Signet society
Encyclopedia
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
was founded in 1870 by members of the class of 1871. The first president was Charles Joseph Bonaparte
Charles Joseph Bonaparte
Charles Joseph Bonaparte was an American lawyer and political activist from Maryland who served in the Cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt. Bonaparte was Secretary of the Navy and then Attorney General. While Attorney General, he created the Bureau of Investigation...
. It was, at first, dedicated to the production of literary work only, going so far as to exclude debate and even theatrical productions. According to one source (The Harvard book : a series of historical, biographical, and descriptive sketches, 1875. The Signet Society):
- It seemed to the founders that there was room in the College world for another association that should devote itself more exclusively to literary work than is possible with large numbers. Accordingly, they confined the membership to a few, and required that new members shall be, so far as possible, "representative men," and that at least five should be in the first half of their class.
After a few years in quarters on University property, the Signet moved to an off-campus location at 46 Dunster Street.
The Signet Society's Mission
In many ways, the Signet is distinct from other off-campus societies. The mandate of the Signet has broadened from the literary arts to include music, the visual arts, and theater. It does not publish a regular journal, although its members are active in most undergraduate publications. Many undergraduate Signet members are in other Harvard College artistic and literary organizations, including the Harvard Advocate, the Hasty Pudding TheatricalsHasty Pudding Theatricals
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals and for its status as the oldest collegiate theatrical organization in the United States...
, the Harvard Crimson
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the athletic teams of Harvard University. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2006, there were 41 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country...
, the Harvard Lampoon
Harvard Lampoon
The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Overview:Published since 1876, The Harvard Lampoon is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. It is also the second longest-running English-language humor...
, the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra
Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra
The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra is a collegiate symphony orchestra comprising Harvard students and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in March 1808 as the Pierian Sodality, the orchestra is considered by some to be the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States...
, and the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club
Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club
The Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club, founded in 1908, is an umbrella theater organization at Harvard College with the purpose of assisting all theatrical projects at the college. It is mainly concerned with productions at the Loeb Drama Center, which it shares with the American Repertory Theater...
.
In contrast to the Final Clubs
Final club
A final club is an undergraduate social club at Harvard College.- Origins :The historical basis for the name final clubs is that Harvard used to have a variety of clubs for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with students of different years being in different clubs, and the "final clubs"...
, the Signet's mission is artistic and creative. It admits both men and women without prejudice. Membership dues are required, but are pro-rated by Harvard's financial aid calculations, allowing all talented members of the College community to be considered for membership. The Signet enjoys a comfortable relationship with the University. Harvard faculty and administrators have been and are Signet officers, associates, and members. The contemporary tenor of the Signet might be described as a relaxed liberalism, and competition between members is discouraged.
The opening remarks of the Signet's minutes state: "On Tuesday evening, November 1, 1870, a meeting was held at 10 Grays Hall preliminary to the organization of a senior society, which was to afford to a select number a pleasant means of intercourse with each other, not to be expected from the illiberal policy of the only society of reputation existing." This "illiberal policy" refers to the displeasure with which the founders of the Signet greeted the established Final Clubs. These first members formed the society's admissions criteria to transcend the social politics that they perceived as dominating in the Final Club system.
To distinguish the Signet from other exclusive organizations, the founding members stated in the original charter that members would be chosen according to "merit and accomplishment." Today, those membership criteria are still present in the club's constitution mandating that members "shall be chosen with regard to their intellectual, literary and artistic ability and achievements." While these criteria are central to the put-up process (admissions procedure), personal character is also considered.
Architecture
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
(of all things)—a welcome touch of flamboyance for what would otherwise have been a rather staid clubhouse for the Signet… the graphic quality of Cram & Goodhue’s and LaRose’s new frontspiece is actually rather reminiscent of book design (not to mention the Palladianism of several Tory Row mansions), and centers on a two story pedimented Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
pavilion displaying the Signet arms…. The design concept- cavalier enough, but very successful—discloses another guise of history-making in Harvard architecture: to restore the house, not as it originally was, but in LaRose’s words, as it “ought to have been.” Thus the architectural solecism of the two orders of the porch—the Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
columns and Ionic pilasters—was retained.” (p.92, "The Campus Guide: Harvard University", Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 1568982801)
Traditions
The emblem of the Signet was, at one time, "a signet-ring inclosing a nettle," the signet-ring symbolizing unity and the nettle symbolizing impartiality. The current emblem, which appears over the door of the Signet, includes a beehive and bees, and a legend in Ancient Greek. Another motto, attributed to VirgilVirgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, read Sic vos non vobis Mellificatis apes -- So do you bees make honey, not for yourselves. From this comes the tradition of referring to Signet members as "drones."
