Harvard Commons Records

Following the English tradition, students at Harvard College dined in commons, eating at least one daily meal together in a dining hall along with the tutors and graduate students. This practice continued at Harvard into the middle of the 19th century. The original College Hall, as well as both of the Harvard Halls that replaced it (constructed in 1679 and 1766 respectively), contained a dining hall. The proposed regulations for the diet of the scholars at the College, approved by the faculty in October 1765, noted “that all the scholars living in College shall without exception breakfast dine and sup in the College Hall; saving, in case of sickness.” The regulations also described the fare students could expect at those three meals: “That there always be 2 Dishes for Dinner; a Pudding of some sort to be one of them, except on Saturdays Salt Fish alone & not to have the same Dish ordinarily above twice in a Week, Puddings excepted; That there always be Chocolate, Tea & Coffee for Breakfast with Bread or Biscuit & Butter; and Bread & Milk, or something equivalent for Supper.”

The Corporation consistently tried to main economic efficiency in commons, keeping their costs low (and portions small). A committee appointed by the Corporation “to consider what regulations may be proper to be established respecting the economy of the College,” advised on April 6, 1778, that “the allowance to each person in commons shall not be more at each meal than one quarter of a loaf of bread weighing twenty ounces. Not more than one pint of milk or of chocolate shall be served for breakfast for each person. Not more than six ounces of chocolate shall be allowed to eight pints; and not more than one ounce of sugar be allowed to each pint. Not more than one pound of meat with a sufficient quantity of vegetables or roots be served to each person for dinner. And not more than one pint of milk for supper.” Before the regulations went into effect, one week of commons cost 36 shillings and 2 ¾ pence; the next quarter, the cost of commons had decreased to 30 shillings and 9 ¾ pence, with the Corporation saving more than £212. By 1780, the College was facing the additional problem of inflation and the rising price of goods after the Revolutionary War.

Students, however, frequently protested against the quality of the food they were served. Rancid butter served by Steward Jonathan Hastings prompted the “Butter Rebellion” in 1766. A lesser known rebellion, but one that is extensively documented in this collection, occurred in 1807. The students’ petition to the Corporation on March 20, 1807 explained that not only was their butter bad but their biscuits were bad, their coffee bitter, their sugar dirty, and the cups and saucers not washed. After the Corporation failed to take any action, the students walked out of Commons on March 30, 1807. In response, the Corporation closed Commons for a week and threatened to expel students unless they signed a confession. Twenty-three students were expelled in April (eight of these were re-admitted in September after confessing); the College also lost a number of students who withdrew in sympathy. In his analysis of the rebellion, James McGovern identified a number of causes, citing the state of commons to be a “symbolic, not real cause.” In his view, severe punishments, an ineffective President Webber, an inflexible Corporation, and a required Hebrew language course were more to blame for the student unrest that began in the fall of 1806 and continued until 1808.

Due perhaps to the less than satisfactory nature of the food served, students increasingly preferred to board elsewhere, despite College laws forbidding them from doing so. In 1825, pressure on the College administration to allow students to dine outside the college had grown so strong the laws were finally changed. As a result, by 1849 very few students were dining in commons, and the practice was abandoned. Dining in commons did not start again until the creation of the Harvard Dining Association in 1874, following the successful experiment of the Thayer Club, an independent and voluntary dining association that provided board at cost to about 150 undergraduate students. The Harvard Dining Association, housed in Memorial Hall, existed until 1925. Until dining halls were opened in the new student houses, built in the 1930s, the only campus dining option for upper class students was the Harvard Union. Regular student dining did not resume in Memorial Hall until 1994, when, after extensive renovations, the dining hall, renamed Annenberg Hall, was opened as the freshman dining hall.