Category: History of American Popular Culture

Dearest Mama,
I have jumped into a den of wild animals on my return, beginning with a dinner at the Club last Saturday, two private performances of the Pudding show & a crowd of 1903 men here for Herbert Burgess’ ushers’ dinner… FDR to Sara, May 3rd, 1904:
Just so that you don’t think we’re concentrating on [...]

One of the things that amazes me most about this project is that every now and then, a piece of the puzzle drops mysteriously from the sky, as if by preordained writ. I noted in a previous post how a strange and unlikely attraction to a tiny spot in Big Sur led me to Lathrop [...]

One of the most interesting things about the FDR Restoration Project is that I never know down which fascinating historical path I’ll be drawn next. Take yesterday for instance: Dave Robinson, grandson of Chester Robinson ‘04 arrived in Cambridge from Maine bearing a whole host of original materials he and his family are sharing with [...]

In researching Chet Robinson’s history for the previous piece, I was investigating the private Stone School in Boston which he attended, and came across the following ad in something called “A Handbook of American Private Schools.” I simply couldn’t resist sharing this with you:

Now granted, the original idea here was to prevent tuberculosis. But can [...]

Shortly after last year’s FDR dinner, I received an email from a certain Mr. Dave Robinson in Maine, inquiring as to whether or not we’d be interested in taking a look at some of the Harvard photos and ephemera he’d inherited from his grandfather, Chester Robinson, ‘04, a friend and a classmate of FDR’s. I [...]

Many of you may not be aware (as I was not, despite 3 years residence) that Adams House possesses a tremendous artistic treasure built into its walls, one that gives us a fascinating glimpse of what FDR’s Harvard must have looked like. I’m referring to the incredible series of murals in the Coolidge Room, the [...]

For those of you interested in learning more about what music was like in the early years of the past century, this fascinating excerpt from the 1910 Encyclopedia of American Music details the state of affairs quite thoroughly. To make the article more enjoyable, I’ve edited the text, added the illustrations, as well as provided [...]

In our continuing search to furnish the Suite, we’re looking for period books, among them the bestsellers of 1903. If you have copies of these books in good condition that carry publication dates before 1904, we would be delighted to accept your donation. Occasionally, these items appear on ebay as well, and are undoubtedly lurking [...]

While 110 years isn’t that long ago in relative terms, in many ways FDR’s Harvard existed in an entirely different world than the one most of us knew. As an amusing example, here’s a clipping I found preserved in one of the student scrapbooks now in the Harvard University Archives:
Cambridge Damsel Causes Riot at Harvard [...]

Thanks to the folks at parlorsongs.com, we’ve received 20 presentation copies of sheet music from 1900-1903, selected especially for the Suite, and through the good offices of our former, and much lamented music tutor, David Trippett, we were able to record some of these pieces last May. Check out our website page, The Songs FDR [...]