Hasty Pudding Club

Last updated
Hasty Pudding Club
Hasty Pudding Club.jpg
Former location of the Hasty Pudding Club at 12 Holyoke Street
Location45 Dunster Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°22′19″N71°07′10″W / 42.37194°N 71.11944°W / 42.37194; -71.11944
Built1888
Architect Peabody and Stearns [1]
NRHP reference No. 78000442
Added to NRHPJanuary 9. 1978

The Hasty Pudding Club, often referred to simply as the Pudding, is a social club at Harvard University, and one of three sub-organizations that comprise the Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. [2] The club's motto, Concordia Discors (discordant harmony), derives from the epistles of the Latin poet Horace. [3]

Contents

The year of founding for the club is usually given as 1795, when a group of undergraduates came together "to cherish feelings of friendship and patriotism," [4] or as 1770, the founding year for the Institute of 1770, an organization that the Pudding absorbed in 1924. [5] By way of this amalgamation, the Pudding claims to be the oldest collegiate social club in the United States. [6]

Historically, the club has been noted for its "prestigious" reputation and viewed as "the first step towards final club membership." [7] [8] An 1870 travel book listed the Hasty Pudding Club and the Porcellian Club as "the two lions of Harvard." [9]

The Hasty Pudding Club stage c. 1876 Hasty Pudding Club Stage.jpg
The Hasty Pudding Club stage c.1876

History

The society was founded on September 1, 1795, by a 15-year-old Harvard College student, Horace Binney, who called together a meeting of 21 juniors in the room of Nymphas Hatch. The club is named for hasty pudding, a traditional English dish popular at that time in America that the founding members ate at their first meeting. Each week two members, chosen in alphabetical order, had to provide a pot of hasty pudding for the club to enjoy.

Originally, the club engaged in holding mock trials, which became more elaborate over time. This culminated in a member, Lemuel Hayward, secretly planning to stage a musical on the night he was to host the club's meeting. On December 13, 1844, Hayward and other members staged Bombastes Furioso in room 11 of Hollis Hall, which began the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. [10]

Throughout its history, the Hasty Pudding Club has absorbed other organizations. In 1924, the Club absorbed the Institute of 1770, D.K.E. [5] In 2012, the Hasty Pudding Club, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and The Harvard Krokodiloes merged into a single entity: The Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. [11]

The Hasty Pudding Club is the only social club on campus that is coed and has members from all four years. Students gain membership in the club by attending a series of lunches, cocktail parties, and other gatherings—which are referred to as the punch process. The club holds its social activities in a clubhouse near Harvard Square. These include weekly Members' Nights, dinner and cocktail parties, as well as its elaborate theme parties, such as Leather and Lace. The current clubhouse contains rooms with specific purposes—such as The Arena, the club's game room, which has no windows or openings to the outside. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Gwynne</span> American actor and writer (1926–1993)

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne was an American actor, artist, and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later film roles in The Cotton Club, Pet Sematary, and My Cousin Vinny.

<i>The Harvard Lampoon</i> College humor magazine

The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signet Society</span>

The Signet Society of Harvard University was founded in 1870 by members of the class of 1871. The first president was Charles Joseph Bonaparte. It was, at first, dedicated to the production of literary work only, going so far as to exclude debate and even theatrical productions. According to The Harvard book

It seemed to the founders that there was room in the College world for another association that should devote itself more exclusively to literary work than is possible with large numbers. Accordingly, they confined the membership to a few, and required that new members shall be, so far as possible, "representative men," and that at least five should be in the first half of their class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasty Pudding Theatricals</span> Student theatrical society at Harvard

Hasty Pudding Theatricals is a student theatrical society at Harvard University known for its annual burlesque crossdressing musicals as well as its Man and Woman of the Year awards. The Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the United States and the third oldest in the world. Its annual production is a musical comedy that often touches on topical social and political issues.

The Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award is bestowed annually by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals society at Harvard University. The award was created in 1951, and its first recipient was Gertrude Lawrence, an English actress, singer, and dancer. It has since been awarded annually by the society members of the Hasty Pudding to performers deemed to have made a "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment".

The Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award is bestowed annually by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals society at Harvard University. It has been awarded since 1967 to performers deemed by the society members to have made a "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment."

The Porcellian Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts", or as 1794, the year of the roast pig dinner at which the club, known first as "the Pig Club" was formally founded. The club's motto, Dum vivimus vivamus is Epicurean. The club emblem is the pig and some members sport golden pigs on watch-chains or neckties bearing pig's-head emblems.

