User:IndtAithir/Irving Literary Society

The Irving Literary Society (or simply The Irving) is a literary society seated in Ithaca, Upstate New York, at Cornell University. The U.S. Bureau of Education described it as a "purely literary society" following the "traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities." The Irving was a campus leader in the 1870s, “. . . when Cornell was young and boasted but two college buildings and no sidewalks, when the Ten-Thirty Club, the mock programmes, and the two literary societies were everything. . . . “ James Gardner Sanderson, "The Personal Equation," Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (67:397)(January 1901) at 86. "Irving Literary Society," The Ithacan (Apr. 4, 1869) at 2; (Non-Cornell source editorial stating that the Irving was "first in the field"); see also The Cornell University Register (3d.)(1874–5) at 77 (for Irving's status as one of the two senior literary societies noted by Sanderson); University Chronicle, Educational (Univ. Mich)(Jan. 16, 1869) at 2. (identifying the Irving as one of Cornell's two literary societies); see also, John Andrew Rea, "The Immortal Eight," Fifty Years at Cornell (Cornell Daily Sun 1930)(noting the Irving's activities through the 1920s). The Irving and its peers were considered prominent, forming an intellectual culture later diminished at Cornell University during the Gilded Era.  The Irving Literary Society and other purely literary societies disseminated Eastern elite culture from generation to generation and benchmarked merit performance in extracurricular life. In the community created, the Irving and its peers established an environment conducive to free intellectual thought. At their peak, the Irving and its peers were housed by the University in Society Hall, located within North University (now White Hall).

==Prominence== The Irving held its first business meeting in Room No. 4, Cascadilla Place, on October 20, 1868, some thirteen days after Cornell University opened its doors. John Andrew Rea proposed the name preferred by Andrew Dickson White; others proposed the John Bright Brotherhood, honoring England’s orator of great renown. As John Andrew Rea, founder of both the Irving and his local fraternity chapter recalled during the Great Depression:

What I was thinking of most at that time was founding a fraternity and a literary society. I was Phi Kappa Psi, and wanted Foraker and Buchwalter to come on and join me in founding the New York Alpha, which we did, and we had a great bunch of boys. The literary society was first in time. Mr. Williams of our class agitated for the organization of a society under the name “Philanthea.” I was appointed on the committee to report on the name for the second society. We did not want a Latin or Greek name, for this was a new institution, one that had never existed before. After much discussion, we went to Mr. White and told him we were starting a society and he suggested we use the name of “Irving,” after the founder of American literature. The committee accepted it and reported it to the boys and so it was called the Irving Literary Society. I have no record of the demise of the Irving. . . . There were no other activities than those of the fraternity and the literary society. That was all we knew anything about; no athletics the first year. The literary society had public exhibitions with essays, orations, and debates. They were held downtown.

A compromise was struck in which “the Irving” was chosen for the name, while Bright and America’s greatest orator, Charles Sumner, were admitted as the first honorary members. Interesting, each of the early sessions was opened with prayer. Tradition within today's Irving holds that Andrew Dickson White preferred a name celebrating the State of New York's native arts, letters and culture over a name rooted in the neo-classical revival.



The Irving’s performance was sufficiently prominent in its first decade and a half of existence to prompt the Ithaca Daily Democrat to lament its ‘decline’ under mechanical and engineering students pursuing ‘technical’ interests in the mid-1880s. As an example of American intellectual endeavor in the late 19th century, the historic record of the Irving provides evidence of a national transition. Cornell University projected itself as a turning point in American education reform. The Irving was considered an integral and prominent part of that reform. The life of the Irving, as such, parallels and shadows the transition of Cornell University away from the English collegiate model prevalent in 19th century American education and into the technical, German research university model, of which Cornell became a national exemplar over the next century.

By 1900, however, the United States Bureau of Education was able to cite the Irving’s experience as evidence that the East Coast’s traditional, literary culture did not taking root at the new Cornell University in the same manner in which it flourished at Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania and other “seaboard” schools. The Land Grant college undergraduate culture was increasingly, organized athletics. But during their preeminence, the Irving and its peers produced literature at a rate higher than the campus average for the next generation, leading commentators at the turn of the 20th century to question whether academic standards had fallen since Cornell University’s founding.

