Letter from Ralph Gordon to Alicia Kennedy
Scope and Contents
Three-page handwritten letter sent by unclassified Harvard student Ralph Gordon, dated April 25, 1916, to Alicia Kennedy, a student at Bennett School, a women’s college located in Millbrook, New York. In it, Gordon references the April 14, 1916 edition of the Harvard Lampoon in which three of his drawings appeared. Gordon discusses his schoolwork and taking makeup examinations, his social life, and briefly references current events. There are two small sketches throughout the letter and all three pages were written on “Hampden Hall Cambridge” stationery; Hampden Hall was a dormitory built in Harvard Square in 1902. Also includes the original envelope, with an upside-down postage stamp, which was generally understood to mean, “I love you.”
Dates
- Creation: April 25, 1916
Creator
- Gordon, Ralph S., -1974 (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Extent
0.03 cubic feet (1 pamphlet binder)Biographical note on Ralph Gordon
Ralph S. Gordon (-1974) attended Harvard from 1914 to 1916 as an unclassified student, which is defined as “students admitted to Harvard College from other colleges as candidates for the degree of A.B. or S.B., when they cannot be assigned immediately to any particular class, are placed in a group by themselves and called Unclassified Students.” Some references list Gordon with a degree date of 1918 and as a member of the Harvard Club of Spokane; however, he does not appear in the Quinquennial catalog nor in the class reports. He is listed in alumni directories as “Raphael Semmes Gordon” and is described as having attended Harvard College from 1914 to 1916, but not as having received a degree. A native of Spokane, Washington, Gordon worked in newspapers before joining Ford Motor Company as a public relations manager; he retired in 1960. Gordon died in 1974.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Xenophon Theodore Barber, October 2019; Accession 2020.064.
Processing Information
Processed by Olivia Mandica-Hart in April 2020. Title supplied by the archivist. Due to work-from-home during COVID19, box labels still read "2020.064" and need replacement.
Creator
- Gordon, Ralph S., -1974 (Person)
- Title
- Gordon, Ralph S., -1974. Letter from Ralph Gordon to Alicia Kennedy, April 25, 1916 : an inventory
- Author
- Harvard University Archives
- Date
- April 1, 2020
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua27020
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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