Clifford Colmer Nelson

The Hand of Noahand the Hall of Fame byClifford Colmer Nelson Hall of Fame (Copyright, 1990)(Revised, 1993, 1997)All photocopies are from the Hall of Fame Archives TOC Next »

Book The Hand of Noah and The Hall of Fame Cover Poems and Preface Other Matters and Introduction Introduction The Ascendancy of Henry The Great The Concept The Electors Gospel:…

We promote those in our own circle, whatever its radius. Fame sometimes begins quietly, locally, in lodge, school, neighborhood, town; sometimes quickly and widely in the media. For actor Edwin…

For three score and ten years as it grew and matured, the Hall of Fame looked better to the public eye than it did to its bankers and other backers.…

The Hall of Fame struggled through the war. There were no elections during the brief Phelps incumbency and only one installation -- that of Stephen Foster in May, 1941, just…

The Hall of Fame is in no clear and present danger of being broken up. We have come a long journey in America to a consensus that the safeguarding of…

Let it, however, be said again that the Colonnade on University Heights is the only one of its kind, and, as New Yorkers put it, the Big Apple of them…

NYU announced in February, 1959 that new electors would bring the total to 151 persons voting in the Thirteenth Quinquennial. When the event took place in 1960, three new members…

Dr. MacCracken died in 1919. He was succeeded as Chancellor by Elmer Ellsworth Brown, former U.S. Commissioner of Education in the Department of Interior. Having had little contact with the…

In January, 1941, Chancellor Chase had "the honor and satisfaction" to announce that "William Lyon Phelps, Ph.D., Litt.D., D.D., S.T.D., LL.D." would henceforth direct the Hall of Fame "with all…

In the early seventies, the pace and vigor of competition for admission into the Hall picked up, and ended up as very tough lobbying. Chancellor MacCracken had, in effect, plainly,…

During the Johnson tenure, there were other episodes in the growth of the American women's movement that was to reach maturity half a century later. One began with a letter…

And, in 1973, by extraordinary effort not his, John Philip Sousa, musician and bandmaster nonpareil, was elected. Every Independence Day throughout the land -- on television, by radio, and live…

On the day after the dedication, the press too gave us a taste of the fulsome. Even St Clair McKelway, one of the discerning and wise electors and in his…

And there it sits, strengthened but still somewhat untidy, for want of money. The rooms in the foundation, at this writing, are a huge unsightly dustbin, scarcely recognizable as the…

Director Johnson appeared to take great pleasure in his ceremonies. Most public ceremonies -- indeed all ceremonies, if they go on long enough -- have as many low points as…

When the Wald Sculpture was unveiled the following September, in a ceremony for her alone, the Directorship of the Hall of Fame was in the hands of Russell D. Niles,…

Johnson inherited from his predecessor the dubious practice of making excessive claims during his high moments of good feeling. At the unveiling in 1924 of John Adams, Mark Twain, Thomas…

There was also Josiah Willard Gibbs whom William Lyon Phelps had had in mind when he wrote that perhaps one day present unknowns would be elected such as Gibbs, "who…

Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, President Hester -- the same Hester who had financed the building of the impressive Bobst Library -- went to see Governor Nelson Rockefeller; and…

 In the early years of the Hall, one of the greatest shortcomings in the electoral process was the briefing of electors. Carried on by mail, it was variable -- and…

Whether it was the "Chancellor's beautiful dream" that director Robert Underwood Johnson had spoken of or merely an ambulatory "elaborated" into a plan to crate "a shrine of patriotic remembrance…

At the next election, nine more personages were made immortal, including Daniel Boone, who had been given fame by English poet Lord Byron as a champion of nature in its…

After Dr. Angell's death, a memorandum appeared in the office of Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase, saying that Bertha Lyons, assistant director of the Hall, was "passionately hopeful that we will…

Hous of Fame -- Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400) And therfore Joves, thorgh hys grace,Wol that I bere the to a placeWhich that hight the Hous of Fame. . .the sawgh…