The Society's early experience tracks significant changes in American collegiate culture between 1860 and 1900. The Irving as such exhibits traits similar to secret societies such as Brown’s Franklin Society; Dartmouth’s Sphinx (senior society); and, perhaps, even Trinity College’s Episkopon. Given the varied circumstances of its history, the Irving transcends several group categories, showing elements of a literary society, a secret society, and – through its relationship to the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity at Cornell – a college fraternity. Cornell’s Irving Literary Society is also similar to Yale’s Elizabethan Club in that part of its mission is to extol a particular genre of activity, notably the native arts, letters and culture of New York State. Its scope of activity is more akin to Penn’s Philomathean Society, though its resources are not as great. Other comparators would include Virginia’s Washington Literary Society and Debating Union. Unlike Princeton’s American Whig-Cliosophic Society, Georgetown’s Philodemic Society, Virginia’s Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, and Columbia’s Philolexian Society, the Irving has not retained its forensic and debate missions, which it now leaves to the Cornell Debate Association, which is the heir to the Irving’s now defunct rival, the Philalethean Society. The life of the Irving has gained it notoriety outside the narrow sphere of Cornell life. Thomas Spencer Harding, College literary societies: their contribution to higher education in the United States, 1815–1876 (171) at 265; Walter Lee Sheppard, A History of Phi Kappa Psi (1932); Catalogue of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity (Aldrice G. Warren, ed. 1910) at 1001 (The Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and the Irving were notable in their literary pretensions); see also, Early History of the Delta Chi Chapter, The Delta Kappa Epsilon Quarterly (Nov. 1894) at 194; John Thomas Howell, "Charles Piper Smith, 1877-1955", Leaflets of Western Botany (1956) at 41; Charles Piper Smith, A taxonomic study of the Pacific States species of Lupinus (Stanford 1927) at 5.

Activity
The Irving’s proceedings were held on Friday evenings at Deming Hall, on what is now the Ithaca Commons. Special events were held at the Cornell Public Library around the corner. Later in the 1880s, Andrew Dickson White donated funds to renovate large room in White Hall for the use of all the literary societies. It was called, “Association Hall” and later, "Society Hall". The first question ‘put to the house’ in 1869 was ‘Resolved, the erection of a theatre was not in the interest of promoting correct morals within the University community.” The answer was nodded in the affirmative. The Irving was not to be the venue for the theatre arts at Cornell.

Washington Irving’s birthday
The Irving’s first major event was a celebration of Washington Irving’s Birthday on April 3, 1869 at the Cornell Public Library in downtown Ithaca, New York. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White both attended. This event was so-well regarded that the event was added to the University’s annual calendar until the event was eclipsed by the creation of Spring Break. The first oration “Aristocracy of Sex” explored the natural law-based presumption of male supremacy in American and concluded that the assumption to based solely on “the prejudice of man.”   After a musical interlude came an essay on “Our Capital and the War,” recalling Washington, D.C. during the late American Civil War, including the assassination of President Lincoln. Then came an oration on “Our National Tendency,” namely the tendency of emerging nations to undergo a income a widening gap between rich and poor, and social violence that followed that widening. The delivery was forcible, the orator receiving vigorous applause. The high point of the first event was a reading from Diedrich Knickerbocker’s History of New York, by Washington Irving. The event then closed with an oration by future Judge Morris Lyons Buchwalter, “On The Poles,” or rather the extremes in moral and religious sentiment and action; the diversity of opinion which has appeared in human thought. This was analogized to new develops in the science of physics, comparing the extremes to particles of matter vibrating between the poles of a magnet. The orator noted that some favored the gloomy side of human nature, believing man totally depraved. Others, he said, dwell in the sunshine, seeing nothing but loveliness and purity. The easy grace of future Judge Buchwalter, the melody of his voice, and the sparkling thought of the oration, captivated the audience.

