The Irving Literary Society (also known as the Irving Literary Association or simply The Irving) was a literary society at Cornell University active from 1868 to 1887. The U.S. Bureau of Education described it as a "purely literary society" following the "traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities."United States Bureau of Education, Contributions to American Educational History No. 28: History of Higher Education in New York, Circular of Information No. 3, (H.B. Adams, ed. 1900) at 393.
During the period when the Cornell literary societies flourished, the Irving and its peers produced literature at a rate higher than the campus average for the next generation, leading commentators at the turn of the 20th century to question whether academic standards had fallen since the university's founding.R.W., “The infancy of Cornell Journalism,” The Era (1900) at 74. Named after the American writer Washington Irving, the Irving Literary Society was founded on October 20, 1868, shortly after Cornell opened. Past members who went on to prominent careers included judge Morris Lyon Buchwalter, senator Joseph Benson Foraker, and the journalists John Andrew Rea and Francis Whiting Halsey.
The Irving's last public meeting was held on May 23, 1887. After that, it ceased to exist as a Cornell University student society. However, the New York Alpha chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi undergraduate fraternity at Cornell claims to have "served as steward of the Irving Literary Society since 1888".New York Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, "Homecoming 2010, September 24-26"
History Founding
Students held a preliminary meeting to organize a literary society in Room No. 4 Cascadilla Place, on October 20, 1868, some thirteen days after Cornell University opened.Moyer, Fayette E. (1896). "Cornell Student Activities: Literary Societies", Cornell Magazine, Vol 8, October 1895-June, 1896 pp. 187-194 George F. Behringer was selected as president. Asa Bowles Clark Dickinson and Asahel Norton Fitch were also founding members.
At the second meeting on November 7, 1868, the society's name was discussed, with members equally split between the John Bright Brotherhood, honoring the English orator John Bright, and others favoring the Irving Literary Association, after Washington Irving. A compromise was struck in which the society was named after Irving, while Bright and the American orator, Charles Sumner, were admitted as the first honorary members.
In 1930, John Andrew Rea recalled: What I was thinking of most at that time was founding a fraternity and a literary society. I was Phi Kappa Psi, and wanted Foraker and Buchwalter to come on and join me in founding the New York Alpha, which we did, and we had a great bunch of boys. The literary society was first in time. Mr. Williams of our class agitated for the organization of a society under the name "Philanthea". I was appointed to the committee to report on the name for the second society. We did not want a Latin or Greek name, for this was a new institution, one that had never existed before. After much discussion, we went to Mr. White [ Andrew Dickson White ] and told him we were starting a society, and he suggested we use the name of "Irving", after the founder of American literature. The committee accepted it and reported it to the boys, and so it was called the Irving Literary Society. I have no record of the demise of the Irving . . . . There were no other activities than those of the fraternity and the literary society. That was all we knew anything about; no athletics the first year. The literary society had public exhibitions with essays, orations, and debates. They were held downtown.John Andrew Rea, "The Immortal Eight" in A Half-Century at Cornell, pp. 91-92. Cayuga Press, 1930
The first question put to the society in 1869 was "Resolved, the erection of a theatre was not in the interest of promoting correct morals within the University community." The answer was nodded in the affirmative. Initially, the Irving's proceedings were held on Friday evenings at Deming Hall, on what is now the Ithaca Commons.The Cornell Era (Sept. 22, 1869) at 12. Special events were held at the Cornell Public Library around the corner.
In 1870, the Irving Literary Association changed its name to the Irving Literary Society. Beginning in February 1870, the Irving and the Philaletheian, another literary society at Cornell, held an annual debating contest against each other. This event has been noted as one reason the quality of debate was so high on campus between 1869 and 1884.F.E. Moyer, ”Cornell Student Activities,” Cornell Magazine vol. 8, no. 4, (January 1895), p. 187–194. Later, it shared Society Hall with the other literary societies at Cornell.
By 1871, the society had initiated 55 members. The Irving was formed as a male-only society, but following the lead of Cornell's Curtis Literary Society (founded in 1872), membership in the Irving became open to women students and remained so throughout its existence."A New Wrinkle at Sage", The Cornell Era vol. 29, no. 2 (September 24, 1886), p. 19 (Quote: "Besides these secret societies there is the Irving Literary Society which is open to both ladies and gentlemen of the college. All are cordially invited to become members. Meetings are held every Friday evening during the college year.") In 1873, members of the Curtis, Irving, and Philaletheian societies jointly founded and ran The Cornell Review, "a repository of original articles, essays, stories, Woodford orations, elaborate discussions, and poems."Hewett, Waterman Thomas (1905). Cornell University, a History vol. 3. New York: The University Publishing Society, pp. 6 and 39. via Internet Archive.
