Like much of America in the mid 20th Century, Tufts University (then Tufts College) had an infatuation with the poetry of Robert Frost, “America’s Poet.” This is, perhaps, expected and unremarkable: a New England college located adjacent to one of Frost’s homes in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, was, like its peers, caught up in the sweeping pastoral work of one of New England’s own. Students often selected Frost works to perform at recitals, there were listening events on campus, and, as many older alums may recall, Frost visited campus more than once.
As an archivist at Tufts, I’ve always been aware of the university’s connection to Frost. He visited campus many times; was contemporaries and friends with Tufts’ own poet, English department faculty member John Holmes; and when I first came to work at TARC, we had a small bust of Frost in our reading room reception area.
But it wasn’t until I was answering a reference question for an alum from the Class of 1964 that I became aware of just how connected Frost was to Tufts University and -- maybe -- how special Tufts was to Frost.
Robert Frost’s first appearance at Tufts was in 1915, as the poet at that year’s literary exercises of Phi Beta Kappa. He had just returned from England having gained fame in Europe but was still a relative unknown in the United States. Later issues of the student newspaper, the Tufts Weekly, would proclaim that this was Frost’s first public appearance in the United States. Contemporary articles, however, announced Frost’s visit in such an understated manner that the modern reader might find hilarious: “the literary exercises will be held in Goddard chapel at 8.15 p. m. — Following the exercises will be a reception of the members of the chapter and their guests in Packard Hall. The president is Arthur W. Pierce, Litt. D. The orator will be William Wallace Fenn, S. T. D.; the poet, Robert Frost of Littleton, N. H., author of ‘North of Boston.’”. More in keeping with our modern understanding of the poet, an article after the event devoted more column inches describing Frost’s poems (he read “Birches,” “The Sound of Trees,” and “The Road not Taken”) than it did to the rest of the event.
Frost didn’t return to campus until the spring of 1939 when he was invited to give a reading by the Canterbury Club. His visit was heralded by the headline “Robert Frost, Our Greatest Poet, to Make Second Tufts Appearance.” Ahead of his visit, an exhibit of Frost’s works was staged in Eaton Library. Professor John Holmes and Canterbury Club president William Shepard loaned materials to the exhibit. An article in the next issue summarizing the event notes that Frost performed an encore after thunderous applause.
The next year, 25 years after his first appearance at Tufts, Frost was again invited to the Phi Beta Kappa literary exercises. He reprised “Birches,” “The Road not Taken,” and “The Sound of Trees” and also read “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” “The Onset,” and “Departmental,” as well as “To a Young Wretch” and “Happiness,” both of which had yet to be published.
Frost’s fourth visit to campus (according to the Weekly) was in October 1949, again at the Phi Beta Kappa exercises. The event was held in Godard Chapel. As appeared to have been tradition at this point, he reprised “Birches,” “The Road not Taken,” and “The Sound of Trees” and went on to read “Come In,” “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “The Runaway,” and “The Mountain.” The Weekly notes that the crowd, numbering more than 500, overfilled Goddard Chapel. Records from the Canterbury Club file in the Activities and Organizations collection at TARC contain press release correspondence for this event. In a letter addressed to Edward Laybrook, Literary Editor for The Boston Globe we learn that tickets for the appearance were $0.60. The letter goes on:
“We think that it is rather interesting to note that Mr. Frost’s first public appearance after his return from England way back in 1915 was at Tufts when he was invited to be Phi Beta Kappa poet. The following day he sold the poems he had read for the exercises to the Atlantic Monthly, and that really marked the beginning of his American publication.”
Frost visited campus at least 14 times that we can find in the newspaper record. He was also a frequent guest of the Ford Hall Forum and students would travel in to Boston to Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory to hear him. From 1949 to 1960 Frost visited campus yearly every fall (except for 1953). His appearances were so popular that they outgrew the capacity of Goddard Chapel and were moved to Cohen Auditorium – which they also overflowed. Per the Weekly, Frost often reprised those first poems he read at Tufts in 1915 at his campus appearances.
In 1952 Frost contributed a small column to the Weekly’s centennial celebration issue writing: “Professor Charles Fay invited me to read the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Tufts thirty-seven years ago and so began this career for me of reading poetry in public and looking to colleges for critical and financial support.” He finished his column: “We should all owe Tufts much for thus pioneering out of bounds.”
In mid-January 1963, the student council voted to send Frost a plant as he convalesced in Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Frost died a few months later. The Weekly eulogized him thus: “He knew that either desire or hate could destroy the world – and would, in fact, do so if societies did not begin to stress men’s similarities instead of their differences.”
List of visits to campus, possibly incomplete*:
- 1915, May 7
- 1939, March 10
- 1940, May 22
- 1949, October 26
- 1950, October 25
- 1951, November 20
- 1952, November 12
- 1954, December 1
- 1955, October 14
- 1956, November 14
- 1957, November 22
- 1958, November 24 (day inferred)
- 1959, December 4
- 1960, December 14 (noted by the Weekly as his 23rd appearance on campus)
List of Ford Hall Forum appearances, possibly incomplete:
- December 5, 1954
- December 4, 1955
- October 26, 1958
- October 11, 1959
- December 4, 1960
- March 3, 1962
- December 2, 1962
*Frost was a frequent guest of the Ford Hall Forum. The Weekly provided notices of these events, and it is likely they were attended by Tufts students. Frost’s last Ford Hall Forum event was December 2, 1962. Per the Forum’s history page, lectures were originally held on Beacon Hill, but “continued throughout the Greater Boston area.” I can find no evidence that lectures were ever held on Tufts’ campus in Medford. Several of the Jackson Handbooks list both Ford Hall and Jordan Hall as sites “In and Around Boston,” indicating that Jordan Hall is not a Tufts performance space. Further research suggests that Jordan Hall may be referring to Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory. Additionally, I cannot locate any University records that indicate a connection with the Ford Hall Forum during the 1950s and 60s. As such, Ford Hall Forum engagements will be omitted from this list.