The 308th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, the founder of the University, comes on Friday, November 26. The Memorial Society has arranged a simple program to celebrate the event. Albert Matthews '82 will speak in the common Room of Smith Halls on Friday evening, and on Saturday morning at 8.30 o'clock the customary exercises ending with the singing of "Fair Harvard" will be held in the Delta before the statue of John Harvard" which will be wreathed for the occasion. The Glee Club will lead the singing, after which the meeting will adjourn to Appleton Chapel, where the Reverend Paul Revere Frothingham '86, D.D., Minister of the Arlington Street Church, Boston, will speak on a topic befitting the occasion.
It was not until recently that any authentic clue was found as to the exact date of John Harvard's birth. The entry--"1607, November 29, John Harvey, S. of Robt. a Butcher"--which appeared in the baptismal files of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, led historians, upon the occasion of the 300th celebration of his birth to fix November 26 as his rightful birthday. This was done because the custom in vogue in churches at that time required the baptism of all children on the third day after birth. In lieu of holding the celebration on Friday morning when few men would be in Cambridge over Thanksgiving, the meeting will be held on Saturday morning.
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