Author: Notre Dame Archives

Boating Club and Crews

Notre Dame students have always found the lakes prime summer recreation spots for swimming, boating, and fishing.  The St. Joseph’s Boating Club organized on April 21, 1867,  “for the physical, as well as the mental education of its members, both the art of Rowing and Sailing” [Annual Catalog for the Academic Year 1866-1867, page 21].  Rev. Auguste Lemonnier, CSC, nephew of Rev. Edward Sorin and University President 1872-1874, was director of the Club.  When Lemonnier tragically died in 1874 at the age of 35, the Boating Club was renamed in his honor.

Boating Club on the lake, c1867-1874.
Rev. Auguste Lemonnier, CSC, is at the far right.

 

Notre Dame garnered a number of boats in the second half of the 19th century, with such names as Nina (staff boat), Pinta, Santa Maria, Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Montmorency, Yosemite, Evangeline, and the Golden Jubilee and Silver Jubilee.

Crew of the Silver Jubilee, 1896
Arthur Chase, Charles Neizer (Niezer), Edward Gilmartin, Jenaro Davila,
Captain John Mullen, Coxswain George McCarrick, Lucian Wheeler

 

The popularity of the Boating Club quickly made it necessary for the construction of a Boat House to store all of the equipment and provide for lounge space for the members of the Boating Club.  While probably not the first, the Boat House which still exists today was built in 1873.

Students around the Boat House on St. Joseph Lake, 1893

 

The Boating Club would occasionally take trips up to Niles, Michigan, on the St. Joseph River.  Crews raced at least twice a year on St. Joseph’s Lake — for the Feast of St. Edward and for Commencement.

Freshman (Class of 1916, upper-left), Sophomore (Class of 1915, lower-right), Junior (Class of 1914, upper-right), and Senior (Class of 1913, lower-left) Class Crew teams who competed in the 1913 Commencement races.  The Freshmen defeated the Sophomores, and the Juniors, with Knute Rockne on the team, defeated the Seniors.

 

Competitive crews clubs at Notre Dame continue to exist today and Women’s Rowing became a varsity sport in 1996.

Postcard of a boat rowing crew practice on St. Joseph’s Lake with Main Building and Sacred Heart Church Basilica in the background, c1910

Women’s Varsity Crew team rowing on St. Mary’s Lake with the Main Building Dome, Hesburgh Library, and Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the background, 1999-2000

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome yearbook 1914
Annual Catalog for the Academic Year 1866-1867
GSBA 2/01
GMLS 7/04
GNDL 4/20
GNDS 28/34 (William Edward Cleaver Scrapbook)
GNDS 9/01 (Warren Baldwin Scrapbook)
GPHR 9/34

Campus Statue Project

In the 1940s, during the midst of World War II, Notre Dame embarked on an ambitious campus beautification project, which would fill twenty empty niches on buildings around campus, including many that had stood vacant for decades.  In 1943, classes in the Art Department were cancelled due to lack of fine art students.  While such classes remained for the Architecture students, the faculty and artists in residence with the Art Department had some time on their hands to concentrate on the campus statue project.

The first building to see such an installation was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  In May 1944, St. Joan of Arc and St. Michael the Archangel finally found their home at the east World War I Memorial Door.  The Memorial door itself was originally added to the Basilica in 1924, left with empty niches for twenty years.

People exiting the World War I Memorial Door of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart after the installation of the statues of St. Joan of Arc and St. Michael the Archangel, c1940s

Few may have been “aware of the sculpture creations going on in the Old Natatorium Building behind the Dome.”  Fortunately, Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC, sculptor of many of those statues, wrote a letter in 1980 to then-Notre Dame Magazine editor Ron Parent describing his involvement in this campus sculpture project.  Below are excerpts from Bednar’s letter (at times Bednar refers to himself in the third-person):

Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC,’s sculpture of “St. Augustine, Bishop,” on Dillon Hall, c1944. Photo by Wally Kunkle.

“[I]t might be of interest to some that all the statues were done in artificial stone, a cement mix consisting of Portland cement, white cement, silica, marble dust, and for slight coloring, Burnt Siena powder, a warm brown color.  The figures had to be made in clay from which a mold was formed for pouring the cement mix.  Father O’Donnell would not consent to have the figures carved out of limestone – too slow and expensive a process.  As it was, the niches on campus buildings had been neglected for too many years.  The World War I Memorial had the names of Joan of Arc and St. Michael carved in Gothic script below the niches in 1924, empty niches, and now we were in the middle of World War II when John Bednar filled those two niches with their namesakes!

