Papers of Abbott Lawrence Lowell, 1861-1945, 1953 and undated

Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856-1943), lawyer, historian, and philanthropist, was president of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. Lowell was an important figure in American education and public life. He was an acknowledged expert on world politics and political theory. A member of Boston’s “Brahmin” social aristocracy, Lowell considered himself a steward of public welfare and spent his life furthering causes that he deemed worthy. Lowell’s eagerness for world peace led to his involvement in supporting United States membership in the League of Nations after World War I. His concern for the public’s interests occupied much of his time and led him to take part in many public discussions, including participation in a review of the evidence from the controversial Sacco and Vanzetti trial.

Lowell was born into a prominent Boston family with strong ties to Harvard University. His grandfather, John Amory Lowell (1798-1881), businessman and philanthropist, was a member of the Harvard Corporation for many years. Lowell’s maternal grandfather, Abbott Lawrence, textile manufacturer and founder of Lawrence, Massachusetts, provided $50,000 to establish the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard College and provided an equal sum in his will for the school. Lowell’s father, Augustus Lowell, banker and financier, was a graduate of Harvard College (Class of 1850) and a trustee for twenty years of the Lowell Institute, an educational foundation located in Boston, Massachusetts.

After graduating from Harvard College (AB 1877, LLB 1880) Lowell married Anna Parker Lowell (d. 1930) in 1879 and established a legal practice with his cousin Francis Cabot Lowell in 1880. Frederic J. Stimson joined the practice in 1891. Lowell worked primarily as an administrator of estates and as a managing investor for charitable organizations. In 1884 he co-authored with his cousin Francis the mildly successful book the Transfer of Stock in Corporation. While practicing law, Lowell pursued his scholarly interests in political science and government. In 1889 he published Essays in Government, a comparison of American and British governmental systems. A few years later, in 1896, Lowell wrote the first comprehensive study of continental government published by an American, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe. This work established Lowell’s reputation as a scholar and led to his appointment as Lecturer on Existing Political Systems (1897) at Harvard, teaching courses in modern and constitutional government. Once at Harvard, Lowell took an active interest in the improvement of the curriculum and scholarship at the institution and in 1903 he co-authored a report which revealed shortcomings in the elective course system and a general laxity of student academic performance. By 1909, Lowell had achieved recognition as a leader in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and was acknowledged among his peers as the successor to President Charles W. Eliot. When Eliot retired in May 1909, Lowell became the twenty-third president of Harvard.

Lowell’s presidency (1909-1933) was marked by several major reforms at Harvard University. Among these was the implementation of a modified elective course system to encourage students to take academically stimulating courses, maintain undergraduate interest in scholarship, and provide Harvard students with a well-rounded education; the establishment of general examinations in fields of concentration upon graduation to gauge a student’s knowledge of an entire field of study; the formation of a tutorial system offering students individual guidance in reviewing course material in preparation for the general examination; the creation of a reading period in which students were allowed uninterrupted time to prepare for final examinations; and the introduction of the house system, which required freshmen to live together in halls to promote a “democratic social life” among students at Harvard. Adapted from the English college system, Harvard was the first American University to adopt “Houses” on campus. Material growth at Harvard was extraordinary during Lowell’s administration and a growing need for library shelves, classroom space, and laboratory facilities, made building construction and remodeling inevitable. For twenty years there was regular construction on the Harvard campus and Lowell became known as “The Builder.” Amongst the many new buildings constructed during Lowell’s tenure were the Widener Library (1915), a new Dental School building (1909), and a new building for the Fogg Art Museum (1927). Additionally, in order to promote the early stages of a student’s scholarly career, Lowell in 1933, then President Emeritus of Harvard, endowed a Society of Fellows at Harvard under which twenty-four scholars, free from formal classroom requirements, would be able to pursue studies in any Harvard University department.

Lowell’s philanthropic activities during his lifetime demonstrated a concern for the progress and welfare of the community, lending his name, time, and administrative talents to many causes and organizations; on many occasions Lowell was called upon to contribute an address, publication, or printed statement. Lowell supported tariff reduction, women’s suffrage, and immigration restriction. He opposed the Boston Police strike (1919) and called for volunteers to take the place of striking policemen. As a member of the Boston School Committee (1895-1898), Lowell supported reforms designed to encourage the hiring of academically superior teachers and administrators. Lowell worked diligently on the Boston Chamber of Commerce to improve municipal administration and judicial procedures in Massachusetts. Lowell favored an appointed rather than an elected judiciary and he distrusted the initiative and referendum process as unworkable in practice. Domestic affairs troubled Lowell in the 1930s and he wrote and spoke out against the increasing centralization of government under the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, asserting that the programs being pursued were creating bitter class antagonism and weakening the individual American character. In addition, in the 1930s, Lowell publicly opposed Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme as a threat to an independent judiciary and a child labor amendment to the United States Constitution as unbridled government regulation of the American family. Another public issue in which Lowell was involved was the case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, immigrant anarchists convicted of murder in 1921. The conviction stirred worldwide protests, as many people believed that Sacco and Vanzetti had been framed and convicted for their political views. In May 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti supporters petitioned Massachusetts Governor Alvan Fuller for clemency. Uncertain of a decision, Fuller appointed Lowell to a three-person committee to investigate whether Sacco and Vanzetti were given a fair trial or convicted on the basis of prejudice. After a review of the trial, the committee concluded that Sacco and Vanzetti had indeed been tried and convicted fairly; both men were executed in August 1927. Lowell was criticized for the remainder of his life for the committee’s decision and received abusive letters in the following years from Sacco and Vanzetti supporters on the anniversary of their execution.

Lowell’s concern for domestic affairs did not lead to any lack of interest in foreign affairs. Lowell played a major role in the founding of the League to Enforce Peace, an organization established in 1915 to promote world peace. Serving as the League’s executive chairman (1915-1921) and later president (1921-1923), Lowell spoke and wrote tirelessly on behalf of American participation in the League of Nations, an international body founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I. Lowell saw a need for the nations of the world to stand together to maintain world peace; he called for sanctions against Japan in 1937 after that nation's invasion of Manchuria. Certain that appeasement would bring war, Lowell characterized World War II as a clash of “conflicting ideas of civilization” to which the United States could not be indifferent. He maintained that America had a duty to support the democracies of France and England against the forces of dictatorship.

Abbott Lawrence Lowell died on January 6, 1943 in Boston of a cerebral hemorrhage and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.