Although the Signet eschews, to an extent, some initiation procedures or rituals more common to some of Harvard's Final Clubs
Final club
A final club is an undergraduate social club at Harvard College.- Origins :The historical basis for the name final clubs is that Harvard used to have a variety of clubs for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with students of different years being in different clubs, and the "final clubs"...
or the Lampoon, one enduring tradition is that upon induction into the Signet Society, each new member receives a red rose. The rose is to be kept, dried, and returned to the Signet Society upon the publication of the member's first substantial literary work. Many dried roses hang on the walls of the Signet next to copies of the works that occasioned their return. Particularly noteworthy is T.S. Eliot's rose, which hangs along with his original letter of acceptance to the society.
Nature
The Signet is not a secret society. Election is a high distinction, and its new members are announced and posted. It is recognized by both the College and the University.The Signet has a longstanding and informal reciprocal relationship with the Elizabethan Club
Elizabethan Club
The Elizabethan Club is a social club at Yale University named for Queen Elizabeth I and her era. Its profile and members tend toward a literary disposition, and conversation is one of the Club's chief purposes....
, or 'Lizzie' of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and the two organizations sporadically hold a lawn croquet tournament, for which a handled and engraved silver pudding cup in a mahogany case serves as the trophy. Another tradition has been that some business letters sent between the Signet and Lizzie over the decades and archived at Yale were written in Latin, not English. Both organizations host the other's members on the day of the Harvard-Yale football game.
An alumni corporation administers the property, staff, and endowment.
Arts and letters
- James AgeeJames AgeeJames Rufus Agee was an American author, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S...
, novelist, screenwriter, poet, author - Conrad AikenConrad AikenConrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
, author - John AshberyJohn AshberyJohn Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
, poet, writer - John BerendtJohn BerendtJohn Berendt is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction....
, writer - Derek Bok, Harvard President
- Andy BorowitzAndy BorowitzAndy Borowitz is a comedian and New York Times bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is best known for creating the satirical website , which has an audience in the millions...
, writer, comedian, actor - Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, composer and conductor - Earl Derr BiggersEarl Derr BiggersEarl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. He is remembered primarily for adaptations of his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:...
, novelist and playwright - T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, poet, author - Robert FrostRobert FrostRobert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, poet - Matt HaimovitzMatt HaimovitzMatt Haimovitz is an Israeli-born cellist now based in the United States and Canada. He mainly plays a cello made by Matteo Gofriller in 1710.-Family, musical education and early career:...
, cellist - Donald HallDonald HallDonald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...
, poet - Mason HammondMason HammondMason Hammond , was a Harvard University professor, authority on Latin and the history of Rome and its empire, and former chairman of the board of trustees at St. Mark's School.Professor Hammond's work has proven highly durable...
, Classics scholar - Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, poet - Abbott Lawrence LowellAbbott Lawrence LowellAbbott Lawrence Lowell was a U.S. educator and legal scholar. He served as President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933....
, Harvard President, historian - Yo-Yo MaYo-Yo MaYo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
, cellist - Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, writer - Samuel Eliot MorisonSamuel Eliot MorisonSamuel Eliot Morison, Rear Admiral, United States Naval Reserve was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history that were both authoritative and highly readable. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years...
, author, educator, maritime historian, retired Rear Admiral - Charles Eliot NortonCharles Eliot NortonCharles Eliot Norton, was a leading American author, social critic, and professor of art. He was a militant idealist, a progressive social reformer, and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries considered the most cultivated man in the United States.-Biography:Norton was born at...
, scholar - George PlimptonGeorge PlimptonGeorge Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
, writer, journalist - Neil Rudenstine, Harvard President
- George SantayanaGeorge SantayanaGeorge Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...
, philosopher, poet, novelist - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. was an American historian and social critic whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian"...
, historian - Wallace StevensWallace StevensWallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
, poet - John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
, writer - John Hall WheelockJohn Hall WheelockJohn Hall Wheelock was an American poet. He was a descendant of Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College.He wrote fourteen books of poetry and was co-winner of the 1962 Bollingen Prize...
, poet
Journalism
- Jill AbramsonJill AbramsonJill Ellen Abramson is the executive editor of The New York Times. Assuming the position in September 2011, she became the first woman in this role in the paper's 160-year history.-Early life and education:...
