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The Harvard Crimson
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The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students.
The Harvard Crimson was one of many college newspapers founded shortly after the end of the American Civil War. The paper describes itself as "the nation's oldest continuously published daily college newspaper", although this description is contested by other college newspapers. The Crimson traces its origin to the first issue of The Magenta, published January 24, 1873, despite strong discouragement from the Dean. The faculty of the College had suspended the existence of several previous student newspapers, including the Collegian, whose motto Dulce et Periculum ("sweet and dangerous") represented the precarious place of the student press at Harvard University in the late 19th century. The Magenta's editors declined Dean Burney's advice and moved forward with a biweekly paper, "a thin layer of editorial content surrounded by an even thinner wrapper of advertising".
The paper changed its name to The Crimson in 1875 when Harvard changed its official color by a vote of the student body—the announcement came with a full-page editorial announcing "magenta is not now, and... never has been, the right color of Harvard." This particular issue, May 21, 1875, also included several reports on athletic events, a concert review, and a call for local shopkeepers to stock the exact shade of crimson ribbon, to avoid "startling variations in the colors worn by Harvard men at the races".[citation needed]
The Crimson included more substance in the 1880s, as the paper's editors were more eager to engage in a quality of journalism like that of muckraking big-city newspapers; it was at this time that the paper moved first from a biweekly to a weekly, and then to a daily in 1885.
The paper flourished at the beginning of the 20th century with the commission of its own building in 1915, located at 14 Plympton Street in Cambridge, which remains the paper's headquarters, and its purchase of Harvard Illustrated Magazine and the establishment of an editorial board in 1911. The Illustrated's editors became Crimson photographers, and thereby established the photographic board. The newspaper's president no longer authored editorials single-handedly, and the paper took stronger editorial positions.
During 1930s and 1940s, reduced financial resources and competition from a publication established by ex-editors represented serious challenges to the Crimson's viability. In 1943, the banner on the paper read Harvard Service News, and the stories focused almost exclusively on Harvard's contribution to World War II. Under the authority of so-called wartime administrative necessity, alumni discouraged the Service News from editorializing. The paper was administered during the war by a board of Harvard University administrators, alumni, and students.[citation needed]
In 1934, The Crimson defended a proposal by Adolf Hitler's press secretary, Ernst F. Sedgwick Hanfstaengl, to donate to Harvard a prize scholarship to enable a Harvard student to attend a Nazi university. The Harvard Corporation voted unanimously to refuse the offer: "We are unwilling to accept a gift from one who has been so closely identified with the leadership of a political party which has inflicted damage on the universities of Germany through measures which have struck at principles we believe to be fundamental to universities throughout the world." The Crimson defended it, "That political theories should prevent a Harvard student from enjoying an opportunity for research in one of the world's greatest cultural centers is most unfortunate and scarcely in line with the liberal traditions of which Harvard is pardonably proud."
The paper returned to its traditional civilian version in 1946, and it grew larger, more financially secure, more diversified, and began more extensive coverage of the world outside the campus during the early Cold War era.
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The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students.
The Harvard Crimson was one of many college newspapers founded shortly after the end of the American Civil War. The paper describes itself as "the nation's oldest continuously published daily college newspaper", although this description is contested by other college newspapers. The Crimson traces its origin to the first issue of The Magenta, published January 24, 1873, despite strong discouragement from the Dean. The faculty of the College had suspended the existence of several previous student newspapers, including the Collegian, whose motto Dulce et Periculum ("sweet and dangerous") represented the precarious place of the student press at Harvard University in the late 19th century. The Magenta's editors declined Dean Burney's advice and moved forward with a biweekly paper, "a thin layer of editorial content surrounded by an even thinner wrapper of advertising".
The paper changed its name to The Crimson in 1875 when Harvard changed its official color by a vote of the student body—the announcement came with a full-page editorial announcing "magenta is not now, and... never has been, the right color of Harvard." This particular issue, May 21, 1875, also included several reports on athletic events, a concert review, and a call for local shopkeepers to stock the exact shade of crimson ribbon, to avoid "startling variations in the colors worn by Harvard men at the races".[citation needed]
The Crimson included more substance in the 1880s, as the paper's editors were more eager to engage in a quality of journalism like that of muckraking big-city newspapers; it was at this time that the paper moved first from a biweekly to a weekly, and then to a daily in 1885.
The paper flourished at the beginning of the 20th century with the commission of its own building in 1915, located at 14 Plympton Street in Cambridge, which remains the paper's headquarters, and its purchase of Harvard Illustrated Magazine and the establishment of an editorial board in 1911. The Illustrated's editors became Crimson photographers, and thereby established the photographic board. The newspaper's president no longer authored editorials single-handedly, and the paper took stronger editorial positions.
During 1930s and 1940s, reduced financial resources and competition from a publication established by ex-editors represented serious challenges to the Crimson's viability. In 1943, the banner on the paper read Harvard Service News, and the stories focused almost exclusively on Harvard's contribution to World War II. Under the authority of so-called wartime administrative necessity, alumni discouraged the Service News from editorializing. The paper was administered during the war by a board of Harvard University administrators, alumni, and students.[citation needed]
In 1934, The Crimson defended a proposal by Adolf Hitler's press secretary, Ernst F. Sedgwick Hanfstaengl, to donate to Harvard a prize scholarship to enable a Harvard student to attend a Nazi university. The Harvard Corporation voted unanimously to refuse the offer: "We are unwilling to accept a gift from one who has been so closely identified with the leadership of a political party which has inflicted damage on the universities of Germany through measures which have struck at principles we believe to be fundamental to universities throughout the world." The Crimson defended it, "That political theories should prevent a Harvard student from enjoying an opportunity for research in one of the world's greatest cultural centers is most unfortunate and scarcely in line with the liberal traditions of which Harvard is pardonably proud."
The paper returned to its traditional civilian version in 1946, and it grew larger, more financially secure, more diversified, and began more extensive coverage of the world outside the campus during the early Cold War era.