Notes on Whittier and Haverford College

WHITTIER AND HAVERFORD COLLEGE7 NOTES ON WHITTIER AND HAVERFORD COLLEGE By Edward D. Snyder Condensed from an address delivered before the Friends' Historical Association meeting on Fifth Month 16, 1936. ?G?? WHITTIER items now in the possession of Haverford -*- College are of special interest not only because of their intrinsic value but more especially because of the poet's recurrent contacts with Haverford College over something like half a century. In 1838 Whittier visited Haverford in what he called "the day of small beginnings," and long afterwards he said, "The promise of usefulness which it then gave has been more than fulfilled." 2 In the college year 1849-50 there came to Haverford as steward Whittier's cousin, Joseph Cartland,2 who was promoted the following year to the position of Superintendent, that is, the chief administrative officer. As a result of his very close intimacy with the poet, people at Haverford College came to be especially familiar with Whittier's earlier poems. The references to this Joseph Cartland in Pickard's life of Whittier are so numerous that the tie between Whittier and Haverford from 1849 to 1853 appears to have been extremely close. In 1860 the Faculty of Haverford College recommended that the honorary degree of Master of Arts be bestowed on Whittier, which was subsequently done by action of the Board of Managers . The College now has in its possession the original diploma presented to Whittier at that time, as well as the original minutes of the Faculty and of the Board of Managers, both of which have now been copied out and put conveniently on display along with the diploma. In 1841 Whittier visited Abraham Pennock, who lived at Haverford and whose son was then preparing to enter the College.3 1 Whittier's Semi-Centennial letter to Haverford College. History of Haverford College (Philadelphia 1892), pp. 476-478; or Semi-Centennial Celebration at Haverford College (Philadelphia 1885), pp. 51-53. 2 History of Haverford College (Philadelphia 1892), pp. 208-209. 3 Pickard's Life, vol. 1, p. 269. Matriculate Catalogue of Haverford College (Philadelphia 1922), p. 43. 8 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION In the same year, I860, the Everett Society of Haverford College made Whittier an honorary member, and presented him with a certificate of membership which has likewise come into the possession of Haverford College. The Everett Society certificate is as a matter of fact almost exactly like the College diploma in its physical appearance, and one must take more than a cursory glance at the display in our Roberts Collection to see which is the certificate and which the diploma for the Master's degree. The Semi-Centennial of Haverford College in 1883 is rich with Whittier contacts. There is the letter to the late Professor Francis B. Gummere, of which the original is now in the Roberts Collection . There is the long and official letter to the College read at the Semi-Centennial celebration and reprinted in various places. (The original manuscript is not in the possession of the College, and it is earnestly hoped that if it should appear in some file of old letters, the present owner will notify the authorities of its whereabouts. See Note 1 for the references.) There is the poem on Whittier which Professor Francis B. Gummere 4 wrote in the same year, 1883, and there is the letter—dated only a little later— which Whittier wrote to Rufus M. Jones as Editor of The Haverfordian.6 In 1884 when the Friends' School (now the Moses Brown School) of Providence, Rhode Island, held exercises appropriate to the unveiling of a portrait of Whittier, it was President Thomas Chase of Haverford College who was the orator of the day.6 The distinction which President Chase brought to Haverford in this and similar connections is a matter of common knowledge to the older generations of Haverfordians. To the younger generation, it may suffice to refer to the fact that President Eliot of Harvard liked to recall publicly that he himself had been privileged to study Sophomore Latin under Thomas Chase, who was then on the Harvard faculty.7 4 The Gummere poem is quoted from the Friends...