Ruskin, Norton, and Memorial Hall The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Shaffer, Robert B. 1949. Ruskin, Norton, and Memorial Hall. Harvard Library Bulletin III (2), Spring 1949: 213-231. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363276 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Ruskin, Nor ton, and Memorial Hall I-IE 1nost frightening building in greater Boston! In these , vo r ds 1\-1arcclB rcu er rccen tl y j n dica ted his feelings about Harvard University's l\1cmorjal Hull.. And the ,vell- kno,vn -architect \Vent on to say·: 'An impossible con- glonleratc of imitations. .. It is too high and too big for the land on ,vhich it is built. The building has no connection ,vith the streets and is ,vholly unrelated to its surroundings . .. the n1aterials used throughout in construction are an unf orrunate choice. Clumsy and formless on the exterior, ,vhat possible inducement is there to enter?,. 1 There 2re a grcnt many people ,vho are in complete agreement \vith this judgn1ent, but jr is not shared by all. For example, \Valter H. l(ilham, the Boston architect, says that 'Harvard has not properly appreciated this n1onument in recent years," and c]aimsthat the build- ing has its points. 2 This attitude to l\1crnorial Hall ,vas anticipated ahnost forty· years ago by· l\1ontgomcry·Schuy]er, a perceptive pioneer critic and historian of American architecture, ,vho called A1emorial Hall 'the most architccturall) 7 challenging and note\vorthy- [ of I-lar~ vard buildings] ·... by no means an architectural failure." s A sin1ilar,vide range of recorded opinion and feeling can be found among non-professional critics, particularly in Cambridge and Har~ vard circles. The novelist flenry Jan1cs ,vas sufficiently interested jn the building to ,vrite about it at least t,vicc. In 1 885 he sent nvo of the leading characters of T_beBostonians on n tour of the Hall; he describes the l\1etnoriai Transept as 'a chan1her high, dim, and severe/ and com- n1ents on the in1pression jt makes! 'The effect of the place is singularly nob]e and solc111n,and it is in1possible to stand there ,vithout a lifting of the hearL Ir is erected to dut)T ~nd honor, it speaks of sacrifice and examp]e, sec111sa kind of temple to youth, 1nanhood, and generosity.' 4 1 In 7 /Je A1nerica11Scene"' about t\vcnty years lat~r1 he further discusses the great official., the great bristling brick Va]haHa of the early "seventies,'~ that house of honor and of hospit9:lity ,vhich, under the name of the Alumni ..As quoted in the Boston Traveler, 20 January l945• Boston after Bulfinch ( Ca.n1bridge, l\1ass.t 1946), p. 7 5. :11~The Architecture of A n1cri can Co] leg es! I. - Harvard,!- Arr.!:,i tee tur al Record t XXVI { 1909) !-167-2.69. " ~The Bostoni;1ns,' Century ]t.-fagazine, XXX ( 18 8 5), 69 5. 2[3 • Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) 214 Harvard Library Bulletin Ha1l, dispenses ( 1.part f ro]n its con raining a noble anditorju1n} laurels. to the dead and dinners to the . living .. The recording nibkts of the 111embersof the University sa crifi c cdi on the Northern ·~dtl e, in the Ci vii , \ 7ar, are too imp ressi vc not to ret9.in here ahvays their collec-tjt•e beauty; but the n1onumenrnl office and character suffer throughout frorn the too scant presence of the massive and the 111arurc. The great str u c turc sprca ds and soars ,v j th th c h cst ,vii I in the ,vorld 1 but succeeds in resernhling rather son1e high-masted ship at sea._in slightly pros~ic equilibrium, than :1 thtng of builded foundations a.nd cn1brasured ,valJs. ,vhich it fa 11npossible not immediately to ndd that these distinc:tions :ire To t rclntil'C and these co1npadsons almost odious~ in face of the recent gcncrationsj gathered in f ro1n b cneath emptier skicsi ,vho nn1st have found in the bjg build- ing as it st:=-ndsan admonition nnd an ideatti But son1c of the pron1inent figures of the Cambridge scene itself ,vere less charitable. And the n1ost vocal in disapproval ,va.s for 1nany ye2rs Charles Eliot Norton., Professor of the History of Art 2t Harvard f ro1n- 1875 to 1898. In 1878, the )•car of the completion·of 1\1c111orial I--IalJ,he ,vrotc to James Russell Lo,vell: cl have given ,up a.11hope of any· [I-Iarvard] Co]iege building being other than ugly. 1 6 In 1890, ,vith characteristic hyperbole., he proposed the destruction of all Har- vard buildings erected durjng the preceding fifty years.7 And he ex- pressed hitnsclf in similar fashion on numerous other occasi<?ns. Nortonts dissatisfactionis a matter of sopie interest, inas1nnch as he had a very considerable responsibilit) 7 for the inception and develop- ment of the schen1e in the first place, a fact some,vhat forgotten. Arthur Scdg\vick1 ?