The Cutler Lecture Centennial
The Ask the Archivist column in the Fall 2021 Rochester Review answered a question from Professor Gerald Gamm, who asked about the history of the Cutler Lecture Series which celebrated it centenary in 2021. You can read the article here.
James Goold Cutler (1848-1927) served as Mayor of Rochester from 1904 to 1907, and was a member of the University's Board of Trustees from 1915 until his death. Cutler had trained as an architect, and briefly practiced in partnership with Andrew Jackson Warner.
His experience as an architect probably inspired the invention for which he is most widely known: the Cutler Mail Chute, which he patented in 1883. The chutes were installed in multi-story buildings to enable the collection of mail at the central location: residents simply dropped their letters in the chute and were spared the need to find a post office or mailbox on the street. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections holds a small collection of papers, mainly photographs, related to the Cutler Mail Chute Company. Alum Karen Greene (PhD 1969) used the collection in research for her book Art Deco Mailboxes: A Design History. (The image above was designed by Claude Bragdon.)
The lecture series was suggested and funded by Cutler. Cutler took as his model the Stafford Little Lectures established at Princeton University in 1908, and wrote President Rush Rhees in 1920:
"It appears to me that the most useful contribution which I can make to promote the making of democracy safe for the world (to invert Mr. Wilson's aphorism) is to found in the University of Rochester, a course of lectures, designed to promote serious consideration, and consideration by as many people as possible, of certain points fundamental, and therefore, vital, to the permanence of constitutional government in the United States."
Not lost on him was that the initial speaker at Princeton was former President Grover Cleveland. "The problem, as I see it, is to secure a man of commanding position, as the first lecturer, who will strike our keynote at the outset."
It's clear from Cutler's correspondence with Rhees that his was a strong personality with strongly held opinions. Despite his reference to Woodrow Wilson, Cutler was not a great fan of the President, writing Rhees, "I think the choice should fall upon a man who stands actively before the public as a loyal American citizen, sound on Constitutional government and not tainted in any way with Mr. Wilson's nebulous idealism.
Curiously, in 1927, Cutler also established a lecture series at the College of William and Mary on the same principles as at Rochester. According to the William and Mary website, "Mr. Cutler declared as a basic proposition that our political system breaks down, when and where it fails, because of the lack of sound education of the people for whom and by whom it was intended to be carried on."
You can read the first six Cutler lectures here.
1921 | Taft, Willliam Howard | Liberty Under Law | |||||||||||||||||||
1922 | Burton, Theodore E. | The Constitution of the United States--Its Origin and Distinctive Features" | |||||||||||||||||||
1923 | Davis, John W. | The Constitution--A Thing of Life | |||||||||||||||||||
1925 | Beck, James M. Beck (US Solicitor General) | The Changed Conception of the Constitution | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1926 | Hill, David Jayne Hill | Human Nature in the Constitution | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1927 | Warren, Charles | The Trumpeters of the Constitution | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1928 | Munro, William Bennett | 1. The Constitution and the Taxing Power 2. The Constitution and the Control of Credit 3. The Constitution and the Regulation of Commerce |
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1930 | Merriam, Charles (University of Chicago) | 1. The Constitution and the Unwritten Attitude 2. Nation, State, and City under the Constitution 3. The Constitution and the Political Parties |
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1931 | McBain, Howard Lee (Columbia University) | "We, the People" | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1932 | Powell, Thomas Reed (Harvard University) | The Changing Constitution | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1934 | Isaacs, Nathan (Harvard University) | Recovery Under the Constitution: 1. The Natural History of Constitutions 2. The Hard Case of 1933 3. The Spirit of the American Constitution |
Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1935 | Kemmerer, Edwin W. (Princeton University) | Our Present Day Monetary Policy and the Constitution | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1936 | Hamilton, Walton Hale | The Place of the Supreme Court in
The Economic Order: 1. The Voice of the Interpreter 2. The Changing Concept of Due Process 3. The States of the Nation |
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1937 | Corwin, Edward S. Princeton | "The Court
and the Constitution:
1. The Rise and Extension of the Judicial Review of· Acts of Congress 2. Point of View in Constitutional Law 3. The President's Proposal |
Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1938 | Breuning, Heinrich (Former chancellor of Germany | "The Reason for the Present Crisis in Traditional Democracy | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1939 | Beard, Charles A. | "Interpreting the Constitution: 1. The Dred Scott Process 2. Fugitive Slave Case 3. Unwinding the 14th Amendment |
Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1941 | Becker, Clark, Cornell University | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1941 | Morley, Felix | A Federation of States and European Peace | |||||||||||||||||||
1943 | Friedrich, Carl J. Harvard | 1. Civil Liberties for a Free World 2. Constitutional Government and the Needs of Total war |
Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1944 | Ball, Joseph H. (US Senator) | cancelled | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1948 | Smith, Thomas V. | Civil Liberties: Their Nature and Limits | Read more | ||||||||||||||||||
1950 | Wolfers, Arnold | The Search for World Security | |||||||||||||||||||
1951 | Wright, Quincy | ||||||||||||||||||||
1964 | Easton, David | A Framework for Political Analysis | |||||||||||||||||||
1965 | Kahn, Herman | Escalation and Crises | |||||||||||||||||||
1966 | Sharp, Mitchell (Finance Minister of Canada) | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1967 | Stokes, Donald (University of Michigan) | Ideological Competition of Parties: The Case of England | |||||||||||||||||||
1968 | Olson, Mancour | Problems of Quantification for a Social Report | |||||||||||||||||||
1970 | Barber, James D. (Yale University) | How to be a Good President | |||||||||||||||||||
1972 | Polsby, Nelson (University of California, Berkeley) | ||||||||||||||||||||
1974 | Wildavsky, Aaron | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1975 | Lowi, Theodore (Cornell University) | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1979 | Wilson, James Q. | The Politics of Regulation | |||||||||||||||||||
1980 | Rohde, David (Michigan State) | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1982 | Rabushka, Alvin (University of Rochester and Hoover Institution, Stanford) | Read more | |||||||||||||||||||
1983 | Jones, Charles O. | Keeping Faith and Losing Congress: Thoughts on Jimmy Carter | |||||||||||||||||||
1985 | Fiorina, Morris (Harvard University) | Continuity and Change in Congressional Elections | |||||||||||||||||||
1986 | Putnam, Robert (Harvard University) | Domestic Politics, International Economics, and Western Summitry: 1975-86 | |||||||||||||||||||
1987 | Mann, Thomas E. | The 100th Congress and the 1988 Presidential Elections||||||||||||||||||||
1988 | Barker, Lucius J. (Washington University | Jesse Jackson's Presidential Campaign: 1984 Looking at 1988 and Beyond | |||||||||||||||||||
1989 | Nie, Norman | Political Participation in American in 1967 and 1987: Some Comparisons | |||||||||||||||||||
1991 | Jacobson, Gary C. | The Politics of Divided Government and the 1990 Election | |||||||||||||||||||
1993 | Simes, Dimitri | Russia and the United States Problems | |||||||||||||||||||
1997 | Panel at Fenno conference | ||||||||||||||||||||
2007 | Panel at Niemi conference | ||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | Forman, James | Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America | |||||||||||||||||||
2019 | Clark, Anna | How to Poison a City: Revelations from the Flint Water Crisis | |||||||||||||||||||
2021 | Wolbrecht, Christina (Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame) |
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