Signet Society

Last updated
Signet Society
2014SignetCartouche.png
Signet Society plaster cartouche by heraldic artist Pierre LaRose
Founded1870;154 years ago (1870)
Harvard University
TypeFinal club
AffiliationIndependent
StatusActive
EmphasisLiterature and art
ScopeLocal
MottoSic vos non vobis Mellificatis apes ("So do you bees make honey, not for yourselves")
FlowerRed rose
Chapters1
Headquarters46 Dunster Street
Cambridge , Massachusetts 02138
United States
Website www.signetsociety.org

The Signet Society is a literary and art recognition final club at Harvard University. It was founded in 1870 by members of the class of 1871. The Signet celebrates most of the arts, including music, the visual arts, and theater.

Contents

History

The Signet Society 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 [1]

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.

The Signet's baroque cartouche contrasts with its neo-Federal facade. RestoredSignetCartouche.png
The Signet's baroque cartouche contrasts with its neo-Federal façade.

The opening remarks of the Signet's minutes state: "On Tuesday evening, November 1, 1870, a meeting was held at 10 Grays Hall preliminary to the organization of a senior society, which was to afford to a select number a pleasant means of intercourse with each other, not to be expected from the illiberal policy of the only society of reputation existing." This "illiberal policy" refers to the displeasure with which the founders of the Signet greeted the established Final Clubs. These first members formed the society's admissions criteria to transcend the social politics that they perceived as dominating in the Final Club system.

To distinguish the Signet from other exclusive organizations, the founding members stated in the original charter that members would be chosen according to "merit and accomplishment." Today, those membership criteria are still present in the club's constitution mandating that members "shall be chosen about their intellectual, literary and artistic ability and achievements." While these criteria are central to the put-up process (admissions procedure), personal character is also considered. The Signet celebrates most of the arts, including music, the visual arts, and theater.

After a few years in quarters on university property, the Signet moved to an off-campus location at 46 Dunster Street.

Symbols

The emblem of the Signet was, at one time, "a signet-ring enclosing a nettle," the signet-ring symbolizing unity and the nettle symbolizing impartiality. The emblem which appears over the door of the Signet includes a beehive and bees, and a legend in Ancient Greek: μουσικήν ποίει και εργάζου -- "Create art, and live it." Another motto of the Society is attributed to Virgil: Sic vos non vobis Mellificatis apes -- "So do you bees make honey, not for yourselves." From this comes the Society's tradition of referring to its undergraduate members as "drones."

The Signet eschews initiation rituals common to Harvard's Final Clubs and the Lampoon in favor of an induction, during which each new member receives a red rose. The rose is to be kept, dried and returned to the Signet Society upon the publication of the member's first substantial published work. The Signet maintains a library of these works, which were originally literary, but now include programs or other artifacts marking the performance of music, films, or displays of the visual artistry of members. Dried roses hang on the walls of the Signet near the works that occasioned their return. Particularly noteworthy is T. S. Eliot's rose, which hangs along with his original letter of acceptance to the society.

Activities

Since 1910, the Signet has hosted an Annual Dinner honoring poets, authors, musicians, and social commentators. The Signet has a longstanding, reciprocal relationship with the Elizabethan Club, (or "The Lizzie") of Yale University. The two organizations sporadically hold a lawn croquet tournament, for which a handled and engraved silver pudding cup in a mahogany case serves as the trophy.

An alumni corporation administers the Signet's endowment, property, and staff. Since 2010, the Society has hosted Artists-in-Residence in a second-floor apartment. [2]

Membership

Signet membership is open to any undergraduate student at Harvard. [3] It admits both men and women without prejudice, unlike final clubs. Membership in Signet celebrates achievement in the arts, including music, the visual arts, and theater. Members are active in most undergraduate publications and organizations, including the Harvard Advocate , the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Harvard Crimson , the Harvard Lampoon , the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, and the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club. Membership dues are required but are pro-rated by Harvard's financial aid calculations, allowing all members of the college community to be considered for membership. Harvard faculty and administrators have been and are Signet officers, associates, and members.

A select number of individuals working in the arts in the Cambridge community or wider Harvard community are elected to join Signet as part of The Signet Affiliates Program. [3] These members include administrators, Harvard alumni, fellows, instructors, scholars, and visiting artists. [3]

Residence

Signet Society, 46 Dunster Street. An 1820 Colonial residence, modified in 1880 into a Victorian clubhouse, then converted in 1902 by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson into this Federalist structure. SignetSocietyBuilding.JPG
Signet Society, 46 Dunster Street. An 1820 Colonial residence, modified in 1880 into a Victorian clubhouse, then converted in 1902 by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson into this Federalist structure.

