Papers of Charles Préaut Blaney

The collection documents Blaney’s social and academic life while an undergraduate and graduate student at Harvard. It consists of invitations, notices of election to student societies, and records of grades and examination results. The collection also includes correspondence and a certificate documenting Blaney’s continued involvement with the University as an alumnus.

Prominent in the collection are invitations to Class Day events from 1890. Class Day, held the day before Harvard’s commencement, is a senior class tradition dating back to the early 19th century. Elements of the celebration throughout the years have included recitations of the class poem, ode, and oration, an address by a guest speaker, dancing around the Class Tree, and a class supper. Members of the senior class often obtained rooms in the college buildings surrounding the yard in order to host “spreads” for their friends during the afternoon celebration. The collection includes invitations to spreads and other privated Class Day parties received by Blaney, as well as acceptances by guests to the spread hosted by Blaney for Delta Upsilon.