Cornell’s first commencement speaker
During the 1869 Commencement Week, the Irving Literary Society invited Theodore Tilton of the New York Independent to speak, Wednesday evening before the Thursday graduation exercises. Society members gathered with guests again at the Cornell Public Library in downtown Ithaca. Theodore Tilton spoke on “the human mind, and how to use it.” The following day, Tilton stayed for the ceremonies as members of the Irving Literary Society spoke at Commencement. Morris Buchwalter spoke on “The Civil Sabbath Law;” Joseph Foraker spoke of “Three Hundred Lawyers;” and John Andrew Rea made “A Plea for the Artist.” Buchwalter’s comments were so inflammatory that President A.D. White took to the platform before Foraker came to the dais and distanced the Trustees from Buckwalter’s oration.



Other early exercises
In mid-October 1869, the first regular meeting of the Irving Literary Society was called “A Feast of Reason”. Festus Walters gave a well-received oration, followed by a scholarly essay. The question: — ”Resolved that Byron was not a great poet.” Thomas Wilson Spence earnestly argued the question in the affirmative; Kirk Ingram in the negative. The question being settled in the negative, Byron was placed in rank with Milton, Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe, which according to the Cornell Era, “no doubt will cause Byron, if his love of adulation has been interred with his bones, to rest easily in his coffin. The number of visitors was unusually large, and manifested great interest in the discussion. The topic for discussion for next Friday evening, is:— ‘Resolved that class feeling and distinctions should not be encouraged in the University.’ A contest was also held between the Irving and its rival, Philalatheian, over the question “Resolved, that increased wealth is beneficial to the morals of a people.”  In 1870, the Irving took up capital punishment and whether it ought to be abolished and the question, “Resolved, That ladies should be admitted to our colleges.” By the end of the second academic year, the Irving diversified activities. May 1870 saw the first extemporaneous orations, as well as miscellaneous essays such as Edgar Jayne’s “Secret Musings.” In lieu of the regular debate, the Irving also went into committee-of-the-whole on the Irish question, argument extending beyond midnight. The last event of AY 1869–1870 was a debate on the Protective Tariff. Later that year, it was resolved after debate that the tendency toward world societies was toward ‘the new Democracy.’

Late Founding Era exercises
In May 1882, the Irving hosted a discussant, Professor Shackford, at Association Hall. The lecture on Transcendentalism garnered the interest of Professor Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. Woodrow Wilson also served as a discussant during this period, in 1886. Extemporaneous addresses began to resemble Toastmasters, with topics such as “How to Run A Sailboat.” Readings came from current fiction, and poetry. The Critic still gave his weekly (and scathing) reviews of recent publications; and future music critic and bibliophile, Harry Falkenau, among others, provided music. Another example of Society activity just before absorption is the debate on the question, “Resolved, that indiscriminate personal eulogies and public demonstration are unsuitable methods of rewarding great achievements.” Arguing in the affirmative was Elias Leavenworth Elliot, future inventor. In 1887, the Irving debated "Resolved, is plagiarism morally wrong?” During this period, Society leadership overlapped with the University's literary pursuits, such as the Cornell Daily Sun.

After 1887
Highlights of this Irving intellectual activity following absorption included engagement with eminent theorists: Thorsten Veblen (discussant, 1892); Frank Heywood Hodder (discussant, 1932); Reinhold Neibuhr (discussant, 1933); Bronislaw Malinowski (discussant, 1936); F. Alan Fetter (discussant, 1902); Paul O'Leary (discussant, 1955 and 1965); Theodore J. Lowi (discussant, 1972), as well as an award-winning program of lectures, AY1987-1988, featuring critical thinkers on ethics and religion. After 1998, the Gables Speakers series has also fostered professional dialogue designed to bridge the gap between Cornell’s educational opportunities and the transition from the campus to the Board Room. These events included speakers such as the President & CEO of Hewlitt-Packard, the chief of staff to Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, the Pentagon's director of civilian reprisal investigations, and the general manager for Clear Channel's Buffalo, New York radio franchises.

