I realized only last night that Homecoming is this weekend, which sent me off to see if I could find a good picture for tonight. There are a lot to choose from but I was especially taken with these portraits of some of the old-timers who were still around in the 1950s. I don’t know who took them or for what purpose exactly but these are the people who returning alumni would want to see. I wish I could get a better look at what’s on their desks.
Here’s the bursar, J.T. McCants, who arrived at Rice (such as it was) in 191o:
Biology professor Asa Chandler, who came in 1919:
Physicist Claude Heaps:
And the registrar, Samuel McCann, who came to teach history in 1915:

This looks suspiciously like a painting of McCann that hung in Allen Center until a couple of years ago.
I had a treasured copy of “McCants’ Notebook” in my files that were destroyed in the flood in the summer of 1976. Would love to find a good copy to scan. I imagine Woodson has a good copy.