Max Freund, 1929 and 1979

I had a very busy day with a nice surprise at the end. I opened a box that someone else was using and I found this picture of long-time German professor Max Freund taken on the occasion of his hundredth birthday in 1979:

(Side note: what do you make of that scale on his desk?)

As I’m sure you remember I wrote about Freund back in 2014 when I found a neglected box of glass plate negatives of photographs that were made in 1929. Here he is having his picture taken for the Campanile:

He died in 1980, a year after the first picture was taken. He had quite a career:

We have not one but two collections Freund’s papers in the Woodson, here and here. He actually taught classes in philology at Rice–I’m a big fan!

Bonus: They started removing the art installation between Sewall and Rayzor today. I’m kind of disappointed. I’d been looking forward to explaining it to parents who came in for commencement.

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9 Responses to Max Freund, 1929 and 1979

  1. Robert Brazile says:

    Postal scale, perhaps? I’m going through a box of glass plates I picked up over the weekend and am having a similarly fun time identifying subjects and scenes

  2. Gary Chiles says:

    I’m going to guess that he used the scale to weigh letters to get the right postage. I would imagine he sent a lot of mail to Germany.

  3. I like the symmetrically-organized pictures on the wall.

  4. Freud was a professor emeritus for 32 years. Did anyone else hold an emeritus title for that long?

  5. Michael Ross says:

    The face of the scale appears to be very similar to that of this 5-pound-capacity Hanson postal scale said to have been made in 1925: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-hanson-brothers-lb-postal-469098474

  6. Michael Ross says:

    🙂

    Unfortunately, I don’t recall – and have not yet found any info online about — Shrine Circus performers joining in a MOB halftime. Or much info at all about MOB halftimes not already documented in the online archives (https://web.archive.org/web/20130901233616/http://mob.rice.edu:80/history/scripts/)

    The Nov. 18, 1965, Thresher did feature a photo of two Shrine circus clowns who visited Jones College on Nov. 16 … as well as a review of the circus, which was performing at the Sam Houston Coliseum (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66424/thr19651118.pdf )

    BTW, the Stancliff’s Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration was mentioned on page 29 of the Jan. 2, 1978 issue of “Circus Report” (http://www.circushistory.org/Publications/CircusReport02Jan1978.pdf) … and Florence’s request for early editions of circus publications appeared in its Sept. 19, 1977, edition (http://www.circushistory.org/Publications/CircusReport19Sep1977.pdf).

    Also, Bert Roth became band director in 1967 (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66473/thr19670921.pdf and https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/88464/wrc04752.pdf) … not in 1969, as said in this 1979 Thresher article about his retirement: https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/67331/thr19791129.pdf).

  7. Edward England says:

    Yep, it’s a Hanson postal scale, I have it sitting on his desk in my home, and still use it to weigh envelopes when mailing, although can’t use the chart — it’s a bit dated. It says a 1 oz. letter costs 2 cents! We still have the lamp too!

    Edward England – one of his grandchildren!

  8. the family says:

    a little more clarification from the family :
    the 1st picture is definitely professor Freund – however a very reliable source says the 2nd picture
    is not him but is a professsor from the French department who looked a lot like him –

    also a small error in the article which states his daughters as “Heidl” & Grete – they were actually
    Heidi & Grete –

    another interesting fact is the bullet from WW1 missed his heart by only 1″ – we are all very
    grateful he managed to survive that wound !

    also the picture to the left of his beard is his wife & the one to the left of that is his older sister
    who he greatly admired & who helped him on many occasions with his educational finances in his
    earlier years –

    on a personal note he was a very big believer in staying fit & kept himself in excellent shape
    by walking every day along with other exercises he did religiously – on more than one occasion
    he would ehaust his grandchildren by walking them around Rice Stadium at a quick steady pace
    with cane in hand – it was quite a workout for the times –

    his key to longevity was a single glass of Sauterne wine every evening after dinner –

    he was a remarkable man.

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