The Irving, vehicle of integration
The Irving’s tolerant membership criteria, inclusive of Jews and women in particular, stands in marked contrast to the Cornell University experience after 1910, when discrimination against women, Jews and people of colour increased. The lead Cornell honorary society of the 1920s, for instance, barred women members until 1992 and then did not admit women for another decade. Though often cited as a pioneer in the field of woman’s education, Cornell’s residential policies created a de facto quota on female admissions which limited educational opportunity to women until the 1960s. The Irving Literary Society, along with the Christian Association, was one of the few campus venues in which Cornell member could participate as equals with Cornell men. The early membership criteria are an example of the cyclical, rather than evolutionary, nature of gender inclusion noted by feminist theorists.

The liberal and progressive terms of Cornell's 1865 Charter from New York State were implemented slowly, over a course of decades. The reality on the campus did not always meet the Charter’s expectations. Each campus institution chose its relative level of inclusivity based on its own membership criteria. The Irving Literary Society admitted women and Jews, two University populations who presence and role at the time was actively being debated by the founders, the New York General Assembly, and the University’s stakeholders within the general public. In the history of American education, the Irving is prominent in the role it played ending gender segregation and discrimination. Between the three Cornell literary societies, opinion was mixed following the admittance of women to the institution during AY 1872–1873. One faction argued for full rights of membership irrespective of gender; the other argued that ‘debate’ was lessened if women participated. The Irving and the Curtis Literary Society took the former position; Philaletheian took the latter and limited membership to men.

The Irving’s early history and that of its peers, accordingly, reflected an American elite transition from oration to print, as the Society’s debates and readings encountered competition from student publications such as the Cornell Era and the Cornell Review. Two decades later and while he studied at Cornell, Irving member Thorsten Veblen would categorize collegiate athletics and fraternities as vestigial structures, structures which lingered as the world changed. In the Theory of the Leisure Class (1898), Veblen described in a general sense two staples of the Cornell campus at the time he was writing the work, its fraternity houses and its varsity sports teams. Veblen also identified the demise of the literary society as a symptom of the English collegiate model’s decline in America, a decline Andrew Dickson White encouraged with the founding of the Cornell University as a research university in the German tradition. To Veblen, conditions such as those at Cornell in the 1890s were emblematic of a new academic order, and order dominated by individualism, scientific and technical expertise, and support for the process of manufacturing, trading and distributing goods and services.

Cornell’s Literary Societies, 1868–1888


In 1877, the four literary societies were ranked according to seniority in the Cornell Register: Irving, Philaletheian, Adelphi and Curtis. Adelphi would soon close, Curtis taking its place on the Hill. ‘Competition’ was an early trait of literary society life at Cornell. Beginning in February 1870, the Irving and the Philaletheian held their annual contest against one another. That event has been noted as one reason the quality of debate was so high between 1869 and 1884.

Other associations formed after the Irving. The Young Men’s Catholic Literary Association held a meeting in November 1869 at Deming Hall on Ithaca’s State Street. The subject of debate was, “Resolved, That the French Revolution exerted a beneficial effect on the civilization of Europe.” Besides the Philalatheian and Irving, other smaller societies met to provide opportunities for those not competitive within the two larger societies, whether for lack of opportunity or fear of the Irving and Philalatheian’s larger audiences. The Irving and Philalatheian were accordingly regarded the foremost of Cornell undergraduate institutions, the smaller societies were the training league for the elevated two. In the second year of the University's operation, the Johnsonian (1870–1872) and the Adelphi (1870–1877) Societies were founded. Adelphi was a secret literary society noted for bringing George Francis Train to Ithaca, New York, for a presentation. The Grove, Lowell and Philolexian Societies were founded in 1871, and ceased operations shortly thereafter. Lowell used its membership fees to support a reading room in the old Cornell Public Library in downtown Ithaca for the use of patrons. As the Cornell Era opined midway through the University’s second year, “[w]e are glad to note the organization of two or three small literary societies among the students, one of which holds its meetings in one of the University lecture rooms. These do in a humbler way, although perhaps as effectually, the work of the large societies and interest those who are not confident enough to appear before large audiences.”