William R. Lazenby, a professor at Ohio State University, wrote that the Irving Literary Society was in debt and in decline when he was a freshman at Cornell in 1870. However, William Hankins, F. W. Hasley, A. J. Lamoureux, and Daniel Elmer Salmon revived the society, which soon flourished. Lazenby noted that the Irving "was an excellent school for training men to think upon their feet, and to express their thoughts with force and clearness."
Final years
By 1885, the other main literary societies at Cornell—the Adelpi, Curtis, and Philalatheian—had ceased to exist. Around the time of the Curtis' demise in 1881, an address by President White attributed the general decline in student interest for these societies to the growth of fraternities and sororities, decreasing importance placed on the power of oratory, and the development of the seminar system in the university. The Irving continued until 1887, but in 1884 the Ithaca Daily Democrat was lamenting its decline, writing:
The Irving literary society met last evening, but was poorly attended. This institution should be one of the most prosperous student societies in the college, but strange to say, it has deteriorated in point of numbers, and its management has fallen into the hands of technical instead of literary students.Daily Democrat 2 (Sept. 27, 1884)
With the move away from the English collegiate model and toward the German seminar system and a greater dedication of resources to the sciences and engineering (including agricultural sciences), campus leaders increasingly expressed concern about falling standards of recitation, elocution, and oratory at Cornell. There was a quickened pace of Irving exercises during the academic years 1885, 1886, and 1887.
To appeal to broader audiences, the Irving sponsored "popular entertainment" events rather than just the traditional literary society genre. During the fall term of 1886, the society hosted Professor Spenser Baird Newberry and his stereopticon entertainments, most notably a show featuring vistas of Athens, Constantinople, and Egypt. Newberry’s presentations proved popular enough for the Irving to charge admission.Cornelliana, The Cornell Era (29:5)(Oct. 15, 1886) at 19; id. (29:6)(Oct. 22, 1886) at 64. However, the social activities were balanced by a more traditional format. By the winter of 1887, the members had settled on a two-part presentation. The first part would include exercises in parliamentary practice, a paper reading, and perhaps a recitation or debate. Part two would include a social hour with music. Papers included topics such as "Cornell University Lake Survey", "Political History of Japan", "Small Nations", "Influence of the Jesuits on the Five Nations", and "Etching"."Irving Literary Society", The Cornell Era (29:14) (Jan. 21, 1887) p. 162; "Cornelliana", The Cornell Era (29:16) (Feb. 4, 1887) p. 176; "Cornelliana", The Cornell Era (29:16) (Apr. 29, 1887) p. 296; "Cornelliana", The Cornell Era (29: 27) (May 13, 1887) p. 318. (All these sources can be found using the search term "Irving" in The Cornell Era, Vol. 19 (1886-1887).)
The Irving Literary Society's last public meeting was held on May 23, 1887. After that, it ceased to exist as a Cornell University society. However, the Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966 describes the Irving Literary Society as "doing business as the New York Alpha chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Cornell University".Schedule I, Appendix A, Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966, at 1 In addition, the New York Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Psi describes itself as having "served as steward of the Irving Literary Society since 1888". The fraternity chapter has also claimed to have been "founded in 1868 through the Irving Literary Society."New York Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. About The NY Alpha Chapter. Retrieved 2011-4-16. Note, however, that in another section of the chapter's website, Our Story, the founding date is given as 1869. The Cornell University Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs also lists the founding date as 1869.
Symbols The society's motto was or or "Truth".
Activities
Washington Irving's birthday and Cornell's first commencement
The Irving’s first major event was a celebration of Washington Irving’s Birthday on April 3, 1869, at the Cornell Public Library in downtown Ithaca, New York. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White both attended.Farnham, G.W. and O'Neil, J. "Irving Literary Association, April 3, 1869", The Cornell Era (Apr. 3, 1869) pp. 5–6. The first oration, "Aristocracy of Sex", explored the natural law-based presumption of male supremacy in America and concluded that the assumption was based solely on "the prejudice of man." After a musical interlude came an essay on "Our Capital and the War", recalling Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War, including the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Then came an oration on "Our National Tendency", namely the tendency of emerging nations to undergo an income a widening gap between rich and poor, and social violence that followed that widening. This delivery was described by the society's secretaries in The Cornell Era as "forcible, the orator receiving vigorous applause". The high point of the first event was a reading from Washington Irving's first major book, A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker by founding member Asa Bowles Clark Dickinson.
The event closed with an oration by Morris Lyons Buchwalter, "On The Poles".