, executive editor, New York Times - Adam GopnikAdam GopnikAdam Gopnik, is an American writer, essayist and commentator. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism—and as the author of the essay collection Paris to the Moon, an account of five years that Gopnik, his wife...
, writer, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast... - Hendrick Hertzberg, senior editor, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
- Walter IsaacsonWalter IsaacsonWalter Isaacson is a writer and biographer. He is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME...
, journalist - Joseph LelyveldJoseph LelyveldJoseph Lelyveld was executive editor of the New York Times from 1994 to 2001, and interim executive editor in 2003 after the resignation of Howell Raines. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.In all, Lelyveld worked at...
, journalist, author - Frank RichFrank RichFrank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
, critic, writer - Reihan SalamReihan SalamReihan Morshed Salam is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. He is a columnist for The Daily and lead writer of National Reviews "The Agenda" blog, as well as a policy adviser at e21 and a contributing editor at National Affairs...
- Alessandra StanleyAlessandra StanleyAlessandra Stanley is an American journalist. In 2003 she became the television critic for The New York Times. Stanley was previously co-chief of the paper's Moscow bureau, Rome bureau chief, and as a correspondent for Time. She is the daughter of defense expert Timothy W...
, critic, writer - Richard TofelRichard TofelRichard Tofel is the general manager of ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism organization in New York.Previously, he was the president and chief operating officer of the International Freedom Center. Mr. Tofel took over that position in October 2004.Mr...
, journalist, author - Fareed ZakariaFareed ZakariaFareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010 he became Editor-At-Large of Time magazine...
, editor, author, commentator
Media and entertainment
- Amy BrennemanAmy BrennemanAmy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...
, actress - Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
, actor - Rashida JonesRashida JonesRashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
, actress - John LithgowJohn LithgowJohn Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio...
, actor - Donal LogueDonal LogueDonal Francis Logue is an Canadian actor perhaps most famous for his role as Sean Finnerty in Grounded for Life.-Personal life:...
, actor - Conan O'BrienConan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, talk show host - Natalie PortmanNatalie PortmanNatalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
, actress - James "Toofer" Spurlock, fictional character on television show 30 Rock30 Rock30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
- Whit StillmanWhit StillmanWhit Stillman is an American writer-director known for his sly depictions of the "urban haute bourgeoisie" Whit Stillman (born John Whitney Stillman on January 25, 1952) is an American writer-director known for his sly depictions of the "urban haute bourgeoisie" Whit Stillman (born John Whitney...
, writer-director - Tom WernerTom WernerThomas Charles "Tom" Werner is an American television producer and businessman who, via his investment in New England Sports Ventures, is chairman of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club....
, producer, Red Sox co-owner - Alan "Scooter" Zackheim, reality show winner Beauty and the GeekBeauty and the GeekBeauty and the Geek is a reality television series on The CW. It has been advertised as "The Ultimate Social Experiment" and is produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Nick Santora....
Sciences
- James B. Conant, scholar, chemist
- Charles W. Eliot, Harvard President, chemist, mathematician
- Owen GingerichOwen GingerichDr. Owen Jay Gingerich is a former Research Professor of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University, and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory...
, astronomer - William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
, psychologist and philosopher - Thomas KuhnThomas KuhnThomas Samuel Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "paradigm shift," which has since become an English-language staple.Kuhn...
, philosopher - Andrew WeilAndrew WeilAndrew Thomas Weil is an American author and physician, who established the field of integrative medicine which attempts to integrate alternative and conventional medicine. Weil is the author of several best-selling books and operates a website and monthly newsletter promoting general health and...
, author, physician, established field of integrative medicine
Diplomacy, national security
- Charles Joseph BonaparteCharles Joseph BonaparteCharles Joseph Bonaparte was an American lawyer and political activist from Maryland who served in the Cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt. Bonaparte was Secretary of the Navy and then Attorney General. While Attorney General, he created the Bureau of Investigation...
, grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte (youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon I), United States Cabinet Member, and Signet Society's first president. - President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
- President Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
- Caspar WeinbergerCaspar WeinbergerCaspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
, former Secretary of Defense - Benazir BhuttoBenazir BhuttoBenazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, late Prime Minister of Pakistan
Politics
- Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator from New York
- Jay RockefellerJay RockefellerJohn Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
, U.S. Senator from West Virginia - William WeldWilliam WeldWilliam Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
, former Massachusetts Governor - Mark PennMark PennMark J. Penn , is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. In September 2007, he released a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, which examines small trends sweeping...
, pollster, author