The Curtis Literary Society, a transcendental effort admitting women, became last member of the high literati triumvirate in 1872. The three societies – the Irving, Curtis and Philalatheian — combined efforts to produce their own publication, the Cornell Review, in December 1873. The Review was the repository of original articles, essays, stories, Woodford orations, elaborate discussions, and poems. It was published first by representatives of the literary societies. After 1880 an "editor from the Debating club” replaced the candidate from the defunct Philalatheian.  The Curtis died out a few years later.  The Curtis’ possessions were routed over to the American History Section Room, provided to Professor Tyler.  After 1883, the Cornell Review drew its editors from the Irving, the Debating club, and three appointed by the retiring Review board from each of the upperclasses: Sophomore, Junior and Senior. Issued first as a quarterly in 1873,  it became a monthly in AY 1874–1875. And throughout the 1880s, the surviving literary societies competed against new student interests, such as the Cornell Congress and the emerging Cornell Athletics.

In recent years, it has been asserted that left-wing members of the University community have been engaged in a systematic attempt to suppress the colleges remaining literary societies. In addition, organizations with historic ties to the Cornell literary society community have been revealed as debauched.

Society Hall
The creation of a “Society Hall” was proposed by Andrew Dickson White with a $1,000 gift in January to be matched by $300 from the members of all the societies that would use the facilities. As for the site, Room M, North University (later called White 10) was chosen. So during the spring of 1870, Andrew Dickson White allocated a large room inside the center door of what is now called Andrew Dickson White Hall, to the right, for the use of the literary societies. The room is now called the Dean’s Seminar Room. At the time, White Hall was called “North University” and housed the engineering Department as well as the offices of Professor Goldwin Smith. ‘Society Hall’ became one the standard stops on the Cornell campus tour. Within “North University” was “Association, or Society, Hall”: “This is a large and beautifully furnished room used for meetings of the two chief literary societies and the Students’ Christian Association. It is carpeted, and its walls are partly wainscoted in two woods, partly tinted. On them, supported by bronze brackets, are placed nine full-length bonze statuettes executed in Paris and representing the following historic characters: Washington, Franklin, Shakespeare, Newton, Moliere, Goethe, Cervantes, Dante and Michelangelo. Interspersed between these are twenty large engravings, many of them proof impressions, depicting important scenes in the history of America and other countries. A half hour may well be devoted to their examination, since some of the imported ones are exceedingly rare in this country. Nor should the handsome desk on the president’s rostrum be neglected, noteworthy as it is for the elegance of its design and the thoroughness of its execution. All the fittings of this hall are of the most substantial kind.”

After absorption
By the 1890s, literary societies across the Republic were wilting, the serious survivors turning into debating clubs. Cornell's transition from literary to amusing extracurricular activities occurred in the 1880s, and was controversial. When the Irving and its peers proposed, through the Cornell Era, the substitution of charades or mock trials for traditional literary activities, more conservative editors at the University of Virginia balked. The literary societies were starting to entertain activities of a less intellectual and more social nature, as would Sphinx Head and Quill and Dagger in the coming decades. As such, in its last decade, the Irving operated more akin to a collegiate secret society. The transition from literary to amusing activities was noted by President Andrew Dickson White. His professional opinion was that the decline of Cornell’s undergraduate literary societies followed from the growth of Cornell’s Greek System, the decline of oratory as a valued skill in late 19th century America, and Charles Kendall Adams reforms bringing “the seminary” or seminar system to the University.



The initial decline of the Irving and its peers was followed by a period of inactivity for about five or six years after which there was a revival, or sorts. The revival would not place the literary societies back in their position at the forefront of Cornell institutions, but it did provide an more or less lasting place for oral debate on the Hill. The source of the 1890s revival has been generally attributed to Western colleges and their challenges to the Eastern elite institutions. At Cornell, this challenge occurred as the University was establishing a professorship in elocution. Competitions followed. With respect to the Irving, the first dean after absorption was, indeed, from the West.

So in 1888 as the purely literacy society culture of the Eastern universities declined at Cornell University, “The Irving” portfolio was forwarded to the men of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity at Cornell, a college social fraternity significantly involved in Cornell literary activities. A fraternity member with literary interests was assigned duties of “Dean” as the Chapter folded society activities into its program. Seated at the Gables of Phi Kappa Psi at Cornell, “the Irving” conducts periodic talks in the Great Hall overlooking Cayuga Lake and produces a newsletter, The New York Alphan (“NYAlphan”), as an official record of the Chapter’s life and times. Through the newsletter, the men of New York Alpha use their dual membership in the Irving Literary Society to foster academic excellence and a life of arts, letters and culture in themselves and their peers.

