Collective Memory

Situated on what is now Alumni Lawn, the original Kissam Hall was the first large, “modern” dormitory on campus. Crowned with two cupolas, the impressive building was funded by William Kissam Vanderbilt and finished in 1900. It served the university 57 years. When Vanderbilt opened its doors in 1875, there… Read More

Professor Oswald T. Avery in his laboratory in the current Medical Center North. The photograph, probably dating to 1948, is inscribed to his associate, Dr. Bertram Sprofkin. Two of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, and perhaps of all time, have worked at Vanderbilt. One performed his last… Read More

By Bonnie Arant Ertelt As university traditions go, music has charms to do more than soothe the savage breast. In fact, music has the ability to invoke nostalgia for the old “alma mater,” pump up school spirit at athletic events, and stitch together collegiate memories in ways that override the… Read More

Morris Frank, ’29, once playfully recalled the time he got a free train ride. “The conductor told me he had watched me come down the platform, get on the train and take my seat, and he said that no blind man in the world could do that.” As proof, Frank… Read More

Feb. 19, 1932, was the worst day in Vanderbilt history. Wesley Hall, the largest and most versatile building on campus, burned. It had housed the divinity school, the divinity library, a cafeteria, and rooms and apartments for graduate students and faculty. The fire occurred just as the economy moved into… Read More

Until the late 1950s, Peabody College’s Knapp Farm was known for its herd of prize, purebred Holsteins. George Peabody College for Teachers, which opened on its present-day campus in 1914 after a series of previous incarnations dating from 1785, had two related missions. One was to provide a graduate-level education… Read More

It’s 1952. Across America, families crowd around their boxy TV sets, staring at the snowy black-and-white screen as Dinah Shore strolls onstage in a shimmering Hollywood gown, while a harp trills through a few introductory arpeggios. At the age of 36, the beautiful and talented brunette-turned-blonde is already a household name. She floats past a giant photo of a 1953 Chevy Bel Air and launches into song. Read More

The Zeta Beta Tau house as it appeared in the 1920 Commodore yearbook. (Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives) It was early December in Tucson, Ariz.—45 years and 1,600 miles from our undergraduate days at Vanderbilt. We came together, this graying group of sexagenarians, to recharge our… Read More

As Vanderbilt University School of Nursing celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding this year, the nursing profession is struggling to meet the demands of a prolonged and severe nursing and faculty shortage. Alumni from the 1940s can attest that the current shortage is not the nursing profession’s first. In… Read More

Images from Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives. Vanderbilt panty-raid coverage in the 1958 Peabody Pillar yearbook On May 20, 1952, during my first year of graduate work at Vanderbilt, I phoned a nursing student who lived in Mary Henderson Hall, the nursing dormitory. I had casually… Read More

Methodist Bishop Holland McTyeire, left, envisioned a Vanderbilt inspired by church values. Chancellor James Kirkland wanted a nonsectarian university. “Who controls Vanderbilt University?” “Who founded Vanderbilt–northern money or southern Methodists?” A century ago fierce questions about the status of Vanderbilt inflamed debate across the South. And the way they… Read More

John D. Rockefeller Sr. (1839-1937) and Jr. (1874-1960) At the end of the 19th century, vast personal fortunes were created in the United States. Industrial advances made from 1870 to 1900 opened opportunities in railways, oil, banking and manufacturing. Savvy businessmen with names like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan and Rockefeller… Read More

On the surface, the group of freshmen who showed up at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1973 didn’t seem that different from any other.They were bright, to be sure. Eager and excited about starting this new adventure called college.And as they unpacked, settled in, and started finding their way… Read More