The Signet Society's residence is located at 46 Dunster Street in Cambridge. [4] Architectural historian Douglass Shand-Tucci includes an in-depth discussion of Signet's building in his history of Harvard's campus, relating the oddity that a firm known for its preeminence in Gothic Revival was employed to renovate an 1820s Colonial residence (converted in 1880 to a Victorian clubhouse) into a neo-Federal structure with baroque details. Regarding its distinctive features, Shand-Tucci writes:

It is in feeling wildly Baroque (of all things)—a welcome touch of flamboyance for what would otherwise have been a rather staid clubhouse for the Signet... the graphic quality of Cram & Goodhue's and LaRose's new frontispiece is actually rather reminiscent of book design (not to mention the Palladianism of several Tory Row mansions), and centers on a two story pedimented Ionic pavilion displaying the Signet arms... The design concept- cavalier enough, but very successful—discloses another guise of history-making in Harvard architecture: to restore the house, not as it originally was, but in LaRose's words, as it "ought to have been." Thus the architectural solecism of the two orders of the porch—the Doric columns and Ionic pilasters—was retained. [5]

Notable members

Controversy

One of the Signet Society's "gravest mistakes" was their rejection of cellist Yo-Yo Ma while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yale College</span> Undergraduate college of Yale University

Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University. It is ranked as one of the top colleges in the United States.

<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">Copley Square</span> Square in Boston, Massachusetts

Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to its many cultural institutions, some of which remain today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpha Delta Phi</span> North American collegiate fraternity

Alpha Delta Phi is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. Alpha Delta Phi was originally founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Its more than 50,000 alumni include former presidents and senators of the United States, and justices of the Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolf's Head (secret society)</span> Secret society based at Yale University, New Haven

Wolf's Head Society is a senior secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key. Active undergraduate membership is elected annually with sixteen Yale University students, typically rising seniors. Honorary members are elected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasty Pudding Club</span> Social club at Harvard University

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. The current clubhouse was desgined by Peabody and Stearns and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porcellian Club</span> Final club at Harvard University, US

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.

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.

Adams House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located between Harvard Square and the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its name commemorates the services of the Adams family, including John Adams, the second president of the United States, and John Quincy Adams, the sixth president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabethan Club</span> Social club at Yale University

The Elizabethan Club is a social club at Yale University named for Queen Elizabeth I and her era. Its profile and members tend toward a literary disposition, and conversation is one of the Club's chief purposes.

Manuscript Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It is reputedly the arts and letters society at Yale.

There are many collegiate secret societies in North America. They vary greatly in their level of secrecy and the degree of independence from their universities. A collegiate secret society makes a significant effort to keep affairs, membership rolls, signs of recognition, initiation, or other aspects secret from the public.

The Phoenix – S K Club is an all-male final club at Harvard College, sometimes referred to as The Phoenix or The P.S.K. The society traces its earliest roots to 1897, forming from the amalgamation and reorganization of the Sphinx, Kalumet, and Phoenix Clubs. The Phoenix – S K clubhouse is located at 72 Mt. Auburn Street in Cambridge.

Henry-Russell Hitchcock was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture.

The North American fraternity and sorority system began with students who wanted to meet secretly, usually for discussions and debates not thought appropriate by the faculty of their schools. Today they are used as social, professional, and honorary groups that promote varied combinations of community service, leadership, and academic achievement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornell literary societies</span> 19th-century student groups at Cornell University

Cornell literary societies were a group of 19th-century student organizations at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, formed for the purpose of promoting language skills and oratory. The U.S. Bureau of Education described three of them as a "purely literary society" following the traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities. At their peak, the literary societies met in a room called Society Hall, located within North University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dudley Community</span> Only one of the thirteen Harvard College Houses that serves nonresident undergraduate students

Dudley Community is an alternative to Harvard College's 12 Houses. The Dudley Community serves nonresident undergraduate students, visiting undergraduate students, and undergraduates living in the Dudley Co-op. In 2019, the Dudley Community was formed, reflecting the administrative split between the undergraduate and graduate programs that were under Dudley House since 1991. Affiliated undergraduates have access to Dudley Community advisers, programs, intramural athletics, and organized social events. Dudley Community administrative offices are currently housed in two suites in 10 DeWolfe St in Cambridge after moving from Lehman Hall. Lehman Hall now houses the student center for the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of John Harvard</span> Statue at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

John Harvard is an 1884 sculpture in bronze by Daniel Chester French at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It honors clergyman John Harvard (1607–1638), whose substantial deathbed bequest to the "schoale or Colledge" recently undertaken by the Massachu­setts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that the Colony resolved "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge."  There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French took inspiration from a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president.

References

Notes

  1. "The Harvard book: a series of historical, biographical, and descriptive sketches". www.hcs.harvard.edu. 1875. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  2. "The Signet Society - Ben Cosgrove". Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.
  3. 1 2 3 "How to Apply". The Signet Society. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  4. "The Signet Society". The Signet Society. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  5. (p.92, "The Campus Guide: Harvard University", Princeton Architectural Press ISBN   1-56898-280-1)
  6. Conversations with Mark Hruby, Volume I, 2016. The Signet Society.

Sources