In 1914, poised for war
On the sunny Thursday of June 18, 1914, Harvard opened its gates (though not then to women) for a Commencement celebration that would launch an unusually large undergraduate class of 537 into the world. Among those receiving diplomas that morning at Sanders Theatre were a future U.S. senator (Leverett Saltonstall, descended from a line of graduates dating back to 1642), a future bestselling novelist (Edward Streeter), and a future foreign policy adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt (Benjamin Sumner Welles). Hope marked the day and the class. “A burst of song, a trumpet blast rings clear,” read a poem by Pitman Benjamin Potter 1914 on the penumbral page of the class album that year. “We close old records but to open new.” The day before, Radcliffe College, celebrating its 20th year, held its own graduation ceremony at Sanders. In the Class of 1914, numbering 101, 17 seniors graduated magna cum laude, and five summa...