World War I Memorial Door of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart before the installation of the statues of St. Joan of Arc and St. Michael the Archangel (1944), c1924-1928

“The opportunity to fill all the empty niches on campus facades came when Father Szabo of South Bend brought Eugene Kormendi to meet with John Bednar, the sculptor in the Art Department and to see if Kormendi could obtain any sculpture commissions from the University, a likely outlet for a sculptor.  I suggested that we could fill all the empty niches on the campus which I had been eying for years.  I had been studying sculpture under the tutelage of Chicago’s foremost sculptor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, (received my M.F.A. in sculpture in 1940 and had introduced sculpture into the program of the Art Department at Notre Dame the same year.)  The Szabo-Kormendi visit was perfectly timed for a sculpture project on the campus.

Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC,’s sculpture of Cardinal John Henry Newman, c1944

“A reliable witness to the production of the campus sculptures was Tony Lauck, a Moreau seminarian at the time and a sculptor of merit, who also wished to work in the Bednar-Kormendi studio on his own project, a huge block of wood for a standing figure of Christ.  Permission granted and Tony brought two other seminarians to help him with a double-handled cross-cut saw for the preliminary shaping of the Christ figure.  A bronze casting was made of that wood carving which can be seen today on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Church, South Bend.

“The St. Jerome statue on another Dillon wall, showing the great Biblical Scholar beating his chest with a rock instead of a scourge, Bednar shipped to Indianapolis before installation in the niche.  I won a prize in sculpture at the John Herron Art Museum in a juried exhibition  The $150 prize paid for the round trip and for the clay, the cements, marble dust etc., and brought back the approval of the jury.”

Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC, in an art studio with a working prototype of St. Jerome for Dillon Hall, c1944
Scholastic 08/18/1944 article regarding the “Beautification Project Progresses,” by Ronald Byersmith and Dick Mellett, regarding the twenty statue installations across campus during the 1940s


Among the Sculpture on Campus Installed in the 1940s:

Works by Eugene Kormendi:
Law School Building – “St. Thomas More”; “Christ the King” [due to deterioration, these two statues were disposed of during the 2010 construction of the Law School addition]
Alumni Hall – “The Graduate”
Dillon Hall – “Commodore Barry”
Lyons Hall Arch – “St. Joseph with Lilly”
Morrissey Hall – “St. Andrew”
Rockne Memorial Entrance – “St. Christopher”
St. Liam Hall Infirmary – “The Good Shepherd”; “St. Raphael the Archangel”

Works by Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC
Alumni Hall Courtyard – “St. Thomas Aquinas”; “St. Bonaventure with Cardinal’s Hat”
Dillon Hall – “St. Augustine, Bishop” (courtyard); “St. Jerome”; “Cardinal Newman, Scholar” (above west doorway)
Basilica of the Sacred Heart – “St. Joan of Arc”; “St. Michael Archangel”

Works by James Kress (Detroit)
Howard Hall – “St. Timothy”

 

Sources:
GBED 1/01 [photographs and letter from Bednar to Parent]
Scholastic
GNDS 24/49
GJJC 1/36

June Brides

In the collections of the University of Notre Dame Archives, references to weddings are scattered throughout.  While these items don’t always have a personal connection with us today, they often provide an interesting insight into society, customs, and traditions.

A wedding party, c1860s-1870s

 

Some items are historically significant:

Newspaper illustration of the wedding of Minnie Sherman (daughter of General William Tecumseh Sherman) and Lieutenant Thomas Fitch, October 1, 1874, at St. Aloysius’ Church in Washington, D.C. (sketched by Harry Ogden).  Among the numerous dignitaries in attendance were President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant; Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, founder and president of the University of Notre Dame; and Mother Angela Gillespie, CSC, director of St. Mary’s Academy (now College), cousin of Ellen Ewing Sherman (wife of William Tecumseh Sherman), and namesake of Angela Boulevard in South Bend

 

Others show passé customs:

Pages 42-43 from “My Wedding Day” booklet by Louis LaRovoire Morrow, Bishop of Krishnagar, 1949.  These pages outline the vows of the ceremony and the blessing of the rings in English and Latin


Pages from “Check List for Your Wedding” booklet by Msgr. James A. Magner, 1959.  These pages outline what the bride, groom, parents, and attendants should wear to the ceremony.  Gloves and hats are no longer required for Catholic weddings.

