Monthly Archives: February 2017

When the students gathered in the Physics Amphitheater in 1922 and heard the statement banning clubs there was no doubt at all which clubs were about to disappear. A small group of exclusive social clubs had taken root on campus, … Continue reading →

It’s going to take a couple of posts to get through this but I’ll begin with the Matriculation Pledge that all new freshmen were required to sign in 1950: And here is the 1922 document referred to in the pledge, … Continue reading →

I think they were V-12 guys. I’d pick them up. Bonus:

Adele and Camille Waggaman were among the earliest women students at Rice. Adele graduated in the first class in 1916 and Camille followed a year later. There are pictures of both girls all over the scrapbooks of that era. Spirited … Continue reading →

I found these two images in Dean Hill’s scrapbook, both taken at parades in downtown Houston by someone who liked to station themselves in front of Foley’s: I am forced to admit here that I don’t understand the uniforms–why one … Continue reading →

I am the Centennial Historian of Rice University. This means, among other things, that every day when I go to work I am surrounded by people who are smarter than I am. Isaac Dvoretzky was also smarter than I am, … Continue reading →

There’s been a lot of thrashing around over the years about Rice songs, both the fight song and the alma mater. The search for the perfect thing hasn’t been constant but it certainly has been recurrent. Yesterday I ran across … Continue reading →

Came through my procedure just fine but the anesthesia left me feeling like a fuzzy copy for a while: Bonus: It’s been a tough year for kites on campus.

Sometimes just for sport I’ll tag along behind one of the groups being led around campus by our charming student tour guides. I have heard some pretty dubious assertions during these jaunts but never anything as wild or as funny … Continue reading →

Acting on a timely tip I spent much of last weekend combing through a vast amount of paper at an estate sale in west Houston. The home had belonged to a pair of 1952 Rice graduates, Dean and Ginny (Smith) … Continue reading →