Students of this period lived luxuriously and inexpensively. Breakfast, served in Memorial Hall by white-clad waiters, featured two boil- ed eggs for eight cents or two doughnuts for three cents; a roast beef dinner sold for twelve cents, quality not specified. Each six-week course cost $20, a price fixed in the late 1880's and not changed until 1929.
The advantages of summer education, which seem obvious today, were not fully recognized in the Gilded Decade of the 90's. Popular health beliefs centered around the notion that summers should be restful, not devoted to scholarly endeavor. Poring over books for twelve months of the year was considered unwise, leading possibly to illness or lack of vigor. The staid Boston Herald once again fixed a jaundiced eye upon the Harvard campus, editorializing in part:
"But, on the other hand, [summer courses] work in vacation time many students and teachers who ought not to do anything, whose minds ought to lie fallow and recuperate with their bodies, and for whom in doing this the ordinary vacation is none too long. Much as the summer schools may seem to be accomplishing an important result, we believe they are in keeping with that effort to cheat nature by making more out of life than can reasonably be made, which is one of the great characteristics of modern life in this country"
One event probably made the Harvard Summer School nationally renowned and locally accepted. The School, upon the suggestion of two Harvard graduates and the support of the American military regime in Cuba, educated nearly half of the country's teachers in 1900, eliciting a wealth of comment and praise.
Rarely do the wheels of education move as rapidly as they did in 1900. President Eliot received a letter on Lincoln's Birthday, requesting use of the Harvard campus for 1,500 Cuban teachers. A special meeting of the Corporation considered the proposal February 13, and a few days later Eliot dispatched the simple telegram, "Yes--Eliot."
Tremendous logistic problems remained to be solved. First, the enrollment of the Summer School would double immediately. The University scoured Cambridge, finally locating sufficient apartment space for the Cuban senoras and caballeros. Secondly, financial backing for the delegation had to be obtained; a post-haste fund appeal netted over $71,000 to meet tuition and board costs. A special educational program for the visitors had to be arranged, including sufficient numbers of Spanish-speaking interpreters. A curriculum of English language instruction, American history (described in the catalogue as "early struggles of the people to form and to preserve the republic,--thus showing the Cuban teachers many of the great problems that now confront their own country"), and two elective courses, filled the six-week period for the 1,273 Cubans.
Blacksmithing Course
Although press coverage often centered largely on a shipboard struggle between a captain and the Havana Superintendent of Schools, the nation's newspapers lauded the Harvard effort and gave it wide publicity. The Cubans themselves increased publicity by visiting New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, where they were received by President McKinley. The hastily-arranged experiment thus proved tremendously successful, and any latent opposition to summer education was quashed. 1900 confirmed the vacation session as a valuable adjunct to the winter terms.
Increased numbers of students and courses, a more elaborate program of conferences and lectures, and a rising standard of education constitute the major trends since the start of the century. Behind these large, but somewhat dull movements, one can spot some interesting bits of Americana, some reflections of changes in civilization.
Take courses, for example. Black-smithing and three other Shopwork classes were first offered in 1901, continuing until 1916 when Henry Ford made them impracticable. Military History appeared in 1915, "Historical Aspects of the Present War" in 1917, and a congeries of special courses in Red Cross work and trench warfare technique the following summer Classes in "Americanization" appeared in the catalogue for 1920 illustrating perhaps an academic reaction to the Great Red Scare Physical Education, the most popular course in the early decades of the Summer School, disappeared completely in 1933, as students' academic interest continued to increase.
The inflationary spiral peeked through occasionally. The standard $20 fee disappeared in 1929, board rates had gone from $7 per week in 1919 to $8.50 in 1920. By 1937, each course cost $30, and the trend continues steadily after World War II to the present figure of $85.
And, in a certain respect, summer courses may have reflected a growing American concern with learning. The NBC network, for example, broad cast a series of five lectures during the summer of 1935, including one by William Y. Elliott, later Director of the Summer School. "American Town Meeting of the Air" originality from Sanders Theatre all through the summer of 1942.
War Troubles
When World War II broke our Harvard College changed character rapidly. A third term, twelve week in length, filled the former summer vacation. Under the pressure of the new term, the Summer School of Arts and Sciences (although not of Education) disappeared. In 1942, a good deal of confusion had resulted when 2,000 Summer School students view with 2,000 third-term students for space; this confusion did not occur again. A Faculty vote of 1948 reinstituted the vacation session, which again has grown steadily in its scope and in numbers of registered students.
The Cambridge Tribune prophets sized correctly in 1888, when it wrote. "The summer courses are certain the increase in number, and to grow in interest every year." History does show the success of the nation's older Summer School--even if no one can recall the beginnings. Since its humble origins in Asa Gray's lectures, vacation education has been widely copied and justly admired