 

Some give insight to other cultures:

A country wedding in Jamaica, c1890s


While others demonstrate the fashions of the times:

Portrait of a bride, c1890s
(photo by McDonald Studios, South Bend)



A wedding party leaving the Basilica of the Sacred Heart while being pelted with rice, c1930s


A bride with her father outside of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, c1960
(photo by Walt Daly)


A wedding party, guests, and photographer at the Grotto, c1970s

 

Sources:
GSBA 2/05
GSHR 11/05
PGEN 95/3718
PGEN 95/3753
GBMH 5/24
GAZA
GBBY 45F/6385
GNDS 26/13
GPUB 38/02

Alumni Reunion

Alumni have always been an important constituency of the Notre Dame family.  They often return home to their Alma Mater independently and as part of organized groups.  The first weekend in June has been designated as Alumni Reunion weekend, where Notre Dame welcomes back all her students, particularly those who celebrate their anniversaries on the fives and tens.

Alumni group (including many faculty members), c1880s. Includes Rev. Edward Sorin, Arthur Stace, William Ivers, Borzon (?), James (Jimmy) Edwards, Joseph Lyons, Thomas E. Walsh, Peter Cooney, Patrick Colovin, O’Connell, Kelly, Timothy Howard

The Society of the Associated Alumni first organized in 1868 and held many Reunions into the 1870s, but it faded near the turn of the century.  In 1908, University President Rev. John W. Cavanaugh, CSC, sent invitations to all Alumni to return to their Alma Mater for Commencement, and thus reinstating the tradition of the annual Alumni Reunion.

Scholastic Alumni Issue, vol. 42, page 19: Alumni Reunion group posed on Main Building front steps, June 17, 1908. Scholastic lists all the returnees on a following page.


Alumni ribbon featuring an engraving on the new Main Building, 06/20/1888


Notre Dame Alumnus Class of 1910 Ribbon


Activities for this year’s Reunion will be similar to those in the past — meeting up with old friends and professors and their families, attending Masses and Class banquets, and ambling about an ever-changing campus.

Alumni Reunion – A group of alumni at a refreshment station outside of Howard Hall, c1960s-1970s


Class of 1917 Scenes from Alumni Reunion, 1947

Alumni walking around campus near the Hesburgh Library, which is under construction and does not have the Word of Life mural, June 1963


Alumni Reunion – “Still Crazy after All These Years,” including Suzzie and Jack McCabe and Paul Fox, 1989


Sources:
Scholastic
CLYS 4/05
OATH 28/
GMLS 7/01
GNDL 19/03
GNDL 34/33
GNDL 34/49
GPUB 11/59

Indianapolis 500

2011 marks the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 and a few items regarding the early years of the Motor Speedway exist in the University of Notre Dame Archives.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Greatest Race Course in the World.  This postcard is postmarked September 1910, a year before the first Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

In 1913 and 1914, Notre Dame student Grover Miller and a group of friends (presumably other ND students) attended the Indianapolis 500 Races.  Below are some of the photographs from his scrapbook:

A straight-away on the track, 1913
Entrance to the tunnel with the Grand Stand on the right, 1913
Scoreboard, 1913
George Britton in car #47, 1914


View of the Judges’ Stand, 1914

 

Notre Dame students? watching the races, including Bernie, Mike, Leos, and Mack, 1914


Racer Joe Dawson’s wrecked Marmon, car #26, 1914

Second-place winner Arthur Duray in his Peugeot, car #14, 1914

Mike and Grover Miller driving 61 miles per hour in a car, 1914
Muh and Mike eating a box picnic lunch, 1914

 

Sources:
GMIL
GFCL 55/04


The Minim Department

For nearly ninety years, Notre Dame consisted of three departments:  Senior (collegiate, ages 17+), Junior (preparatory, ages 12-17), and Minim (grammar school, under the age of 12).  It was possible to arrive at Notre Dame at the age of six and not leave until after graduating from the Senior Department at the age of twenty-two.  Or, as in the case of Jimmy Edwards, some never left.  For some years, the University Bulletins listed the ages of students enrolled at Notre Dame [see the Student Index].  The earliest age listed is Roscoe Clarke of Denver, Colorado, at 3 ½ years old in 1893.

