Wofford College - From The Archives

A Wofford diploma, in Latin

This being Commencement weekend, I thought today would be a good day to share an older Wofford diploma.  This one was actually never issued, as it isn't dated or signed by all of the college's officers.  I found the diploma in President Snyder's 1930s files.  The archives has other diplomas - some older, some much older.  I am still trying to determine when the college switched from Latin to English, but I think it was by the early 1950s. 

The Latin translation is provided by Chris Strauber, reference and web services librarian here at Wofford. 

The President and Trustees

of Wofford College 

established under the laws of the state of South Carolina

Greetings in God to all and to each reader of this

Be it known that we have decided to grant Cecil Guy Nichols, a young man of blameless character and versed in humane letters, after an open examination in the arts by the faculty and distinguished trustees of the College, the title of Bachelor of Science; and we grant to him the power to enjoy all the privileges and honors which anywhere pertain to that degree. Of which let this document and our names be the public evidence.

Granted on campus [ ] in the Year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and [ ] 

[ ], Chairman, H.N. Snyder, President
[ ], Secretary, [ ], Secretary

Snyder-The American College Commencement

In this radio talk, Dr. Henry Nelson Snyder, who was Wofford’s president from 1902 to 1942, talks with WSPA-AM’s Jane Dalton about the American College Commencement.  This segment is a portion of his longer radio talk from May 28, 1948.  Jane Dalton tells Dr. Snyder that she was invited to give a commencement address at Tucapau, which is known today as Startex, a small town in western Spartanburg County.  Dr. Snyder did not give any commencement addresses that year, but while he was president, he was always in demand to give high school and college graduation addresses. 

If you are reading this blog entry through a feed reader and you don't see a link to the sound file, you may need to click through to the from the archives site to actually get to the sound file.  The sound clip runs about four and a half minutes. 

Commencement Season - a multi-day affair

I found a letter recently, while processing President Henry Nelson Snyder’s papers, in which he declined a speaking invitation because of the pressures of “commencement season.” I thought it was an interesting expression, because today, we think of commencement as being simply the two days of events, or even simply the graduation ceremony itself.

However, Commencement in the 19^th and early 20^th century was a multi-day affair. A series of elaborate programs staged over 3 or 4 days, the festivities included debates, speeches, receptions, and the traditional baccalaureate and graduation exercises themselves.

The 1889 ceremonies saw sixteen students graduate – many of whom went on to achieve prominence in their careers. One became a long-serving United States Senator, another a Methodist bishop, and one was the president of Duke University. Theirs was the largest class in thirteen years. The program lists all of their speeches, which I suspect were actually quite short since they were delivered at the graduation ceremony. Before they graduated, they would have heard a Baccalaureate sermon on Sunday morning, an address before the literary societies on Monday morning, a debate between members of the Calhoun and Preston societies on the question, “That the organization of a Prohibition Party would be detrimental to the Nation” on Monday night, and a reception following the debate from 10 PM to 1 AM. I’m surprised they stayed up that late! Tuesday was the day of graduation, and was followed by the annual alumni address at 8:30, given by the Honorable Richard W. Simpson of Pendleton, and finally by an alumni banquet. Goodness only knows how long that lasted.

Even as late as the 1920s, the time of which Snyder spoke, Commencement season could go for 5 days, again beginning with an assortment of debates and speeches before the literary societies. By the 1920s, Class Day had become an institution at Commencement, usually happening on the Saturday before graduation. This consisted of the annual meeting of the alumni association, a banquet with the alumni, seniors, and faculty in attendance, and class reunions. Sunday was reserved for Baccalaureate in the morning and the annual address by President Snyder in the evening. Graduation itself was on Monday. This pattern – of class day, baccalaureate day, and commencement generally continued up into the 1960s.

Of course, I guess you could call the series of events that happen today at Wofford leading up to the actual Commencement ceremony a season of sorts. Between class receptions, Honors Day, Phi Beta Kappa day, sports banquets and fraternity and sorority events, students and faculty members are quite busy in late April and early May. 

Next week, I hope to share a word from Henry Nelson Snyder about the American College Commencement.

Images: the invitation from 1893 Commencement, a program, including the senior speeches, from 1889, and the cover of the program and the toasts from the 1889 alumni banquet. 

Commencement Traditions

Traditions can be curious things. How something becomes a tradition, especially at a place like Wofford, is even more curious. If something happens twice, it’s a tradition, and if it happens a third time, it’s as sacred as if it had been happening since 1854, and woe be unto the person who messes with it.

When we started having the Commencement exercises on the front lawn of Main Building in 1999, seniors (and some younger alumni on the college staff) wondered how the class was going to march through the front gates. From the late 1960s until 1998, Wofford commencement had taken place in Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, next door to the campus. Students and faculty members lined up on campus and marched through the gates, out into the world, and into the auditorium to receive their degrees. Freshmen were told that it was bad luck to walk through the gate before graduation day, and some of us purposefully walked around the gate for a while – until we realized how dumb we looked.

Nevertheless, some people on campus didn’t realize that the symbolic march through the gates had become a sacred tradition. “It’s just the way we go to the auditorium,” one person insisted. Others on campus warned the Commencement Committee that the members of the Class of 1999 were going to go walk through those gates no matter what anybody else said. And some students do still head that way, but a new tradition was created that year. Students march through a double line of faculty members, who applaud, high-five, or otherwise congratulate the new graduates. This May will be my tenth Wofford commencement as the college archivist, and with ten years of students marching through the applauding faculty, I’d say that’s a pretty firmly entrenched tradition. Unless it rains.

