Oberlin Observer. 1983-02-17

              Haskell lectures
to celebrate 75th
anniversary
by Grover A. Zinn
Professor David Noel Freedman of
the University of Michigan is this year's
Haskell lecturer. He will speak Tuesday
and Thursday at 8:30 pm in King 106 on
"The Law and the Prophets: Formation
and Transformation of the Hebrew
Scriptures." In addition, Joseph M.
Kitagawa of the University of Chicago
will give a seventy-fifth anniversary
lecture this Sunday, same time and
place, entitled, "The Parliament of Re¬
ligions, the Haskell Lectures and the
Study of Religion." A reception honor¬
ing both speakers follows this lecture.
Bequest
The Haskell lectures at Oberlin Col¬
lege were established by a generous
bequest by Caroline B. Haskell of Mich¬
igan City, Indiana. In her will, she
designated that the lectureship should
be concerned with Oriental literature in
its relation to the Bible and Christian
literature. From its beginning in 1908
the lectureship was entrusted to the
faculty of the Graduate School of The¬
ology and, after the merger with the
Divinity School of Vanderbilt Univer¬
sity, to the general faculty of Oberlin
College. The first Haskell lectures were
given in May 1908 by Professor James
Frederick McCurdy of the University of
Toronto on the topic, "The Bible and
the Ancient World."
Mrs. Haskell was a close friend of
Oberlin's fifth president, John Henry
Barrows, who had been pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church in Chicago
before his election to the Oberlin pres¬
idency in 1898. Like Barrows, she was
very interested in eastern religions and
the spread of Christianity in Asia. The
Haskell lectures at Oberlin are tangible
evidence of her interest in having the
religions of the Bible understood in the
light of the wider religious and cultural
context of the ancient and eastern
worlds. In 1893 Barrows had organized
and served as president of the World's
Parliament of Religions in Chicago,
and in 1897 he traveled to India to
deliver a course of lectures on the Chris¬
tian religion.
Outstanding scholars
During the past seventy-five years,
the Haskell lectures have brought to
Oberlin many of the world's outstand¬
ing scholars in the field of religion.
Early lecturers included George Foot
Moore, Friedrich A. Loofs (whose per¬
sonal library in now part of the Oberlin
College library), Kirsopp Lake, Rudolf
Otto (on mysticism east and west), B. H.
Streeter, and Sir Leonard Woolley
(speaking on his discoveries at Ur).
More recent lecturers have included
G. Ernest Wright, Giinther Bornkamm,
Yigael Yadin, Dame Kathleen Kenyon,
and Paolo Matthiae (on the discoveries
at Ebla). Next week a special exhibition
of published Haskell lectures and of
other books by the lecturers will be on
display in the Goodrich Room, Mudd
Library.
Grover Zinn is professor of religion
and chair of the Haskell lectureship
committee.
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Charles Martin Hall's discovery of an inexpensive
method of extracting aluminum, three Oberlin students held an aluminum bell on 23
February 1936 while Professor Harry N. Holmes rang it. The following year one of
the students was replaced by a new member of the faculty, Werner H. Bromund, now
emeritus professor of chemistry.
Touring performers learn
while helping Oberlin
"Performing a piece over and over,
we had to look for a new thing each time
to keep the music alive for ourselves and
for the audience," said violinist Laura
McGinnis, who is one of ten student
musicians who spent winter term tour¬
ing in one of the "Music from Oberlin"
groups.
"It was a rare opportunity for college
students to work on the road," said Jef¬
frey Goldwasser, student tour manager
for the... hot ice and wondrous strange
snow... company, a group of six actors
who also toured during January. Ro¬
berta Rude, assistant professor of the¬
ater, agreed that the "challenge-of an
extended run," is rare and valuable for
college students. "They had to deal with
the unexpected," she said, and to "learn
how to work out the conflicts" that are
inevitable among people so closely asso¬
ciated for several weeks.
No faculty or stall traveled with the
students on these tours, but several were
involved in the advance planning: The
touring actors performed a fifty-minute
version of .. hot ice... for high school
students who were studying Shake¬
speare. They had worked with the Royal
Shakespeare Company actors last fall
on a different and longer version and
with Rude, who directed the produc¬
tions of both versions. Rude also pre¬
pared a study guide for teachers of the
high school audience. The musicians
were approved for "Music from Ober¬
lin" tours by some of the conservatory
faculty and by Henry Duckham, direc¬
tor of external affairs for the conserva¬
tory. Performers were chosen not only
for their talent but also for their ability
to talk to high school students and local
television interviewers.