Lay women were in charge of the education and care of the Minims until the Sisters of the Holy Cross took over in 1863.  During the 1860s-1870s, the number of students in the Minim Department generally hovered around thirty to forty students.  With growing numbers, St. Edward’s Hall became their home in 1882.  In 1883, the number of the Minim Department finally reached an enrollment of one hundred students and was the cause of much celebration at Notre Dame.  With no coincidence, the celebration was planned for November 24, the forty-first anniversary of the arrival of Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, at Notre Dame.  Fr. Sorin looked fondly upon the boys and their accomplishments and enthusiasm.  He often spoiled them with special treats such as oranges and candy and they heartily honored Fr. Sorin on Founder’s Day.

Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, with a group of Minims, the “Princes of St. Edward’s Hall,” c1880s-1890s

The three departments of students at Notre Dame operated mostly independently of one another.  However, on such a small campus, they were quite aware of each others’ activities.  In 1867, its first year of publication, Scholastic had the following comments about the Minim Department:  “They are now fully organized, and apparently depend on none of their Senior associates except for regular meals, which they continue to take with the Juniors. … [O]therwise they have literally nothing to do with the other students.  They would not allow anyone to infringe upon their grounds or rights…  They are at times rather a noisy little nation, especially since music is taught them upon their own premises; the splendid piano which as been placed there for their exclusive use, is seldom silent” [Scholastic, 09/21/1867, page 4].  Teasing the Minims on their favored status with Fr. Sorin, the author of the column joked that if the boys acted up, they could be sent to another boys school in Indiana.

Cornet Band with a few Minim members, 1869

Sports and physical activities played an important part in all of the students’ lives, and the Minims were no exception.  They played most of the same sports as their older counterparts, including football, baseball, and track.  They also held gymnastic expositions and participated various races around campus.  They had their own play halls, fields and equipment.  However, the Minims often proved to be valiant opponents against the Junior Department and area teams such as South Bend Junior High.

[photoshelter-img i_id=”I00001vd7HlXCTq4″ buy=”1″ caption=”Minim students with bicycles on Main Quad with Main Building Dome in the background, 1892..Photo by Rev. Alexander Kirsch, CSC)” width=”576″ height=”367″]

 

The Minim football team, 1911

 

When not playing themselves, Minims were known as the most spirited fans and eternal optimists of Notre Dame athletics — “the hearty embodiment of the Notre Dame spirit.”

1912 Dome yearbook feature page on the Minims

 

With the influence of the vision of Rev. John Zahm, CSC, Notre Dame began to move toward the more modern model of a university at the beginning of the twentieth century.  This modern plan did not include boarding schools for boys.  The Junior Preparatory Department was eliminated in 1922 and the Minim Department ended in 1929.  Upon the closing of the Minim Department, Scholastic issued this parting tribute:  “No more will [St. Edward’s Hall] be the haven of the youngsters who have been in such close touch with the University since the beginning of its existence.  No more will the Sophomore Hallers be treated to the sight of aspiring embryonic All-Americans staging their gridiron battles on the Minims’ field.  The school has been done away with; the Sisters have taken up their work in other parts of the country; and old Brother Cajetan who had charge of St. Edward’s is dead.” [Scholastic, 09/20/1929, page 10].

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome yearbook
GNDL 20/05
GSBA 1/14
GGPP 2/04
GNDS 9/01

 

 

An Tostal

An Tostal at Notre Dame began in 1967 by students Jimmy Brogan, David Ryan, and Ron Mastroni [Scholastic 1988/0414, page 14].  Its name comes from the spring festivals held in Ireland during the 1950s.  At Notre Dame, it is a student organized event through the Student Union Board, and thus the events vary from year to year, but it is generally a week-long festival of games, prizes, music, and food.  Other events such as the Fisher Hall Regatta and the Bookstore Basketball Tournament are held in conjunction with An Tostal.