Harvard College has several types of social clubs. These are split between gender-inclusive clubs recognized by the college, and unrecognized single-gender clubs which were subject to College sanctions in the past. The Hasty Pudding Club holds claim as the oldest collegiate social club in America, tracing its roots back to 1770. The next oldest institutions, dating to 1791, are the traditionally all-male final clubs. Fraternities were prominent in the late 19th century as well, until their initial expulsions and then eventual resurrection off Harvard's campus in the 1990s. From 1991 onwards, all-female final clubs as well as sororities began to appear. Between 1984 and 2018, no social organizations were recognized by the school due to the clubs' refusal to become gender-inclusive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Harvard Krokodiloes</span> American university a cappella ensemble

The Harvard Krokodiloes are Harvard University's oldest a cappella singing group, founded in 1946. The group consists of twelve tuxedo-clad undergraduates, and they sing songs from the Great American Songbook and beyond.

The Fly Club is a final club, traditionally "punching" male undergraduates of Harvard College during their sophomore or junior year. Undergraduate and graduate members participate in club activities.

Alan Symonds was the Technical Director of the Harvard College Theaters for many years. He entered Harvard College in the 1960s, started participating in technical theater during his freshman orientation period, and soon found himself spending much more time on technical theater than on his studies. He participated in work on the student level, but also started working with professional companies, particularly the Boston Ballet, for whom he designed low cost portable smoke generators, and the American Repertory Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Club of New York City</span> Private social club in Manhattan, New York

The Harvard Club of New York City, commonly called The Harvard Club, is a private social club located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is limited to alumni, faculty and board members of Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Club of Boston</span> Private social club in Boston, Massachusetts

The Harvard Club of Boston is a private social club located in Boston, Massachusetts. Its membership is open to alumni and associates of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. The Back Bay Clubhouse is located in Boston's historic Back Bay neighborhood, at 374 Commonwealth Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Brener</span> American actor

Josh Brener is an American actor. He played the roles of Kyle on the IFC series Maron and Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti on the HBO series Silicon Valley. In animation, he provides the voices of Mark Beaks in the 2017 reboot of DuckTales, Donatello on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Neeku Vozo on Star Wars Resistance, Dylan Dalmatian on 101 Dalmatian Street, Twig on "The Mighty Ones", and Intelligence Pete on "Sniper Grit".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Woods (American football)</span> American football player (1896–1978)

Thomas Smith Woods, Jr. was an American football player. He played for the Harvard Crimson football team and was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delphic Club</span> Social group at Harvard University, US

The Delphic Club is an all-male social group at Harvard University founded in 1846.

Mark O'Keefe is an American screenwriter, who specializes in the comedy genre. He wrote and produced the 2003 film Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, and the 2006 film Click, starring Adam Sandler. O'Keefe resides in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Bohrer</span> American actor and writer

Matthew Bohrer is an American actor and writer best known for roles in the television shows Lucifer, Goliath, and Masters of Sex.

The Dickey Club, often referred to as "The Dickey Tradition" or simply “The Dickey”, was a private social club at Harvard University, originally founded in 1851 as a chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The Club included members such as former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and financier J.P. Morgan Jr. The Dickey was absorbed by the Hasty Pudding Club in 1924.

References

  1. Snyder, Nick (July 20, 2001). "Hubbub at Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club—The Hasty Pudding Club—undergraduate hangout of four US presidents—has given up its historic digs at 12 Holyoke Street. Is a 206-year-old tradition over for good?". The Boston Phoenix . Vol. 30, no. 29. pp. 1, 24–26 via Internet Archive.
  2. "Hasty Pudding Institute Organizations". hastypudding.org/organizations. The Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770, Inc. 2021-08-07. Retrieved 2021-08-07. The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 comprises the Hasty Pudding Club, The Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the Harvard Krokodiloes.
  3. Orcutt, William (1892). The Harvard Club Book, 1892-93.
  4. Sheldon, Henry (1901). Student Life and Customs. D. Appleton.
  5. 1 2 "CUTTING' OUT DEAD WOOD". The Harvard Crimson'. November 27, 1923.
  6. "Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770". hastypudding.org. The Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770, Inc. 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2022-12-22. As the oldest social club in the U.S., the Pudding has continued as a cornerstone of the Harvard experience for over two centuries. There is no other collegiate organization quite like it.
  7. Michelman, Valerie; Price, Joseph; Zimmerman, Seth (2021-12-03). "Old Boys' Clubs and Upward Mobility Among the Educational Elite". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 137 (2): 845–909. doi: 10.1093/qje/qjab047 . Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  8. "The Final Clubs: Little Bastions of Society in a University World that No Longer Cares". The Harvard Crimson'. November 22, 1958.
  9. Rae, W. Fraser (1870). Westward by Rail: The New Route to the East. Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 354–55 via archive.org.
  10. "ANCIENT HOLLIS Harvard Dormitory's 150th Anniversary Will Be Celebrated at Commencement - Occupants". Cambridge Tribune. Vol. XXXVI, no. 5. 1913-03-29. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  11. "Hasty Pudding Clubs to Merge into Single Entity | News | the Harvard Crimson".
  12. "Faculty Will Take Control of Hasty Pudding Building | News | the Harvard Crimson".