The tour groups visited "target"
schools selected by both the conserva¬
tory and college admissions staff. Mc¬
Ginnis was part of a quartet, which also
included pianist Frank Corliss, cellist
Paul Kushious, and clarinetist Eleanor
Weingartner, that visited high schools
in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Fran¬
cisco, and Denver. It performed infor¬
mally about twenty-five times, inter¬
rupting the music to discuss it and its
instrumentation with the high school
audiences. In addition, it gave five for¬
mal concerts. Despite the intense pace,
McGinnis said, "there was always more
energy to perform, especially in the
formal concerts. After the high school
assemblies, it was a treat to sit down and
play whole movements."
East coast
Two trios toured the east coast: Tim
Mikesell, piano, Katherine Harris,
voice, and Julie Leven, violin, were in
one, and Todd Thomas, baritone, Lisa
Helmel, soprano, and Barbara Palmer,
piano, in the other. They varied the sub¬
stance of their performance according
to the age of the audience. "We .played
programmatic music, folk songs, shep¬
herd's songs, and the Beatles," Harris
said. "We told stories through music,"
^even said.
The theater and dance troupe made
twenty appearances, visiting no more
than one school a day but sometimes
meeting three different groups at a
school. They presented Shakespeare's
plays as entertainment and not as litera¬
ture, supplementing their performances
with workshops in juggling, improvisa¬
tion, and theater games. One member,
Brian Dean, who had devised a more
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Aluminum belt
to ring again
for CJVi. Hall
Norman C. Craig, professor of chem¬
istry, is scheduled to ring an aluminum
bell at 9 am 23 February to mark the
anniversary of Charles Martin Hall's
discovery of the modern, inexpensive,
electrolytic method of producing alu¬
minum, a discovery that led to the
founding of the Aluminum Company of
America (Alcoa). It also made Hall's
fortune and, through his generosity,
contributed greatly to that of Oberlin
College.
"Tradition"
Craig is helping to celebrate the ses-quicentennial
of the college by reviving
the practice of the late Harry N. Holmes,
professor of chemistry, who rang the
bell in 1936 on the fiftieth anniversary of
the discovery and every year thereafter
until his retirement. Werner Bromund,
emeritus professor of chemistry, is re¬
luctant to call Holmes' practice a "tradi¬
tion," however. "It was a forced thing,"
he says. "Traditions aren't established
that way."
Bromund, designated by Holmes to
carry on the bell-ringing, let the practice
lapse when he went on his first sabbati¬
cal. But he thought the bell itself worth
preserving when the chemistry depart¬
ment moved from Severance to Ketter¬
ing. Instead of letting it be thrown away,
as some younger members of the depart¬
ment suggested, Bromund hung it from
the rafters in his basement and kept it
there for twenty years. It is now restored
to the chemistry department in Ket¬
tering.
Holmes got the bell for Oberlin on a
fund-raising trip to Alcoa at the time of
the college's centennial. It originally
closed the end of a large aluminum tube.
If properly struck on the edge, it "rever¬
berates nicely" for a minute or more on
a note somewhere between middle C-sharp
and D, Bromund says. But if it is
struck in the middle, it "clunks."
Help from college
In retelling the story of the discovery
fifty years later. Holmes emphasized the
importance of the college's chemistry
department and especially of Professor
Frank Fanning Jewett. Holmes quoted
Jewett's account of his suggesting in
class that anyone who found "a process
by which aluminum could be made on a
commercial scale" would be a "benefac¬
tor to the world" and also "lay up for
himself a great fortune. Turning to a
classmate, Charles Hall said, 'I'm going
for that metal.' And he went for it."
After his graduation. Hall borrowed
some college equipment from Jewett to
continue his experimenting and also
sought advice from the professor. About
six months later. Hall came to Jewett
and announced, "'Professor, I've got it!'
There in the palm of his hand lay a
dozen little globules of aluminum, the
first ever made by the electrolytic pro¬
cess."
Holmes' also tells of Hall's subse¬
quent difficulties: a manufacturer wil¬
ling to use the invention while allowing
Hall to share in its profits had to be
found, and the patent had to be pro¬
tected.
A recent historian, Martha M. Tres-
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