Jerry Ballard and the Class of '08

[mescott]

That's Harvard's Class of 1908, to which Jerry Ballard belongs. Their Class Report is available online - this is a survey taken a year after graduation, with the intention of "bring[ing] you closer together by putting you in touch with the Class as a whole" - and it's fascinating to try to place Jerry in this snapshot of his contemporaries.

Comments

[geonncannon]

This is amazingly clever research. Very, very handy indeed!

Athletics adapted to mediocre men.

All I could picture was Frasier and Niles Crane in their squash gear. ;D

[mescott]

It's great stuff, isn't it? Harvard still does this - there's a Class Report every 5 years and a Class Survey at each of the milestone reunions - but I had no idea I'd be able to find any of the earlier versions online.

And, yeah, I think that's probably what was intended.... :-)

[geonncannon]

It reminds me a little of Facebook or that website Classmates. "Reconnect with people you wouldn't cross the street to say hello to." ;D

[mescott]

I'm still trying to figure out what in the world that guy could have meant....

[penknife]

Perhaps they didn't have a very good organ. Or classes in organ playing. Which I wouldn't think would be hotly desired, but there's always somebody.

[m_nivalis]

That is such a useful source for writers and historians, that I never knew existed! Admittedly, the source material is a bit small sociologically, but if that's what you're after, it's great.

[mescott]

The Reports were originally privately published, just for members of the class, but it's fascinating to see them available online. And certainly for the older classes, pre-WWII, you get some really interesting looks at people who were likely to be important later on.

(One of the historic house museums I used to work at was owned by someone who was Harvard Class of 1904, which was also FDR's class, and in the 30th Reunion report, FDR notes merely his "change of address, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." It's delightfully pompous.)

[the_stowaway]

Wow, how very cool. What great context!

[mescott]

It's really fun stuff!