recognized in her election as Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 1930 she was co-founder of the Berkshire Historical Con- ference, still a thriving organization of women historians. The course at Vassar for which alumnae best remember Miss Brown bore the suggestive title, "The History of Tolerance". To some students it was the most pro- vocative course they had at Vassar. Her interests and activities did not end with retirement. In l9h8, in collaboration with George B. Carson she published a European history text, Men and Centuries of European Civilization, a new approac n ex. oo s. Miss Brown's recent years were spent in Norfolk, Virginia. That one was past seventy need not keep one from exploring and enjoying this new region. She at once identified herself with the local historians and became custodian of their local archives. But as much as she loved the past, she could drop old MSS at a moment's notice to engage in a social or political struggle. Hence, when the scourge of McCarthyism LOUISE FARGO aaowu (Continued) ravaged the land, the old warhorse entered the lists again. Vassar Alumnae who saw the dejected figure of Titus Oates in stocks on the cover of The Nation for April, 195M could not have been too greatly sur- prised to discover that the author of the article, ‘Portrait of an Informer; a Seventeenth Century Moral" was their old teacher of the "History of Tolerance". Those of us who came as young instructors during her term at Vassar remember gratefully her kindness and friendliness during our years of initiation. All of her colleagues respected her integrity and her courage and found Vassar a less colorful community when she was no longer here. Respectfully submitted, Josephine Gleason Emily Brow: Mildred Campbell XIV - 70-71
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