\Torton"'sbrothcr-in-la\v 1 indicated this in a re1ni- niscent 1e ttcr to l\1iss Sara Nor ton in ,v hi ch h c stated that the existen cc 8 of 1\11en1orial I-Iall ,vas j n great part, if not chicfl y, due to Norton. Actually, some indications of Norton's relationship to this edifice are to be found in the co]lection s of the Harvard University Li bral}•. It sohappens that 1\1emorialI-Jail is a ,vell-docun1ented structure. Its rather involved history can be traced through letters., reports 2nd minutes of con1n1itreestbuilding contracts 1 and similar material pre-· served in the Harvard {]niversity'" Archives jn the ,,ridencr Library. This material., together ,vith the considerable quantity of Norton papers and letters 110\v kept in the Houghton J,.tihrary,presents a.n The An1erica11 Scene .(Ne,v York, 1907),.p. 59. t: Lette1's of Charle~ Eliot Norton, ecL Sc1raNorton and l\.".LA+ De ,v ..Ho,ve (Bos- ton! I 91 3 ) ._lJ, 81 ,. C. E. Norton._'I-I ar vard University in J R90/ H 1.1.rper's .i\f agazinr., LXXXI ( 1890), 59L 8 Letters of CharlesEliot J!.lorton) II. 436. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) I . - ::-,; ·-:~ .. ...: -r-· - ,.:.. .I. .- ~--·... - .. • - =•:•~r- :- • -- -; ·. ..- ' . -:: ..:_· . • • ••• • • I - - . -·· . - P1.A·rr,I a TM E ox1,-o[~D J\IUSR;Ui"i I. isj 5 ' PJ.1\TC lb THE 1-.-ATIOX .-\L AC~\DLi\l y or [l[.S!Gl\. I 866 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) I • • - 'I ;· .-. _:- r"" 'r • - -- ;. .i.. ~--......:· .. ·:. :..:.=:,-S::-·:. :·; - -= =--:.-: =: :-·. -~ ~--: -- ...... •• =--.~---.•.~-_:-:-·---=:-c:•_:r---"-'·.'. -:--r-·· ., - . - -~-- · ...--~~=-==-·- .. : - -_-.- ... .- ....-.-.· - r -~~T_:~- -- .: ..--:.~ ·/ ·_'.;-.::~-- .. - > • --:- -~ .... · · .. ·i-. - .·~- .. PLATE Ila rIRST DESIG~ roR nlE.l'\IORL-\L HALL, 186 5 .... -~ .. r • t~ I l r ··, 'I" -. ·. ·...... .... I··-· • • • SCCOXLl DE.::SLGK ron i\[EL'\IORIAL H AJ.L, , 868 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) 0 DO co,_ Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 2 (Spring 1949) Ruskin, Norton., and Me1norialflail 215 unusual opportunity for an examination of the architectural motives, thinking~ and ideals of a ,vcll-cducatcd and ,veil-traveled Nc,v Eng- lander of the post---bcHumperiod. On 1 z May, , 865 t Norton ,vas one of a group of pron1inent alumni ,vho met to consider the subject of a proper n1cmorial to the ,:sons of Harvard fallen in the ,var., The subject ,vas a controversial one from the beginning. Some felt a simple monument to be the proper expres- sion; others f avurcd a hall of n1onun1ental character; the. suggestion ,vas also made that this latter n1ight be con1bincd ,vith t,vo other buildings needed by· the College and the graduates: a dining ha11for the alutnni gath c r ingt{,and a thca tre for a cadcn1i c ccren10ni es. No rt on., according to Sedg,vickJ led the faction \vhich. felt 'that the n1en1orialshould be one .,vhich did not suggest victory or triun1ph in ,var, but the sacrifice of Jifc,for a cause '"vholl}rdisconnected ,vith ordinar)T ,varfnrc, and above itt and that the n1en1orialshould be avo,vcdly dedicated to the uses of peace and the objects of the University. -..... ' 0 One of the opponents of this schcn1e said that he ~vnnted nn alnn1ni hall as 1nnch as an}rone, hut thought the subjects of a hall and of a n1emorial should not he confounded; \Vhi]e another alun1nl1.~thoug11t that the embracing of t\VO objects in one schen1e ,vo11]dsubject the alumni to a. charge of 'Yankee shre,vdness.' 10 A comrnittcc of c]cvcn mcn1bers ,vas appointed at Norton's sugges- tion to cxan1ine the various proposals carefully and to report on a pern1anc.nt 1nen1orial; he ,vas a1nong those appointed. This ,vas the mo<lest beginning of an enterprise , v l1 i ch ,vas to take thirteen years to comp]ete1 and ,vhich ,vas to cost, in contrast to the first estimate of $75 ,ooot nearly $400.,000.