An introduction to an exhibition at the Harvard Semitic Museum on the occasion of Harvard's 350th anniversary, September 1986. Discusses the proposed quota for Jewish students at Harvard in 1922, when the Jewish student body had reached 22%. Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell (also vice-president of the Immigrant Restrictive League) feared that the influx of "undesirable" Jewish students would prevent others from applying, undermine the university's American tradition, and heighten antisemitism. Describes reactions of alumni, students, and the press. Although an investigating committee affirmed the traditional policy of non-discrimination, an unofficial quota was adopted in 1925 and lasted until the 1950s. Regarding Radcliffe, there is evidence of tacit restrictions on Jewish admissions, but relations between Jewish and Gentile students were good. Includes excerpts from memoirs, and reprints of articles about social prejudice against Jews.

A fresh portrayal of one of the architects of the African American intellectual tradition, whose faith in the subversive power of education will inspire teachers and learners today. Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the persistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this educational heritage. There is perhaps no better exemplar of this heritage than Carter G. Woodson—groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged: Woodson’s first teachers were his formerly enslaved uncles; he himself taught for nearly thirty years; and he spent his life partnering with educators to transform the lives of Black students. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles Woodson’s efforts to fight against the “mis-education of the Negro” by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson’s materials and methods as they fought for power in schools and continued the work of fugitive pedagogy. Forged in slavery, embodied by Woodson, this tradition of escape remains essential for teachers and students today.

The history of anthropology at Harvard is told through vignettes about the people, famous and obscure, who shaped the discipline at Harvard College and the Peabody Museum. The role of amateurs and private funders in the early growth of the field is highlighted, as is the participation of women and of students and scholars of diverse ethnicities.

A union list of serials commencing publication after Dec. 31, 1949.

Christopher C. Langdell (1826-1906) is one of the most influential figures in the history of American professional education. As dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895, he conceived, designed, and built the educational model that leading professional schools in virtually all fields subsequently emulated. In this first full-length biography of the educator and jurist, Bruce Kimball explores Langdell's controversial role in modern professional education and in jurisprudence. Langdell founded his model on the idea of academic meritocracy. According to this principle, scholastic achievement should determine one's merit in professional life. Despite fierce opposition from students, faculty, alumni, and legal professionals, he designed and instituted a formal system of innovative policies based on meritocracy. This system's components included the admission requirement of a bachelor's degree, the sequenced curriculum and its extension to three years, the hurdle of annual examinations for continuation and graduation, the independent career track for professional faculty, the transformation of the professional library into a scholarly resource, the inductive pedagogy of teaching from cases, the organization of alumni to support the school, and a new, highly successful financial strategy. Langdell's model was subsequently adopted by leading law schools, medical schools, business schools, and the schools of other professions. By the time of his retirement as dean at Harvard, Langdell's reforms had shaped the future model for professional education throughout the United States.