Here’s another look at the Thanksgiving Reunion held at Rice in 1919, effectively our first Homecoming. (I wrote about this last year too, but I have some new images this time.) It had all the ingredients. The day began with an an academic procession, followed by a religious service, in the morning:
And finally, turkey:
Bonus: It was President Lovett who gave the invocation at the morning religious service. His remarks raise again what is to my mind one of the most interesting (and largely unexplored) issues of the early Institute–what did they mean precisely when they said that Rice was secular? It is quite clearly not the same thing that we mean now, but these were extremely smart men and they certainly meant something. If I ever get out from under all this centennial stuff, I’ll do some reading and have a hard look at this.
Almost against my better judgment, here’s Lovett’s script for the invocation:
Thanks everyone, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.