What is the only existing Harvard diploma in the College collection unsigned by a College president has recently been added to the University archives by the Society of Friends of the Library. It is an honorary S. T. D. granted in 1773 to Samuel Locke, a member of the Class of 1755.

The explanation of this is not so difficult as it might seem for at the time the diploma was granted to him Locke was president of the College and so naturally did not sign his own sheepskin. The Follows and the Treasurer were the only signatories.

Signed by Hancock

"Johannes Hancock, Thesaurius" is scrawled at the bottom in the inimitable and well-known signature of the "Constitutional Father". The "Socii" of that time who also signed were Nathaniel Appleton 1749, John Winthrop 1732, Andrew Eliot 1737, Samuel Cooper 1748, and Andrew Eliot 1762.

As was the custom until 1813, this diploma was engrossed rather than engraved as later became the case. The size of the document in those days depended upon how much the individual recipient wanted to pay. The president merely granted the degree, and the student had to seek his own engrosser and arrange his own price.

Largest Diploma

The largest single diploma in the archives belonged to James Bowdoin of the class of 1771, later governor of the Commonwealth, and measures 24 by 13 inches. Contrasted to the is the smallest, 11 by 5 1/2 inches, which is also the oldest one in the collection, having been presented to George Alcock in 1676.

The College seal of Locke's diploma, now lost, was affixed to a blue ribbon, rather than to the red one of today. Blue and yellow appear to have been the usual color of these bands until the middle of the nineteenth century, when red became the College color as a result of President Eliot's gift of Crimson handkerchiefs to the crew before a Yale race.