The Signet's Heritage
For 134 years the Signet Society has played a major role in the intellectual, literary, and artistic life of Harvard College. Founded in 1870 by members of the Class of 1871, the Signet has flourished as a unique Harvard tradition ever since. Signet membership continues to be based on criteria set up over a century ago: character, intellectual achievement, literary or artistic talent, and an interest in the humanities and the creative arts.
The Signet Society, true to tradition, remains the only place at Harvard where lively conversation among students and faculty over the lunch table is the rule, not the exception. Special events such as readings, talks, screenings, shows, and receptions reflect the interests of undergraduates, graduate, and associate members alike: literature, the performing arts, the fine arts, the social sciences, politics, and culture. Renowned artists, writers, actors, and scholars visiting Cambridge often join Signet members for discussions or to give more formal presentations.
The Signet has been nourished by great teachers, scholars, philosophers, and artists who have held a central place in American cultural life. Two have been presidents of the United States. Past and present members include William James, Charles Eliot Norton, Charles W. Eliot, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, George Pierce Baker, Robert Frost, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Van Wyck Brooks, Samuel Eliot Morison, T.S. Eliot, Conrad Aiken, James B. Conant, Bernard DeVoto, Randall Thompson, David T.W. McCord, Gardner Cox, Robert Sherwood, Nathan M. Pusey, Lincoln Kirstein, James Agee, Walter Jackson Bate, Leonard Bernstein, James Laughlin, Arthur Kopit, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Seamus Heaney, Issaiah Jackson, Joel Cohen, Agnes Mongan, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., George Plimpton, Ved Mehta, J. Anthony Lukas, Harold Brodkey, Stockard Channing, Lindsay Crouse, William Alfred, Jonathan Kozol, George S.W. Trow, Jr., Walter Kaiser, J. Anthony Lewis, Daniel Pinkham, Leon Kirchner, Luise Vosgerchian, Helen Vendler, John Lithgow, Tommy Lee Jones, Yo-Yo Ma, John Berendt, Peter Gomes, Donald Hall, John Ashbery, Louis Menand, Homi Bhabha, among others.