The Fly Club is a
final club, traditionally "punching" (inviting to stand for election) male undergraduates of
Harvard College during their sophomore or junior year. Undergraduate and graduate members participate in club activities.
History
Founded in 1836 as a literary society by the editors of Harvardiana, the club was granted a charter by the
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in 1837 and remained a chapter until surrendering its charter in 1865. With the graduation of the members of the class of 1868, the club was discontinued until 1878, when graduate members, including
Edward Everett Hale (class of 1839) and
Phillips Brooks (class of 1855), initiated undergraduates from the class of 1879, to whom the old charter was restored.
In 1906, the charter was once again surrendered, and in 1910, the organization officially adopted the name "Fly Club," its unofficial title since 1885. In 1996, the Fly Club merged with the DU Club, another final club, and the combined entity retained the name Fly Club.
Symbols
Some sources maintain that the club's name was derived by combining the PH from "Alpha," the l from "Delta," and the i from "Phi," to get "Phli," pronounced "Fly".[1]
The club motto, suggested by Prof.
Morris H. Morgan (class of 1881) and adopted Feb. 1902, reads DURATURIS HAUD DURIS VINCULIS, an ablative absolute construction translated as "Bonds should be lasting, not chafing or hard."
Clubhouse
Constructed in 1896, with a brick facade added in 1902, the Fly clubhouse is located at Two Holyoke Place, near Harvard Square, along the "Gold Coast" of formerly private residences that now comprise Harvard's
Adams House, completed 1932.[2] The Fly sits in front of Harvard's
Lowell House (1930), across Mt. Auburn Street from the
Harvard Lampoon building (1909).
Fly Club Gate
The Fly Club Gate is located along the exterior of
Winthrop House. An
English Baroque structure, the gate was built in 1914 by a grant from members of the Fly Club. The Fly's symbol, a "leopard rampant gardant" (known as the "Kitty"), is centered within the ironwork above the entry. Inscribed below is a dedication: "For Friendships Made in College the Fly Club in Gratitude has Built this Gate."[3]
Notable members
Following is a list of notable members of the Fly Club. Member Initiated into the D.U. Club, which merged with the Fly Club in 1996, is indicated with a *.
Caspar Henry Burton Jr. – volunteered for
British Red Cross during
World War I; enlisted Royal Fusiliers, British Army; gazetted 4th Battalion, King's (Liverpool) Regiment; transferred to American Army, A.E.F.. Died of wounds received in battle. A Harvard University scholarship is named in his honor.[14][15]
^Yeomans, Henry (1977). Abbott Lawrence Lowell. Arno Press.
ISBN0-405-10009-4. p.38. "He tried to avoid what he considered Wilson's mistake in alienating them at Princeton, and he accepted honorary membership in the Fly in 1904."
^
abcdefghCatalogue of the Alpha Delta Phi Club of Harvard University, 1836–1902. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1902.
[2]
^
abcdefghCatalogue of the Fly Club of Harvard University, 1836–1911. Camb. (Mass.): The University Press, 1911
[3]
^Gardner, Martin (1995). The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey/Third, Revised Edition. Courier Dover Publications.
ISBN0-486-28598-7. p.1
[4]
^"But one prominent alum, Evan Thomas, who is the Washington bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, said that his informal polling of fellow alumni showed strong support for a co-ed Fly." Rimer, Sara. "Harvard Journal; All-Male Club Opens Its Door Warily." The New York Times, October 9, 1993.
[5]
^"Letters of Caspar Henry Burton, Jr." Edited by his brother, Spence Burton, S.S.J.E. Privately printed, 1921. pp. 61-62. "When, on the night before he went out to France as an officer in The King's, Father and Mother asked him what memorial he wished if he were killed, he told them he would like to have a scholarship founded in his memory at Harvard. He wanted it controlled, if possible, by William G. Wendell [Burton's Harvard classmate and Fly brother] and me. He wanted Wendell to represent The Fly and me to represent The Society of St. John the Evangelist...He wished the scholarship to be primarily available for members of my monastic order and members of The Fly. Wendell and I were to arrange that, and I suppose to appoint our successors from members of The Fly and The Society of St. John. Caspar wanted his memorial to be at Harvard, and he said that what he valued most at Harvard were 'Spence's work and The Fly.'"
^"Corporation Records" in The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 30. 1921-1922. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press. P. 391. "To Mr. and Mrs. Caspar Henry Burton for their gift of securities valued at $5,000 in memory of their son, Caspar Henry Burton, Jr., of the Class of 1909, the income to be awarded annually to a student in any department of Harvard University, who shall be if possible according to the expressed desire of Caspar Henry Burton, Jr., a member of The Society of St. John the Evangelist or a member of the Fly Club."
^"[Grew] was critical of Berlin society as being too rank-conscious, preferring Vienna society where admission to the inner circle depended on personal merit alone. This had been his reason for favoring the Fly Club at Harvard."
Heinrichs, Waldo H. Jr. American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the United States Diplomatic Tradition. Oxford University Press, 1986.
[6]
^"Harvard Journal: All-Male Club Opens Its Doors Warily," The New York Times 9 October 1993. LexisNexis Academic.
^FDR Library, biography of James Roosevelt
[7]Archived 2004-09-03 at the
Wayback Machine: "He was a member of the Signet Society, the Fly Club, Institute of 1770 and Hasty Pudding Club"
^Edlich, Alexander R (1993): Harvard 'final club' to may become first to admit women, The Dartmouth Online, October 19, 1993
[8]Archived 2014-11-11 at the
Wayback Machine: "According to The Crimson, Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who graduated from Harvard and was a member of the Fly Club, wrote the club in 1987 urging it to admit women."
^"Francis H. Cabot, 86, Dies; Created Notable Gardens," The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2011
[9]