There are twenty-six
of them, neatly dressed.
Hair shining, parted, combed.
Two are still sporting high collars, but the rest have the modern,
turned look; a few have vests; one’s in a bow tie, but the others are knotted
and pinned; almost all have French cuffs with links, laced shoes, sharply
creased trousers.
Confident. Assured. Not smiling.
It’s serious business…
This is the Class Day
Committee – the seniors responsible for the activities for the full-day celebration
for the Class of 1907 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
My grandfather,
Gardner S. Gould, is on the far left, front row.
He majored in Civil Engineering, was a
member of the track team, captain of the hockey team (two of his brothers followed
him to MIT; the Gould Forward Line was formidable, indeed!). His thesis? A Plan for the Abolition of Grade Crossings
at Quincy Mass.
He disliked working for others, preferred to be his “own man;” he had a
private practice with offices in Boston (which shut down every day from noon to
one; he and a colleague from down the hall religiously played cutthroat
cribbage during lunch).
One of his projects was the construction of the portico over Plymouth
Rock—I have a postcard view of it and a framed citation from his construction
crew!
But who are all the others? I’ve often wondered
where they worked, wondered about the bridges and roads and structures they
designed and built; who they married, the names of their children, where they
lived and died.
And I’ve often
wondered how they remembered my grandfather—fondly, I hope, as do I.
It might be an interesting project for you to research the others. There are a lot of common names, but when I picked the one I thought looked most interesting, I found quite a few entries for "Oscar H. Starkweather."
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting tidbit: In the 1905 yearbook, my grandfather Gould is there as a soph.; there's also a Professor Heinrich Hofman, who married my great-aunt on my mother's side! Yikes -- the world is a teeny place! I've thought of trying to compile a listing of all those students!
DeleteSome very serious-looking young men in that photo. I laughed about the cutthroat cribbage games. Whenever there was a meeting of the 4 District Rangers in the U.S. Forest Service Supervisor's office on the Stanislaus Nat'l Forest there would be a serious game of cribbage played at lunchtime. All 4 rangers (my husband was one) were great fans of the game. And all 4, oddly enough, were left-handed as well. I don't know that that had anything to do with their enjoying the game of cribbage, but it was always an interesting side-note.
ReplyDeleteALL left-handed? What are the odds of that happening, anyway? Yes, cribbage was a family favorite for us, too!
DeleteThe students in vintage college group portraits always seem more mature than their real age. The formal dress adds yearsnthat we don't see in contemporary photos.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea that one can do a grand tour of Europe, including South Paris, without leaving the state of Maine.
I agree, Mike. They always dress and pose for the occasion, which makes the whole thing more important, more significant! And, you're right again -- my grandmother's Grand Tour was a slightly different affair!
DeleteI agree, the class committee of 1907 look very mature compared with modern times, although you don't say how old your grandfather would have been at that time - early 20s?
ReplyDeleteLet's see, Jo...born in 1886, he would have been 21 in 1907. They do appear more mature than today's graduates. We've lost so much of that formality, haven't we? Perhaps we should bring some of it back again...
DeleteThat’s a helluva title for a thesis - beats mine hands down - I won’t tell you what it was or you’ll look at me in a whole different light :) I actually think that’s a rather wonderful photograph, of such serious and earnest (and studious) young men.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that grade crossing paper sounds dull as dirt to me, but he knew what he was talking about. NOW, though, I'm dying to find out what YOURS was!
DeleteMarilyn, I want to know now too, of course, and I might add that you're mean to tease us like this.
DeleteI, too, have had thoughts of trying to track down what happened to other people pictured in class photos, but the task would be enormous, and it's not as if we don't already have enough of our own ancestors' lives to research and document.
ReplyDeleteAs far as thesis titles are concerned, I can guarantee mine wouldn't mean much to anyone here.
By the way, if you type out a list of those students and include it in the blog post - rather than just leave it as an image - over time, some of their descendants may get in touch with you and tell you their stories.
DeleteDeb - I always enjoy your style of writing. I have visited Plymouth Rock and seen the portico. How wonderful to have such a tangible, much photographed structure as part of your family history.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sue, for those nice words! Before long, you'll be seeing a sidebar on my blog advertising my second novel...but I promise not to be a pain about it!
DeleteI would think MIT would be filled with serious people, but having raised a chemist and having been around her chemist friends, I know those scientists can have a really good time -- and I don't mean in a "Big Bang Theory" way either.
ReplyDelete