It is not yet fully understood how complex and difficult was the work of getting busts. The recorded detail and length of time form favorable decision to fait accompli, not to…

This book has no standard bibliography as such. I have a record of the material and labor that went into it: books letters, newspapers, journals and private papers, as well…

The frantic pace set by Chancellor MacCracken in 1900 began to ease up after Dedication Day in 1901. The Hall of Fame was not intended to be a daily show…

 The dedication took place on May 30, 1901, Memorial Day. "Several thousand," wrote the New York Tribune, "sat on a gentle hillside whose emerald green grass sloped away in front of…

The Class of 1905 included the first three women to be elected: --Mary Lyon, who in 1837 had founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College), with an enrollment…

Henry Mitchell MacCracken had not been wrong. Like our predecessors of old we too needed a national memorial. Once the name of the Hall caught the imagination, the idea of…

Almost from the day the Colonnade opened, those charged with on-the-job responsibility had in the main to address present financial problems rather than prospects and had to keep working vigorously…

Sometime during the twentieth century, two once-famous institutions lost their fame. One is now dead, but in any case doesn't need fame to bolster a great legacy. That institution is…

As the years passed, the chief activity of the Hall of Fame, in addition to elections, was the ceremonials for unveiling either bronze tablets of the elected or their finished…

We have been advised by the ancients that on occasion there is only one appropriate response; and that response should be neither less than the occasion demands, nor more than…

Johnson once complained to Chancellor Brown: "Why should not Mr. Shepard provide the funds for the project and leave details to yourself and me." Impatient men want what they want…

Henry Heald became Chancellor of NYU in 1952. To manage a large university in postwar days was to increase the staff and carefully distribute its work in order to accommodate…

In Robert Underwood Johnson's file were two telegrams. One read "Deeply regret that I have been detained. Clermont late. (signed) Robert Fulton." One was "signed" by Henry George, (an economist…

Johnson saw clearly and frequently the financial stress to come. He deplored the idea of holding an individual ceremony for a single bust; they were cheaper by the dozen. He…

First after Johnson was another MacCracken "publicist." In November, 1937, NYU Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase invited editor John H. Finley of the New York Times to become Director of the Hall of…

At times, Johnson's principles seemed somewhat ambiguous. He recommended to Chancellor Brown and Mr. Finley Shepard that Mrs. Vanamee be made Assistant Director in recognition of her work as Acting…

Some administrators will take all the credit they can get, or get away with, for the accomplishments of their time in office. Administrators of the first rank give credit where…

The popular pastor outlasted every other Hall of Fame director in length of service: 21 years. When Henry Heald resigned as Chancellor in 1956 (the 7th year of Sockman), he…

But even before the election of 1973, New York University had begun its melancholy withdrawal from the Hall of Fame. In the sixties, the University was itself feeling a fiscal…

On the Hall of Fame ballot for 1955 were the names of 209 candidates, the largest number since 1900. Pastor Sockman's letter of June 1, accompanying the ballot to the…

Webster seems not to have been pushed vigorously in the early elections. Director R.U. Johnson, commenting on the oddities of the first seven quinquennials, called the absence of men such…

Kings Brewery of Brooklyn in 1937 held a slogan contest for its beer. The winning line was, "Another Name for the Hall of Fame." Advertising was prepared showing a container…

Webster never stopped writing. At the age of 66, he began to show signs of exhaustion. He wrote to his daughter Emily Ellsworth that his labors were severe enough to…

At the Hall of Fame, the first order of business for Director Angell after World War II was the election of 1945, the tenth quinquennial since founding. After the election,…

But what to do with the Hall of Fame, the only remaining connection of NYU with the Bronx campus? City University and NYU began working on an agreement for continuation…

The founders of the Hall of Fame and their successors, whatever else they may have had in mind about fame and greatness, have built but not quite finished a splendid…