Curriculum
During the first fifty years of the Harvard Summer School, the curriculum grew from the initial courses in laboratory science to include courses in almost every subject field offered during the academic year. Course offerings continued to expand in education and related fields in response to the large number of teachers who comprised the student body and the general belief among some, including President Eliot, that higher education should be more involved in shaping the curriculum and learning environment in the lower schools. This was an era when the bachelor's degree was not yet a universal requirement for entrance into the teaching profession.
After Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences set the terms for which college credit could be given for summer courses in the 1890s, the curriculum gradually expanded to include more advanced courses and the student body began to include more students from Harvard and other colleges. With the establishment of the University Extension program in 1909, many of the summer courses could be used for credit toward the degree that could be earned through University Extension.
Coursework in these decades included the beginnings of field work, study abroad, English language courses and other courses that could be considered forerunners to programs that continue in the present day. New courses, such as the Theory of Design taught by Denman Waldo Ross in 1899, were sometimes given for the first time at the University during the summer. Courses were also introduced that sought to address emerging issues as the nation became more urbanized and industrialized and entered the First World War. Conferences and lectures open to all members of the Summer School or the general public were occasionally held in conjunction with these courses.
One of the earliest examples of field work was the Summer School of Geology organized by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler in 1875. Training in methods of observation was a primary objective of the program. Initially the field work was undertaken with trips to the mountains of New England and New York and local coastal areas. It expanded to summer expeditions to the Rocky Mountains and other points west. "Old Baldy" in the mountains in Montana was a destination for several years. Participants bore the cost of the trips, which included provisions, guides, pack animals, packers, wagons and other transportation expenses. The summer field course in geology differed from most of the other courses in that it was limited to men.
The photograph and documents at right comprise a small sample of the University Archives' holdings that reflect the diversity of summer courses and related activities. Lists of Experiments Prepared for Elementary Chemistry, was prepared by Theodore W. Richards, a young instructor who taught the course that year. Richards became Professor of Chemistry at Harvard a few years after that and was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1915 for his work in determing the atomic weight of elements.
The course in English and American biography in 1906 was given by Charles Townsend Copeland. Copeland taught English composition and literature at Harvard from 1892-1928 and was well known for his lectures and readings in literature. The Summer School Announcement of 1906 noted that "it is expected that this course will suggest to teachers ways of enlivening and humanizing the study of literature for their pupils."