Though Phi Kappa Psi’s absorption of the Irving was merely intended to keep Cornell’s oldest student organization viable and operating in an age of decline, the act had the unintended effect of bringing into the New York Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi scions of New York’s senior families, descendents from the Knickerbocker Dutch families. The Irving and the fraternity now muster ties to the van Liews of Ovid, the Vosburgs of Kinderhook, the Vermilyeas of Leiden, the Quackenbushes of North Albany, the van Keurans of Zwaanendal and many other colonial families.

In 1954, the Seal of New Amsterdam, 1654, was adopted as insignia on the seal’s 300th Anniversary. Members are inducted into the Irving through a secret mid-semester celebration and ceremony extolling the arts, letters and culture of New York State. Preservation of tradition is also accomplished through series of alumni Profiles and a cultural Brief, administered during the first year of membership. The Group Sponsor also preferences – to the extent it is able – the acquisition of furniture, arts and materials native of New York State manufactures. Recent acquisitions included Double Panels, two original art works by the emerging artist, Aaron Raitiere and a reproduction of John Hartell's Aegean III. The New York-made furnishings include work by Harden, Manchester Wood and Gunlocke.

In August 1964, both Phi Kappa Psi and the Irving Literary Society moved back to Cornell's West Campus and occupied quarters financed, in part, by a mortgage through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. The Irving today executes the Cornell Board of Trustees’ ‘living and learning’ policy in partnership with the New York Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, as those objectives apply to Small Residences with a census under one hundred students possessed by the Priority Groups. Upon Commencement, the 1200 Irving members pursue professions and pursuits across the globe, tied to one another through the internet; literary reviews are conducted of members' works through a common deliberative site maintained by the General Secretary; meetings are held twice a year in the Ithaca valley and periodically at other venues, from time to time. The Irving's younger members are socialized through their own Facebook site. Cornell's official data base of registered student organizations does not include The Irving Literary Society.

Recent Literary Activity by Irving Members
Examples of continued literary activity by members of the Irving Literary Society (Cornell University) would include, but not be limited to:
 * Richard R.W. Brooks & Alexander Stremitzer, "Remedies On and Off Contract" (2010)(Yale Law School Faculty Scholarship Series, Paper 94)
 * Enrique Martinez Celaya, Collected Writings & Interviews, 1990–2010 (Univ. of Neb. Press 2010);
 * David L. Hoof, Triple Jeopardy (Shadow Line Press, 2010);
 * Ryan Neil Falcone, "Six", Macabre Cadaver Magazine (2010)(Short story);
 * Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Thomas Nelson, 2009);
 * Ethan Yale, "Investment Risk and the Tax Benefit of Deferred Compensation," Tax Law Review (2009);
 * Aaron Raitiere, The Trashy Thoughts and Poetry of Herf Lonkelshtein (One Tooth Records, 2009);
 * Ismaël Cognard and Donald C. Backer, "A Microglitch in the Millisecond Pulsar PSR B1821–24 in M28," The Astrophysical Journal Letters (612:2)(Sept. 10, 2004);
 * Wallace Auser, Dissing God: The Myth of Spiritual Neutrality, (Amg Publishers, 2007);
 * Scott C. Idleman, "The Concealment of Religious Values in Judicial Decisionmaking," 91 Virginia Law Review 515–34 (2005);
 * Ato Essandoh, "Black Thang," Plays and Playwrights (Martin Denton, ed.)(The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. 2003);
 * Iddo Netanyahu, Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism, The Jonathan Netanyahu Story (Balfour 2003);
 * George (John F. Kennedy, Jr. ed. Hachette Filipacchi Magazines)(6:1)(2001)(Farewell Issue);
 * Stephen Hadley, Thinking About SDI (Johns Hopkins University Press 2000);
 * Peter Shalvoy, & Sebastian Rosset, Bizness of rap (1996), among others.