Other traditions surrounding Commencement have been around a lot longer than the faculty gauntlet or marching through the front gates. Along with their diploma, the college presents each student with a Bible. But, perhaps from the very first commencement, and certainly not long after, the faculty began to sign the Bibles. In the archives, we have about a dozen of these Commencement Bibles, as I like to call them, that alumni or their children have given back to the college over the years. We have examples form the 1870s, where only 5 or 6 professors signed, to examples in the modern era with dozens, if not over 100 signatures. The Bible has always been a King James translation. At various points, some faculty members have called for a shift to a contemporary translation. In the 1950s, one religion professor suggested a move to the Revised Standard translation, as he knew many of the scholars who had worked on it and thought it to be more appropriate for scholarly use. Traditionalists on the faculty objected, some suggesting that each time a new translation came out that people would want to adopt it.  Others made the argument that the King James translation represented something beyond simply being a religious text, that it was a work of literature as much as anything. Many faculty and staff members still spend an hour or so each spring signing Bibles – I did it last week and it took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to sign 383 Bibles. I’m glad I have a fairly short name.

While the Commencement ceremony itself has evolved somewhat – most notably, by dropping the senior speeches – some parts of that ceremony have remained constant. I can point to the traditional Wofford Commencement hymn, “From All That Dwell below the Skies,” which appears in the printed 1858 Commencement program, the oldest in the collection. It might not be a selection we’d choose today, but faculty members, trustees, and graduates have been singing it for 154 years.

Commencement season is a lot shorter than it was in the 19^th or early 20^th century. Perhaps we’ll save a lengthy discussion of the mixture of commencement-related events in years past for another blog entry.

Commencement at Wofford - 1858

Since we're getting close to Commencement, this will be the first in a series of posts on Commencement traditions at Wofford.  Over the next few weeks, I'll have some stories of past commencements, another talk from Dr. Snyder on the American College Commencement, an image and translation of one of the old Latin diplomas (translation provided by my colleague and Wofford reference librarian Chris Strauber), and I hope to talk about some of the traditions that surround Wofford Commencements. 

Today's entry will be about Commencement in 1858, 150 years ago.  The story is summarized from a July 29, 1858 story about the ceremonies from the Southern Christian Advocate, which was (and is) the Methodist newspaper in South Carolina.  Also, there's a copy of an 1858 Commencement ceremony program. 

Mr. Editor - Allow me space enough to give your readers an account of the Commencement festivities of Wofford College, which have just passed.  It was a week which, I am quite sure, will long be most pleasantly recalled by all whose privilege it was to witness the ceremonies.

The author of the article spent the entire week before Commencement at the College, attending the various examinations.  He reported on hearing the various classes stand for their final exams, and praised both the students' work and the faculty's demand for excellent scholarship.  He noted that the mutual respect and affection the faculty and students showed for each other, which he found in marked contrast from the institution he had himself attended. 

The Commencement Sermon was delivered by President (and future bishop) William M. Wightman on Sunday in the college chapel.  The text of the sermon came from Proverbs 1:10, which the author felt obligated to quote as "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."  His audience listened, according to the author, with "wrapt attention" and would not soon forget their president's "earnest, eloquent, and solemn teachings."

On Tuesday at noon, the college community heard Major F. W. Capers deliver the annual address before the Literary Societies.  Capers, the author reported, seemed to set his prepared remarks aside when he reached the stage and instead gave an impromptu address on the true responsibilities of education.  Later that night, the societies heard from one of their seniors, who gave a valedictory address before a joint Calhoun and Preston society meeting. 

Commencement Day itself was the climax of the week's activities.  The procession formed in front of the president's house on campus - a home that has since been demolished - at 9:30.  The ceremony itself, complete with addresses by each of the eleven members of the graduating class, ran some four and a half hours.  The chapel in Main Building was packed, according to the observer, but the audience behaved with the decorum and attention of a Sabbath congregation (whatever that meant; the writer leaves it to our modern interpretation).  The musical interludes were provided by the "inmates" of the "Blind Asylum" at Cedar Springs - a more polite way to describe them would be to acknowledge the students of the School for the Deaf and the Blind in Spartanburg.  Our author notes the musical numbers were pleasant, and were performed on piano, flute, and melodeon. 

The speeches were delivered, he says, in clear, distinct tones, and demonstrated noble thought and high moral sentiment.  At the end, the audience rose and joined in singing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" - perhaps an appropriate way to end a ceremony that ran nearly 5 hours! 

For much of the remainder of the 19th century, Commencement season ran for the better part of the week.  We'll talk more about later Commencement weeks over the next few weeks. 

A faculty talk from 1950 - David Duncan Wallace

David Duncan Wallace, who taught history at Wofford from 1899 to 1947, was in his day the foremost historian of South Carolina.  His four-volume History of South Carolina, published in 1935, covers the early history of the state in greater detail than any volume published before or since.  He was also the college historian, writing the History of Wofford College that remains the standard source for the college’s early history.  He wrote on other topics – the state constitution, the Revolutionary American leader Henry Laurens, and state government.

After he retired from the faculty, Wallace continued to teach and write.  In this talk on June 28, 1950, he addressed the Wofford summer teacher’s workshop, and touches on the beginnings of the Korean War, on the meaning of the past, and on South Carolina as a “new old state.”  These excerpts run about 6 minutes.