An Tostal program cover featuring a leprechaun, 1970.  The Hall Presidents’ Council (HPC) and the Saint Mary’s College (SMC) Social Commission organized the event.
Map of some of the events near St. Mary’s Lake from the An Tostal Program, 1970
An Tostal April 1973 – A student wearing a suit of armor and riding a horse

List of Scheduled Events from the An Tostal Program, 1992

Events have included movies, concerts, picnics, pie-throwing contests, kissing marathons, tug-o-war contests, mattress races, chariot races, and lots of mud…

An Tostal Chariot Races through a mud pit near Stepan Center, Spring 1978
An Tostal Tug-o-War, c1970s
An Tostal Pig Chase, c1970

Sources:
Scholastic
PNDP 70-An-02
GRMD 5/39
GPHR 20/09
GNDL 33/11
GPUB 13/01

The Father of Mother’s Day

On February 7, 1904, Francis Earle Hering proposed the idea of “setting aside of one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memory of Mothers and motherhood” to an audience of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Indianapolis [certificate below].

Certificate honoring Frank E. Hering, signed by those who were present at the English Opera House in Indianapolis on February 7, 1904, when Hering proposed a national day honoring mothers.  This document was signed on 07/24/1930

Frank Hering first attended the University of Chicago, playing football under Amos Alonzo Stagg, from 1893-1894, then took a coaching job at Bucknell for a year, before coming to Notre Dame in 1896.  That fall, Hering played quarterback and was the coach and captain of the football team.  He also coached basketball, baseball, and track, and served as instructor of athletics.  In 1898, Hering earned a bachelors in English (Litt.B.) and a bachelors in Law (L.L.B.) in 1902.  He taught English from 1898-1902 and later served Notre Dame for many years as a Lay Associate of the Board of Lay Trustees and as President of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.  He gave a speech at the dedication of Notre Dame Stadium in 1930 and was on the committee of the Rockne Memorial after Coach Knute Rockne’s death in 1931.

Varsity Basketball Team, 1897, with Frank E. Hering as coach (middle row, second from right).  For an unknown reason, there is a frog on the knee of the player in front of him

Hering’s inspiration for a national Mother’s Day came from Notre Dame students writing home to their mothers:  “[P]ractically every boy has as his sweetheart his mother – and that the surest way to appeal to him for his best efforts in building his character and his grades – those things greatly to be desired – was to remind him of the deep happiness his mother receives” [quoted in Scholastic, 05/09/1941, page 11].

Hering’s involvement with the Fraternal Order of the Eagles gave him an oratory platform to spread this idea of a day specially for mothers.  Others were also campaigning the idea, including Anna M. Jarvis, and Congress passed a resolution in 1914, making Mother’s Day a national observance.

“Throughout history the great men of the world have given their credit for their achievements to their mothers.  [The] Holy Church recognizes this, as does Notre Dame especially, and Our Lady who watches over our great institution” [Frank Hering, as quoted in Scholastic, 05/09/1941, page 11].

Sources:
Scholastic
Lists of Early Notre Dame Students and Faculty
“Echos:  As ND as football, Mother’s Day and Community Service,” by Jason Kelly, Notre Dame Magazine, Autumn 2009
UDIS 141/19
GUND 10/05
GMLS 7/03

Y’er Out!

April 24-26, 1912, Notre Dame played Arkansas in a series of three baseball games.  Notre Dame won the series 2-1 “in one of the most remarkable games ever played on Cartier Field” [see South Bend News clipping below].  The series was tied 1-1 and the third game was decided in the ninth inning nail-biter with Notre Dame winning 10-9.

Baseball Game Scene – ND vs. Arkansas, April 1912. Hinton of Arkansas coaching on first base
Baseball Game Scene – ND vs. Arkansas, April 1912. View of the field from the grandstand

After the wins, the Notre Dame students celebrated with a snake dance through campus. The student celebrations continued even after University President Rev. John W. Cavanaugh, CSC, “issued an order that there be no further demonstrations of any kind.”  Cavanaugh stuck to his guns and expelled about twenty students for their continued celebrations.

The Snake Dance on campus after Notre Dame won the Baseball series vs. Arkansas, April 1912. “Dummy” Smith leading, Brussard second, Brennan third — the fellows expelled for the celebration demonstration
South Bend News clipping (04/29/1912) regarding the twenty or so students who were expelled from Notre Dame after celebrations of the victories of the baseball games vs. Arkansas

Baseball Game Scene – ND vs. Rose Poly, 1912.  View of the empty grandstand and bleachers after a number of students were expelled for celebrating the previous series vs. Arkansas — the students refused to honor any athletics


Sources:
GNDS 9/19 (Warren Baldwin Scrapbook)
Dome yearbook 1913
PNDP 04-Di-01