Maid service at Harvard is an institution as old as the University itself. Through the years the cleaning women with the whimsical brooms have been called "sweeps," "goodies," and more recently "biddies." The latest term of affection is just plain "maids"--those who value their cleaning service dare use no other term, for the value of labor-management relations is learned in the college suite.

From the minutes of the Corporation meeting of March 1, 1659, President Charles Chauncey reports that it was "concluded by the Corporation first that Olde Mary bee yet connived to bee in the College with the charge to take heed to doe her worke, undertake, & to give content to the College & Students."

Last on the minutes of the day's meeting was the Corporation conclusion that "Mr. Norton is not thought fit for the discharge of the butler's place."

University supervision of its cleaning women is a little more complicated than it was 300 years ago, but essentially the same system prevails: the Corporation has the final word in determining policy. Execution of the policy is now the responsibility of the Administrative Vice-President and the Personnel Department.

The University hires and fires its maids as it pleases, but since 1936 there has been a union organization known as the Harvard University Employees' Representative Association which acts as the authorized bargaining agent for the maids.

Before Houses

Before the House system the maids formed a disjointed group of people relatively small in number and completely subservient to the University, and in some cases, to the student as well.

During the era of President Eliot there were three distinct social strata: the poorer students who lived in Cambridge's numerous "boarding houses", the middle class students who lived in the more expensive Yard dormitories, and the "Gold Coasters" who lived in the privately owned Westmorely Court, Randolph Hall, Apley Court, Claverly, and Dudley.

Those who lived in the boarding houses fared as they could; those who lived in the Yard had the benefit of University maid service seven days a week, chargeable to the term bill; and those who lived on the Gold Coast of Mount Auburn Street received a service proportional to what they wished to pay.

In fact, Randolph Hall (now Adams D--I entries) allegedly has chambers in the basement known as the "slave quarters"; here the personal valets of the Indian princes and maharajas supposedly kept inventory of "Master's" persian rugs and stock of incense.

Evidently, those persons living on the Yard during the 18th century found the maids or "goodies", a provocative and charming lot. They were called "goodies" with sporting reference to the "good old dames" who had originally been called "goodwives".

"The Rebelliad"

One student who lived on the Yard wrote an epic poem in 1822 that was later published in book form, becoming the fashionable Christmas present from one College graduate to another.

"The Rebelliad", by author unknown, opens with the invocation:

"Old Goody Muse; on thee I call,