“Mr. Glascock sends you his love,” 1923

That was one of the greetings that Radoslav Tsanoff passed on to his daughter Katherine in yesterday’s letter. Mr. Glascock was Clyde Chew Glascock, who taught modern languages (German and Spanish) at the Rice Institute beginning in 1914. Here he is in a photograph taken at the corner where the Physics Building meets the Administration Building. It’s undated but I’d put in the very late teens (that could be part of the Community House in the far background):

Dr. Clyde Chew Glascock, Modern Languages, Rice Institute

Glasscock was a Hopkins Ph.D. who had taught at Yale before arriving in Houston. He stayed at Rice until 1923 and had taken a job at the University of Texas not long before Tsanoff showed up there that summer. They were very well acquainted and Tsanoff speaks of him often in his letters home. Glascock’s experience at Rice wasn’t an unusual one for a foreign language professor here in the early days. In a nutshell the problem was that anyone who was good enough for Rice to want was often too good to stay in a program that offered no chance to work with advanced students. Glascock spent the rest of his career in Austin, focusing his scholarship on folk lore. (Fun Fact: Glascock was president of the Texas Folklore Society twice, in 1915 and 1921. I was surprised to discover that Radoslav Tsanoff also held that office in 1938.)

Bonus: A reader suggests this explanation for Hackerman’s two phones. This makes sense to me.

1 is no doubt an extension of the overall University number JA8-4141 for internal calls and switchboard transfers.

2. The second is probably a direct Southwestern Bell unlisted outside line (number given only to a short list of family and close friends and the board chair) — plus much easier to make long distance calls thru 2nd line than thru the internal budget billing code number hassle for every LD call.

Just speculation but the dorm room for the Baker College President and his roommates had two phones for exactly those reasons.

Extra Bonus: I missed Go Texan Day but a loyal reader sends a pic of Willy dressed properly for the occasion.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to “Mr. Glascock sends you his love,” 1923

  1. grungy1973 says:

    Those are both five-line phones.
    What did he do with the other eight lines.
    Or did he just have them for “hold”?

    • marmer01 says:

      Yes, exactly. Also, back in Sewall Hall, the Dean of Music had a private SW Bell line just as one of the lines on his everyday five-line phone. That kind of thing used to be REALLY common in the days before all extensions were direct-dial.

      • I was going to guess that one was an outside line, then decided against it when I saw they were both five-line phones.

        But I think an outside line makes the most sense. Heck, maybe he had two on one phone.

  2. Now, that’s a proper hat.

  3. Bob Swanson says:

    A different Glasscock/Glascock family from the school of continuing studies? And what’s with the inconsistent spelling in your post?

Leave a Reply